Lenten Candy

I heard from my daughter yesterday that cough drops were considered "Lenten candy" in our house by the kids. No candy during Lent, but if you had a cough....

++++++++++++++++++

Reading: the One Second After trilogy. I recommend it. Story set in a rural community of North Carolina at the time and after an EMP event over the continental United States. 

Oremus pro invicem!

The view out our back window yesterday

South Carolina

Well, today is primary day in South Carolina. I have no predictions. My pigs are doing well (litter a couple weeks ago) as you can see below. Not so much all our chickens. We have had a fox attacking our brand new, ready to lay chickens. Lost a few, but a neighbor gave us a few more and we are back in eggs. Am hoping the wood holds out. Crazy weather, some cold, some hot. Can't predict. Confession this afternoon. Feeling clean!

Oremus pro invicem!

I should be cutting and splitting wood for next year, but am still splitting wood for this year … depending on how long winter lasts. It started early but the last week or so have been unseasonably warm.

Oremus pro invicem!

Merry Christmas! and...

It took the flu to give me time to post again. I am one of the last men standing, but I feel like I am going down....

Last weekend we had a wonderful square dance/hog roast - when the flu was somewhat distant on the horizon. Here is some of the pig prep: 1. dipping it in the scalding water; 2. making coals for cooking the hog; 3. taking the hog off the grill.

Oremus pro invicem!

Dorian

It looks like Dorian will have no substantial effect on us so far inland. We probably will get our share of rain - although it hasn't started yet.

So I dug trenches around the pig houses (actually lean-to type shelters) last night to divert water from pooling in the house. The pig shelters have dirt floors and the pigs tend to hollow those floors out, making them a low point.

My 19 year old son is in the SC State Guard and has been deployed to the coast for rescue and cleanup. I think he just completed his swift water rescue course a couple weeks ago - so the timing is right.

Oremus pro invicem!

pigs!

14 pigs born to us this weekend. They are very active and  healthy!

Oremus pro invicem!

Out West

What a trip. Arrived home last night from a 2 week trek to Wyoming and back with a couple detours.

Of course I saw my grandbaby - a lot.

I love the west, especially Lander, WY - not just  because the cutest grandbaby in the world lives there.!

We also went to South Pass City - well worth it! It used to be a booming town in the 1880's, now population of 3 or so. Much of it is preserved.

Son Nick and I hiked to Big Sandy lake (elevation around 9000 feet) and then after a night of camping, we hiked to Rapid Lake, which is close to 11,000 feet. Not much air to breathe there. I admit to having trouble in that regard. Pic is of me relaxing at Rapid Lake. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Hit Mount Rushmore for about an hour on the way home. Glad I went, but once is enough. I think the pictures are actually better than the monument itself. I will say though that Eastern South Dakota is beautiful.

Stopped somewhere in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota to get out of a dangerous thunderstorm with baseball-size hail, took shelter with a few other souls in a gas station - and met someone from SC not far from us. How does that happen?

Great trip! Good to be home.

Oremus pro invicem!

Hog Heaven?

Goings on ...

We picked our first cucumbers a few days ago and harvested our corn 2 days ago. The corn, due to lack of rain at the critical time wasn’t as big as in the past, but it still is tasty. We are just finishing last year’s corn from the freezer. I don’t know if we will have enough to put up much this year, but I will take what God provides.

We had to replant our cantaloupe and pumpkins. They are just breaking ground last week, so we will see how they do. The tomatoes are there, but slow in coming.

We still have a very large hog to put down. We just never got around to it, and now it looks like the fall? This is the last of our own hogs. We have two young Jersey steers (Jersey beef is the best to eat.) which should be ready in winter and early spring. AND we bought a pregnant sow a few weeks ago. I want to get our own breeding stock again, but it will have to wait until the fall. (I think I said that last year.)

The bathroom remodel saga still goes on. Remodeling a bathroom which is not square and which has many quirks in the walls and plumbing has been no fun. Looking back, I should have gutted the whole thing including the towel closet and started from scratch. The budget would probably been about the same and I would have finished a week ago.  Yesterday I thought we were ready at least to have the bathtub operating (shower walls are proving a bear), but alas the tub drain is leaking. Oh, it goes on and on.

