Category Archives: writings

Today’s Photo January 9/07 from Hornby Island

Killer Storm
built 1895-97
Barn at Westview
(part of the roof ripped off during the last nasty storm)
I dragged a cow out of this barn once during those years I ran a backhoe. It was Ed Colin’s cow and he told me it was a mystery as to why this cow had died.
He said she just keeled over in the barn;that it was necessary to pull a few boards off the west wall to get her out.
Well, we did this then hooked a chain around her ankles and I eased her out with the backhoe arm and bucket. I dragged her over to a suitable sight for burial when Ed told me that Doctor Mary was curious about the death ,too,and wanted to do an autopsy:that I was to come back the next day to perform the internment.
I came back the next day and found she had, indeed, done an autopsy .For the next 20-30 minutes as I dug the hole I was priviledged to examine her procedural techniques,her neat way of arranging the organs of interest, and the amount of blood and other colouful fluids that surround this kind of probing.
I don’t think I learned anything that day. I do remember how happy I was it was over.