Merry Christmas!

Now Playing ....

Am doing my annual wrapping presents today .... as every year accompanied by playing selections from my 78 rpm collection. I will keep and updated run of the records every so often.

First up: Don't Tell Me Your Worries - The Carlisle Brothers (King Records)

Now: Al Jolsen: Sonny Boy/Rainbow on my Shoulder

Earlier: Cliff Carlisle Trio: A Stretch of 28 Years (Bluebird)

Census 2010

I image post will be scarce the next two weeks (as they haven't been already.) Not that I don't have enough to write about; I do. I have continued to read "The Stripping of the Altars". It really is a fascinating history. And I have pictures to post .... but it will all have to wait.

I have signed up to take the Census test to be a Census worker. They are paying $14/hour plus mileage in these parts. This is some temp money we might be able to use if I get called up. This wouldn't be my first choice for a temporary job, but maybe it will take a little pressure off, or help fund a homestead project next year. We shall see.

We are in the "O Antiphon" days, so don't forget yours....

Oremus pro invicem!

A couple things to ponder

Pretty busy around here, but a couple quick hits:

I think I gleaned this from "You Can Farm", but I could have read it somewhere else .... Basically as the number of farmers in the USA has decreased, the budget for the US Department of Agriculture has increased. Go figure.

My personal experience with this was when we called our extension office for advice on buying a dairy cow. They definitely tried to discourage us rather than help.

Gov't wants to spend time and money on the big guys. (But will come down on the little guys who don't have big lawyers.)

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Reading Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars. I don't think I will get through all of it, I am skipping around as it is. First he details the spiritual health and devotions in pre-Anglican Church England, and then he details the destruction. Here is a snip from the destruction, which started as a creeping destruction:

So the sprinkling of the holy water was explained not in terms of the water's power to banish demons or bring blessing, but "to put us in remembrance of our baptism and the blood of Christ sprinkled for our redemption," holy bread was presented not as a curative but "to put us in remembrance of the sacrament of the altar," candles at Candlemas not as defences against the power of evil or the disorder of the elements but "in memory of Christ the spiritual light".

As I read this, I wonder who won in the end. The water-downed version seems to be what we live with today in most Catholic parishes. Our faith, Catholic culture and devotions have been eliminated (who celebrates Candlemas now?) or greatly watered-down (I have never heard sprinkling of holy water to banish demons except from one priest.)

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Remember the Requiem Press sale below!

Oremus pro invicem!

Requiem Press

It has been quite a while since I plugged Requiem Press, but we are still around-if barely. We need your help to stay in business and remain viable into 2010-bringing more good reading options to the plate. We have several books in the wings, just waiting for enough funding to print.

We are running a $5 special on select titles. Some of these represent substantial discount over the cover price. Take advantage of these when contemplating Christmas gifts.

If you are unsure of a particular title, click over to The Requiem Reader and read some excerpts from some of these books.

Included in the $5 special are: Two Towers by John Meehan; Standing with Peter by Dr. William May; a Breath of Home-poems from the Heart of the Family by LongSkirts; Witnesses to the Holy Mass by Rev. Bede Camm OSB; and The Maccabees, Forgotten Heroes of Israel with an introduction by Dr. William Carroll.

I think there is something for everyone in this group.

Oremus pro invicem!

Here's a couple views of our Thanksgiving celebration taken by one of our guests. The first is yours truly about to break into our 30+ pound bird. (It was not easy situating it in our oven, believe me.)

The next is the boys and I doing some kind of country song. As you can see, we had fun.

Finally, a picture of our new living room ceiling, which actually is still in progress. I promised Mrs. Curley to have it done by Thanksgiving, but those critical items (time & money) kept coming up in short supply. It's half done, let's hope for Christmas it can be completed.

Oremus pro invicem!

"You Can Farm"

My library didn't have this book, and I wanted read it, so instead of ordering inter-library loan (around here, inter-library loan books you only have for 8 days and you have to pay postage), I suggested they acquire a copy. After all, we do live in a rural county and others may benefit from it. To my great delight they bought a copy and reserved it for me.

I have been thoroughly enjoying it; I am almost finished. I am going to get my older boys to read the first few chapters before I return it to the library.

While I didn't learn all that much as I already practice many of his principles on a small scale, (for instance, we try very hard to return fertility to the soil, and we grass-feed or greens-feed as much as our livestock as possible on our small holding) I have come away with a new appreciation of borrowing and/or leasing land as opposed to buying it.

We are very land-limited here and need more land to be both more self-sufficient and to generate more farm income. While I have talked about leasing in the past, now I am going to actively seek opportunities for using more land without having to come up with money to purchase some acreage.

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We have a couple piglets left to sell, but most have been sold. It was a busy week in this regard.

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I hope all had a happy Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful week (not quite getting everything done, but enough). We had some family visiting, a new friend made and some old friends over for feasting, praying, and some homegrown entertainment.

Advent starts a new year in the Church. Ironically (not being a Catholic holiday), Thanksgiving always comes just before this "new year". We have had mountainous struggles this year (the new year is not starting any different) but I realize that with all this, God has blessed the Curley's tremendously.

Oremus pro invicem!