Oremus pro invicem!

Still on bathroom remodel – day 15 of a planned 2-day project….

But bigger things are happening. I have mentioned in passing before that we have had a special young man visiting with us for the past 3+ years. Just a few days ago we signed adoption papers for this special 13-year old. Nothing is final until the court signs off on the adoption, but now it is all but final. Happy days!

Oremus pro invicem!

Daughter B found the calf in the corn this morning. Not too much damage. But it was hard moving the several hundred pound steer back into its own fencing. I guess we should have halter broke it. But of course we usually won't do that for a Jersey steer going into the freezer come winter....

We had no rain for a month, and hot, hot weather. Cucumbers fared well, but the cantaloupe and beans never broke surface. Replanted some this week after 3 or 4 days of off and on rain (finally). This rain may have saved the corn.

Still working on the bathroom. Floor, toilet, vanity and tube are installed. Kitchen sink let go in the middle of all of it. JB Weld solved the problem.

This morning I installed shutoff valves under the house for the shower hot and cold so I can total redo the plumbing for the tub and shower at my leisure. This plumbing is necessary to get the shower walls to fit properly.

Oremus pro invicem!

Life is great, but I hate bathroom remodels. I have been working so much and doing so many things that this old blog has been sadly neglected. Did I mention I hate bathrooms?

School is out for me, and except for a possible 4 week course at the end of July, I have little work this summer. 

That may be good because the 2-day bathroom remodel looks like it may take many more days and even weeks. Did I mention how much I hate bathrooms? Things leak...

I am done for the night, but I am hoping that by this time tomorrow night the most critical issues have been resolved. 

The worst of it is that after this remodel, I tackle the one upstairs..... This could be the summer from....

But otherwise, life is great. I am blessed greatly. More on this later, if I can get by the bathroom issues.

Oremus pro invicem!

It's been a long time, and lots has happened. I have been to Wyoming to see my granddaughter. I listened to talks about "The Beer Option" at St. Joseph's Farm. I have finished the semesters at both my Adjunct gigs. A few weeks off and all the kids will be home at sometime in the next couple weeks. Everyone overlaps for at least one day.

I love Wyoming. This time Mrs. Curley went with me. She fell in love too.

The homestead is at a quiet time. We have been drying the peanuts and need to take them off the vine. The Jerusalem artichokes are ready for harvest.

We need to get back to cutting wood for next year. And there are two hogs out there ready for slaughter.

Mrs. Curley (especially) and I are testing our will power and patience, having an infant and her 2-year old brother staying with us since July. I forgot about infants....

I have thought often of writing about various things I have heard on the radio or read about, but there has been little time.

Oremus pro invicem! 

Life and Death

I became a grandfather for the first time one day late last week. There is a certain joy to this. It is hard to explain. It is also difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that my son is now a father. 

I remember when I am taking my children to college the first time, it usually involves a long drive. During the drive, I always panic that I only have a few hours left to tell him or her all things I should have but haven't gotten around to yet.

But this is worse, I can't tell my sons how to be a good father (or daughters a good parent). All they have is my example - yet that has been too often lacking. Hopefully they will get their inspiration - not from me, but from the Bible and see how God is a good father.

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Last week we also lost a good one. My wife's uncle, Dave Stanley, passed away. He was a good man. He was always welcoming to our family. I recall especially he was good to our special needs foster son. Dave always made our foster son smile, let him drive the golf cart to his extreme delight, and bought him hats - a favorite item for our son.

May his soul rest in peace!

Oremus pro invicem!

Time

We had the best looking sweet sorghum crop in years, but we ran out to time to process it correctly. It won't go to waste, the seeds are chicken feed and the stocks, although not squeezed to make syrup, will be fed to some appreciative pigs.

We are just about done with most of the summer garden. There are lingering tomatoes and one or two pumpkins left to pull. It was a good year for pumpkins, although absent were some of the huge pumpkins of past years.

For to be a farmer's boy, 1887-Winslow Homer

I think our peanuts (although the smallest plot in years) will be stellar based on what I have seen so far. Harvest is still a few weeks away.

