#0432 "The Privy Council Meeting Room"

This picture was taken on the same day that we decided to buy the farm on the 12th Concession of King Township in early January 1993. The 25 acre farm was owned by a friend from church. It had been deserted and vandalized. The house lacked what real-estate agents call "curb-appeal".

We had always wanted land ... and a barn ... and the kids wanted pets - a cat and a dog and maybe some barn cats as well. Three horses came with the deal for as long as they should live - which turned out to be a very ripe old age.

This particular outhouse had been in continuous use for about 90 years. It had only stopped seeing regular service in 1985 or so when the last of the Thompson Brothers moved away. George and Oliver Thompson lived on the farm and couldn't really get used to the modern indoor facilities which the owner had installed in the farm house in the mid sixties.

I had to take the outhouse down in 1994. It was in the way of construction and the Health Department was not keen on seeing it used. I tried to move it intact but the boards were so rotten, it virtually fell apart in my hands. I didn't want to burn it but there really wasn't much I could do. We already had our hands full saving the farmhouse and barn and building the garage and the addition to the farm house. Not to mention the new lane way and the planting of trees and restoring the land for nature. I saved the single hole seat and refurbished it enough so that it is now framing a picture of the current farm. I didn't clean the seat much and it is still stained by water and age. What stories it could tell after almost 90 years of service.

The place was very, very rough with a stream running across the mud floor basement with dead mice and frogs and toads as well. I watched a garter snake crawl through the foundation. Hmm. That needed some work. The cellar had apparently been nice enough during Prohibition to take a date, even though the clearance was barely six feet above the mud floor. The furnace ran almost all of the time except when if conked out and needed to be primed to be restarted at which time it belched black, sooty smoke. The water pump was in the basement and was rather noisy after the lone toilet was flushed. There was no insulation in the walls and many things did not work - if they ever did.

We loved the place including the outhouse and by the middle of March, it was home and renamed Watershed Farm. It was on the very crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine with the front yard draining to Lake Simcoe and the back hills sending their water down the Humber to Lake Ontario. Living there was also a watershed moment in our lives.

The title is a bit of a pun. Our elected officials (both now and probably in the past and likely in the future as well) are entitled asses responsive to the multinational corporations. Power corrupts. This meeting room would be more in keeping with the quality of the decisions being made. In this way, one could construe this painting as a political statement ... not like me at all. I try to find the best in people even if you need to dig a lot.

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