Noreen Corcoran

            On Sunday morning I worked out the chords for the first two verses of “Dis-lui toi que je t'aime” (That I Love You Now Tell Him) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

           I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and will continue to do until October 15. I spent several takes on “Vomit of the Star Eater” until I got through to the second chorus without a major mistake, then I let it go and allowed myself to fumble the final verse. I made it almost all the way to the end of “Sixteen Tons of Dogma” on the first take but fumbled a chord on the last verse. A couple of takes later I got all the way through. 

            I weighed 88.65 kilos before breakfast. 

            I weighed 89.35 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since last Sunday. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 88.5 kilos at 17:40. 

            Last night I was too tired to finish updating my journal before bed and so this evening I had to spend a couple of hours on it. I only finished when it was time for dinner. 

           I heated the rest of the soup I made last night with the ground sirloin chili and the hot garlic ramen. Tonight I added two eggs and had it with a slice of multigrain bread and a beer while watching episode 14 of The Big Valley. 

            Audra is out riding when she sees a train of covered wagons going across her family’s land. Then she sees them tear down a fence and move the wagons in. The leader puts up a sign that reads Kilkenny Farms on one of the fence posts. Audra rides in angry and tells him to get off Barkley land. He says they have paperwork to prove it’s their land. She knocks the sign down and when he tries to put it back up she starts whipping him. He pulls her off her horse, spanks her several times, puts her back on her horse backwards and slaps the horse to send it running while everyone is laughing. Audra storms home and asks Nick for the keys to the gun cabinet. He gives them to her but he and Heath decide to accompany her to see who she plans on shooting. The man who spanked Audra introduces himself as John James Callaghan and tells them they bought the land. Nick calls him a hooligan and Callaghan challenges him to a fight, which Nick gladly accepts. But Callaghan’s mother comes between them and persuades Nick to look at the papers. Victoria Barkley is in San Francisco with her oldest son Jarrad and Heath wonders if maybe they sold some of the land while they are there. Nick goes to check the paperwork in the office at home. Heath stays behind to rebuild the fence. Callaghan protests but Heath tells them if their cattle get through to the swamp they’re going to have to charge them for each cow. He builds the fence and goes home. He tells Nick he doesn’t think they’re squatters but rather honest people who made a mistake. He suggests they send a telegram to Jarrod in San Francisco to clear things up. They go to Stockton and see Callaghan turned down for credit. Heath gets them supplies on the Barkley account but Callaghan’s niece Sharon refuses to accept them. Victoria and Jarrod receive the telegram and send one back denying they sold the land. They decide to go home. Heath goes back to the Irish settlers and picks them some lambs quarters by the fence, which he says they can cook like spinach. Callaghan invites him to stay for dinner. Nick comes with the telegram confirming that they don’t own the land. Callaghan challenges Nick to a fight and it’s a pretty fake one which ends in both of them pretty much getting knocked out. Later Nick gets men with guns together to drive the settlers off. Heath rides out to warn them and reasons with Callaghan, who agrees they’ll go. Later Nick tells Silas to load up a couple of sides of beef and some flour and take it to them. The settlers are packed and about to move out but suddenly Callaghan says they’re not leaving. He grabs a shotgun and goes to confront Nick. He meets Victoria who greets him in a very calm manner despite the fact he has a gun. She explains that the agent who sold them the land is a known criminal who swindled them. He says he came to shoot Nick but she says he’ll want a drop before the serious work. She serves him whiskey and forces Nick to sit down. She tells Callaghan that he needs to find the swindler and get his money back and until they do they can stay. Under Nick’s protest she says he’s going to San Francisco with Callaghan. On the way they become friends. At the hotel where they stayed in Frisco Callaghan confronts the hotel clerk who introduced them to the swindler. Some men try to stop them from going upstairs and so Nick and Callaghan fight with them. Then we see Nick and Callaghan in jail. Jarrad arrives to bail them out and tells them the con man has been caught but has no money. Later the settlers are about to leave when Nick comes to offer them a different piece of land. He says it needs to be irrigated but if they work they could make something out of it. Callaghan is reluctant but Sharon accepts on behalf of everybody. Heath escorts them to their new home. 

            Sharon was played by Noreen Corcoran in her final television appearance. Her film debut was in Apache Drums. Her first TV role was in The Adventures of Kit Carson. She starred in The Girls On the Beach. She co-starred in the sitcom Bachelor Father. She retired from screen acting in 1965 to focus on theatre and dance.