The summer won't leave. We are still having 90+ to 100 degree days everyday. It burns up any broccoli or cabbage you try to put in.

With school having starting for me, getting a big fall garden in will be a challenge. I like fall gardens because weeds don't grow.

Speaking of school, I have started a new assignment. In addition to teaching part-time at a local technical college, I am now teaching Physics at a 4-year college (as an adjunct.) 

More money but less time at the homestead.....

Oremus pro invicem!

Back to Cleveland!

It had been 30 years. I lived in Cleveland for 2 years. The last thing I did there was to attend my friend's wedding in 1988.

Last week I was back in Cleveland for my son's wedding. It was great. The liturgy was chanted. Everything was beautiful. The bride's family was very gracious. We had a great time!

Oremus pro invicem!

The need is great!

I mentioned back in 2016 that we were finally licensed for foster care in South Carolina. Since then we have had 10 children ranging from 4 months to 15 years come into our home for times ranging from a few days to more than 2 years.

Our very first foster child is still with us after more than 2 years. Presently we also have 2 other young children.

But we get calls all the time to take more....

Yesterday we had two calls: the first to take a sibling group comprising 6-month old and two-year old; the second for a sibling group of 5 children.

And this is not the first time we have received multiple calls in one day.

We don’t have the beds or rooms to take more than we have now. (Sometimes I wish we did – other times we feel overwhelmed with whoever we have at the time.)

It is hard to say “no”.

The need is tremendous. We have been very blessed.

Oremus pro invicem!

Assuming this is an accurate quote that is making the rounds (or even if it is not) I endorse this remedy of St. Basil and would only add that the same consequence should apply to anyone who knew of such behavior and didn't report it:

Any cleric or monk who seduces young men or boys, or who is apprehended in kissing or in any shameful situation, shall be publicly flogged and shall lose his clerical tonsure. Thus shorn, he shall be disgraced by spitting into his face, bound in iron chains, wasted by six months of close confinement, and for three days each week put on barley bread given him toward evening. Following this period, he shall spend a further six months living in a small segregated courtyard in the custody of a spiritual elder, kept busy with manual labor and prayer, subjugated to vigils and prayers, forced to walk at all times in the company of two spiritual brothers, never again allowed to associate with young men for purposes of improper conversation or advice.

They still don't get it, do they?

It is a struggle not to be consumed by all this.

I am reading the Power of Silence by Cardinal Sarah. Begin agitated by the news is not part of his remedy.

Oremus pro invicem!

Diapers

I may have alluded to the fact that we have had a special young man living with us for the past 2+ years. It may become permanent sometime in the next - who knows how long when government agencies and courts are involved? - but we are looking forward to it.

In the meantime, Mrs. Curley and I are expecting our first grandchild in September - in Wyoming - go figure. 

I don't feel old except when I get up (out of bed, out of the car, out of the couch) or when I climb over things. In both cases, I creak. Once I am up, I am fine. Not that being a grandfather means you are old....

So this week we took on a 3 week old and her 2 year old brother. 2 in diapers! at our age! Maybe we are going through a mid-life crisis - trying to prove we can still do it. Just now I changed the poopy infant, the poopy 2 year-old, and then the poopy infant again. During this second change she peed all over the place. Not complaining. These are gifts.

I asked Mrs. Curley this morning how long she could do what she did last night - up every three hours up for feeding/changing, etc.  She just looked at me.

Oremus pro invicem!

Rainbow in Bethune

This was taken a few weeks ago. It was more impressive in person - the camera on my phone is not much to write home about.

We need more of this - rain that is. We ate our first corn tonight, but I don't know how the rest will go without more rain.

Oremus pro invicem!

End of an era

For the first time in at least 10 years we don't have a breeding pair of hogs on the property. Thor (Hampshire boar) and Polly (York/Duroc cross sow) have both found new homes.

We do have enough pigs to keep us in pork for a while. We will look for a new breeding pair in the coming months, but it will give us a little break for the summer.

Speaking of the summer...we are starting to pick summer produce. Today the first batch of green beans, along with some zucchini and cukes.

Oremus pro invicem! 

We've been hearing a duck quacking ...

but it was a frog!

I took a picture of a frog in the overflow pipe from our kitchen in August 2016. Now he's there again, but bigger! See for yourself, same pipe.

May 2018

August 2016

Confession

Saw this on the confessional door at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Stockbridge, MA last week.

Oremus pro invicem!

May he rest in peace....

Fr. John Oholohan, former pastor at St. Catherine's passed away on April 19 at 95 years old. The picture above shows Father with my 4 sons (and others) before Mass some years ago.

Below is a picture of Father John giving his first blessing to his parents at his ordination.

God blessed us immeasurably with Fr. John's presence in our lives at St. Catherine's. May his soul rest in peace!

The link gives the details.
Fr. John Oholohan

Some pictures....

The garden is finally coming alive. We have tons of broccoli, and below is a view of one of our small sweet corn plots. Let's hope the rain keeps coming!

Number 1 son just graduated from AFR boot camp!

And finally a historical picture: Not sure when this was taken, but probably last year at Number 2 son's graduation weekend from NCC. He came across the picture and noticed that I was in the center of it. Looks like I arrived just in time not to be late! 

Oremus pro invicem!

Spring arrivals

Woke up this morning to find our new litter of 15 pigs! Hopefully Polly will be a good mother - usually she is.

Our game hen hatched 5 chicks last week. Garden is slow due to lingering cold weather, but we have had some broccoli and lettuce.

Oremus pro invicem!

How do you want to live?

This is the question asked and answered (below) over at Country Will Always Be Home. I am  humbled by the wisdom dispensed by this young man. Read everything he writes. (Besides, I like the pictures. They remind me of home!)

You can follow the current and live a dull, predetermined course. You can seek financial, political and social stability. You can spend pointless endless hours on Netflix, social media, gaming, and small talk. You can be that object, floating downstream, unaware of where it is headed but thinking it is comfortable going wherever the current drags it. But if you choose that path, no one will recognize the life within you.

He is risen!

An update: A new link appears on the list in the sidebar. Yet another offspring of mine has decided to blog: Man of the Southern Woods

Chattooga!

I took advantage of spring break at my tech college to go backpacking with son Thomas along the Chattooga River in the Ellicott Rock Wilderness Area of South Carolina.

 

In a word, the trip was: miserable! Oh yes, we had a great time, and we are glad we went, but still, it was miserable.

 

We entered the forest in the rain. Of course finding dry wood was a challenge, but we did it. It took all we could to start a fire and keep it going. Then it got coooooold! It was 25 F overnight the first night. In the morning not a single coal was left from our fire. (I usually don't do winter camping, but it was in the 70's just last week!)

 

And as we ate oat meal and hard boiled eggs for breakfast, it started snowing!

 



Our campsite viewing down river



We then hike 12 or 13 miles to come back to a even colder (but dryer) campsite. While making the fire was easier, the wind chilled faster than the fire could warm.

 

But the sights were out of this world.



Arriving at camp

A view from the camp upriver.

Recording the high (and lows) of the trip.





A view of the river

Another view of my better side as we headed out this morning

Oremus pro invicem!

That little green thing ...

is corn breaking the surface. (The green sprout, the other things are just weed debris.) Spring is here, and while all of next years wood is not yet in the shed, tilling and planting is starting to swing into full gear.

Oremus pro invicem!

Boys to Men

I spent the weekend in NC at St. Josephs Farm where Jason Craig gave a serious of talks on rites of passage and specifically what the father's role is in moving a boy into manhood-how can he help/how can he hinder.

 

We (son Thomas and I) had a great time and learned a lot. We actually went up to demonstrate for the group how to slaughter, cook and eat a pig. (They already knew the last part.) The rest was extra. Both were great!

I met a great group of 30 men who came up from Birmingham for the weekend.

Oremus pro invicem!

Winter work

We are about 1/2 way to a secure and warm 2018-2019 winter. Here is some of our work from today. (Yes, we usually use a chainsaw - I highly recommend the Echo CS440 which I have used for 14 years, but this tree got stuck and needed a little axe work.)

We are fortunate to have neighbors who always seem to have some hardwoods they want taken away. We have felled over a dozen trees of various sizes since the first week in January.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

The Courtship of Miles Standish

being read now!

I always liked Henry Wadsworth Longfellow dating back to a 4th grade field trip to his home. It was also in 4th grade when I memorized "The Arrow and the Song."

I haven't read poetry in years, but decided to reacquaint myself. After the Courtship, I think I might try "Song of Hiawatha."

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Also check out another new blog The Intentional Imagineer.

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Finally, wrote (or actually revised and updated) an article for New Catholic Land Movement. A version of this originally appeared in 2012 on Front Porch Republic. Enjoy it if you can!

 

 

Oremus pro invicem!

New Man

I left at 6:30 AM for my teaching job last Thursday with a tiny tickle in my throat. I arrived home at 9:00 PM with a 101 degree fever and all kinds of aches and pains. I pretty much stayed in bed for the next 72 hours, and have now emerged a new man (I hope).

Of course this was only possible with a Mrs. Curley who held everything and everyone together over the weekend. I was not the only one feeling poorly.

My theory in getting over sickness (if you can't just ignore it) is to stay in bed until you can't stand it anymore. At that point, you should be cured.

Oremus pro invicem!

God or Nothing

I have been reading this interview (God or Nothing, Ignatius Press) with Cardinal Sarah off and on for a few months now. I am finally getting close to the finish.

After this, I think Cardinal Sarah's book on silence should be on my list. A couple of passages I found this weekend on which I would like to report:

Here are some possibly comforting lines Cardinal Sarah quotes from St. Therese of Lisieux:

Listen, this is how great your confidence should be! It should make you believe purgatory is not made for you but only for the souls that failed to recognize God's merciful love or who doubted its power to purify. With those who strive to respond to this love, Jesus is 'blind' and 'does not count' [their sins], or rather, in order to purify them, he counts only on this fire of charity that 'covers all faults' and, especially, on the fruits of his perpetual Sacrifice. Yes, despite your little infidelities, you can hope to go straight to heaven, because the good Lord desires it even more than you do, and he will surely give you what you have hoped to receive of his Mercy. Your confidence and your resignation are what he will reward; his justice, which knows your frailty has been divinely arranged so as to achieve this. As you rely on this assurance, just make sure even more that he does not lose any love!

 

Of course, relying on these lines may lead to complacency and presumption.

 

And from Pope Paul VI's "smoke of Satan" homily, comes the following:

 

Science exists to give us truths that do not separate from God, but make us seek him all the more and celebrate him with greater intensity ....

 

Pope Paul VI goes on to comment on how this purpose has been turned on its head.

 

It is good to reflect once more as an instructor in Physics what the purpose is of what I teach.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

And I highly recommend ....

Is your phone a tool or a weapon? Not just because it is written by someone I know very well, but because it is worth contemplating and then acting upon.

Oremus pro invicem!

One man's weed ....

.... is another man's meal.

 

Around here, pigweed is a scourge. Supposedly imported with turkey litter for fertilizer from somewhere, it now infests many a field during the growing season. It is prolific and aggressive. A garden or an acre of peanuts can be overgrown with pigweeds in a matter of days if you are not vigilant.

 

A perennial, you can't just plow it under. You need to hand pick it and move it. Some farmers used to use pesticides to rid their fields of it, but it has become resistant.

 

We have fought the pigweed in our small gardens (seeds carried from neighboring fields) and more intensively when we leased several acres to grow peanuts or sorghum.

 

A few years ago we were helping cut down some trees at the Missionaries of the Poor house in North Carolina, when I noticed they were growing pigweed in their garden on purpose!

 

Sure enough, Amaranth is grown for food around the world. Here's more proof from my own pantry.

We actually have fed pigweed removed from the garden to our pigs, and they eat it up. But I don't think I will be growing it for our consumption any time soon....

Oremus pro invicem!

A book recommendation

I finished Out of the Ashes the other day. Regular readers here know I am huge fan of Anthony Esolen. Perhaps my coolness to the current effort has more to do with what I need rather than what Mr. Esolen has to offer.

 

As always he writes very well. His writing is always a delight to read. However, at times (in Out of the Ashes) he seemed to have so much to say that he didn't know how to say it briefly, so uses examples that don't clearly cover the problem.

 

And this is another problem. The book is subtitled "Rebuilding American Culture", but Mr. Esolen spends so much time defining the problems, he neglects how to rebuild, other than 'don't continue the problem.'

 

Perhaps this was it for me. I read for enjoyment and to learn; the enjoyment was there, but in this case, I thoroughly know the problems already. I have been struggling in my own way to rebuild culture at least in my family and among my friends. I wanted a different perspective.

 

However, I DO recommend the book. This is not meant to be a negative review, just that my personal expectations were not met - I am sure Mr. Esolen did not write the book to satisfy me. But take a look, for example: 

The progressives of old had a clear idea of what they thought would bring about their earthly paradise: the dictatorship of the proletariat, the emancipation of women, the elimination of monarchy and its replacement with democracy, universal education, and so on. None of their nostrums has delivered on its promise, and some have had the perverse effect of rotting away the foundation upon which their suppositions of beneficence were based. So it is that democratic machinery without the soul of democracy has produced a far more intrusive and liberty-crushing state than anything that the proudest monarch could have imagined-or wished, since such a constant political preoccupation would have left no time for boar hunting or chasing women. So it is that universal schooling has not brought Milton to the millions, but rather has taken Milton away from the brightest and replaced him with "young adult" junk. So it is that women have been emancipated from the freedom of the home and chained to salaried work and lives of relative loneliness.

 Oremus pro invicem!

Two Christmas presents ...

Here are two of my favorite Christmas presents:

 From my youngest daughter.

And, from Mrs. Curley (some quotes to come...):

 

Finally, in an act of total vanity, I present a picture I came across of my self from a student ID in 1986 when I was in graduate school. Never looked as good again...

 

 

 

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Happy Nativity!

It has been a long time (December 13) since my last post-but much has happened!

As usual, I post a picture of our tree, not quite as big as in the past, but it looks the same when fully decorated.

Most of the children were home for Christmas, but two didn't make it. I guess that's what happens when they get older, live far away, and/or get married.

We wanted to go Christmas caroling on the vigil, but had been bogged down with nagging colds for a few weeks. We did go to Midnight Mass at St. Peter in Cheraw - the only one at midnight within 90 minutes.

With little ones in the house again. it was a challenge.

I do want to recommend a new blog: CountryWillAlwaysBeHome . Disclaimer: it is my son's, but check it out. He has some things to say.

Oremus pro invicem!

Reading...

The Evolution of Physics by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld. Interestingly (or unfortunately, or appallingly), as a physicist, I have never read anything written by Albert Einstein.

 

This book contains no math - quite a feat for a book about Physics. It is hard for me tell (because I already understand the content) how easily this book would be understood by the layman.

 

My sister used this text in college and for some reason, I have her copy. Never having read it, I decided I should.

 

I am enjoying it much more than I thought possible. As a Physics Adjunct, I think it may benefit my students on having read this, giving me better insight on how to explain things in different ways.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

In Reruns

Have you "made it" when you are in reruns?

In any event, on a serious and pressing topic, I am in reruns here .

While it appears from the website that this piece was originally published 6 years ago, in actuality, most of it was written in 2004 as the "publisher's introduction" to the booklet Requiem Press put out on praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

It is always interesting to read what you wrote (at least for me!) in the past. Not only does it take you back, you can gain insight into where you are now, compared to then. It is not always a generous comparison!

But more importantly, pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory!

Oremus pro invicem! 

The wonderful cold weather is here ...

This means hog-killing weather! Pass this post if you are squeamish.

Number 4 son and I had to do this one by ourselves. It is back to work. I am used to supervising, but with my boys scattered around the country I actually have to get my hands and boots dirty.

We have several more to do this season, but this is the first of the cold weather. Because this one is going to be all sausage, we took the skin off (as opposed to scalding and scraping the hair.

Here we are working....

Oremus pro invicem!