In and Up; Here and Gone (Updated)

Update: Regarding my final comment below about the presidential election, I feel the way this guy thinks , excepting the last two paragraphs. (And by the way, we are eating our sweet corn!)

So we finally planted the sweet sorghum this morning. The peanuts are in and up. The pumpkins are in and up. We will be picking at least a dozen ears of sweet corn for supper on Saturday. Still picking peas, broccoli and spinach, although these three are petering out fast.
 

God is good to us. We've had plenty of rain and just enough sun to plow and plant.

 

It just turned to hotter this week. While we've had a few 90 degree days, it was still getting cool at night. But with this week, the coolness has ended. Too bad. I have 2-3 hogs to put down and would rather have done it before this turn of weather. Oh well, we will still get it down.

 

Matthew, the seminarian, was here for a week before going back to Texas to work at a Catholic summer camp.

 

Connor (NE Catholic) has been here for 2 weeks. He's been working hard helping me get this place in shape for the summer and next fall. He will be heading back North for work at the college for the summer in a couple weeks. He is a counselor at the high school summer program at NCC.

 

Nicholas (Wyoming) came home last weekend after a 10-day mission trip in Nicaragua. He will be here for almost 2 months before heading back to Wyoming to work for the summer. Nick helps lead the freshman outdoor trips at WCC.

 

So we are enjoying having, playing and working with the boys while they are home.

 

We are fostering a young boy this summer, so it really is a full house once again - for a while.

 

I meant to link to this several weeks ago, because it is so telling and true. I don't need to comment; it speaks for itself.

 

Finally-what about this election coming up? Maybe The Constitution Party? Of course I still have some bumper stickers left from the '012 campaign:).

Oremus pro invicem!

Goings on ...

So, the peanuts are planted. Hoping to plant sorghum and pumpkins in the next week.

 

We are harvesting peas, spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce. I think we will be picking corn in a couple weeks.

 

We inherited about 20 chickens in eggs this week, so supplement our 3-year old 1/2 dozen layers who are definitely on the downside of laying.

 

Our game hen hatched a small clutch, so meat birds are on the way.

 

I am back to work teaching Physics for the summer session at York Tech. I had 10 days off and visited my mother in Massachusetts and picked up number 2 son (Northeast Catholic College) for his final summer college break. He will be with us for a few weeks before heading back north to work.

 

I listened to (via www.Librivox.org ) The Black Arrow and The Master of Ballantrae both by Robert Louis Stevenson on the trip North. Right now I am listening to The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper.

 

Number 3 son (seminarian) is with us for only one week before he goes to work a Catholic summer camp in Texas for the rest of the summer.

 

Number 1 son (Wyoming Catholic) is on mission trip, building a church in Nicaragua and will be home for a month or two for his final summer college break.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

Peanuts

We didn't plant peanuts last year due to a perceived lack of manpower. But this year we are attempting it. The past few days we have been harrowing and plowing the small plot where the peanuts will go. I think one more session with the horse and we can have it done. (Because he doesn't plow much, the horse is out of shape and thus we need to work him slowly.)

 

 

 Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

  

Sam's pigs

Sam farrowed today, and it was a long process. Her first was born around noon. The last around 4:15 PM.

She had 14 born alive and 5 dead. Will have to see if she can handle the 14. In the past she has had trouble managing that many. But we will see.

Here she is:

 

It has been an exciting day! We started plowing the field for peanuts, and Old Man did just fine. A grand litter of piglets, rain over the weekend (bringing up beans, and squash, and etc.)  Thank God for His bounty!

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Finally!

Polly dropped her pigs sometime last night. They all take after their daddy.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Uncertainty

I teach Physics as an adjunct at a "local" technical college. Last night I showed 2.5 minutes of a video in which Newtonian gravitation is maligned in favor of Einstein's bending space.

 

Of course I am teaching Newtonian Physics. It called to mind a recent quote I had never read before which I found at the Northeast Catholic Student Blog:

...Werner Heisenberg, who begins his work by saying: “Science is made by men, a self-evident fact that is far too often forgotten.”

 

It is an interesting quote, especially noting (ironically) it is by the author of the Uncertainty Principle - (that a particle's position and momentum can not known be simultaneously-or that the more closely you know the position, the less accurately you know the momentum.)

 

In any event, what followed in the last lecture of the semester, was the most interesting one as we discussed how scientific theories, even accepted ones, change as we acquire new knowledge; going through Ptolemy to Copernicus and Galileo, etc.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

The work weekend on the homestead

Got a lot done this weekend. Friday it was drizzling so I decide to put in our tomato plants. No sooner were we started then it started to rain hard. No matter. We were already wet.

We tilled up the patch where the cantaloupes will go. We cultivated the corn. We tilled another garden section where pigs and turkeys used to live. This will be our main summer garden.

I picked and ate our first two pea pods of the spring.

And ... we finished building a small, temporary pen among some tree-killing vines and relocated the runt from the last litter there (picture below). She will eat the greenery and dig out the roots of these vines. When I took this picture, some 4 hours after the move, she had already put a noticeable dent in the vines. Sometime soon she will then hit the bbq pit, being about 110-120 pounds. We have a good feel for her weight because we carried her from her old pen to her new digs. (Well I use the term "we" sort of loosely. A friend and son Thomas did most of the lifting while I "organized".)

Oremus pro invicem!

Communism and Freedom

I noted below that I have read The Soul and the Wire from The Gulag. Now I am back to reading the rest of Part III of the same, which I had put off to read Part IV. Reading about the women in the work camps has to be one of the most depressing things I have ever read. The total loss of humanity that these women experienced may not be the worst atrocity in history, but it is still most difficult to read.

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My children are reading Animal Farm together (school) and listening in, I think it surely relates to what is happening today or at least what may be starting to happen in our own "land of the free" country. Our freedom to speak and even think about what we believe is surely going the way of the wild buffalo.

************

Related in a way is this article  about some comments Ted Cruz made about who should legislate same-sex adoption. Not particularly to pick on Ted Cruz, but the article addresses the conservative/libertarian notion that only states (as opposed to the Federal government) should legislate moral issues. Here is the essence of the article:

Cruz may take for granted that states have rights to legislate on every issue. He and his followers might disagree with such a characterization, but if the legalization of homosexual adoption of children is not outside the authority of individual states, then one cannot possibly know what else is. One should seriously question the idea that states contain within themselves some innate right to weigh-in on every issue. Questions relating to the Natural Law should be considered outside the scope and competency of state legislatures, at least in a non-defensive sense. In other words, states only have the duty to defend the Natural Law, not make positive laws to destroy it.

For example, most reasonable people would agree that states should outlaw rape, while at the same time agree that they do not have the right to legalize murder. States have the duty to use their power to defend these moral concepts, but not to violate them.

 All things to consider .....

Oremus pro invicem!

Pigs are coming!

We have 3 litters of pigs due in the next few weeks. Polly is first-due any day now as you can see.

 

 
 

Thor (below) is the sire. Becky (not shown) is due in a few weeks. We are interested in seeing the coloring in the offspring. Often the boar's coloring will dominate, but sometimes you can get red piglets with the white stripe. We will know in a few days.

Sam (right) is due 26 April. The sire is Red who we sold some weeks ago. This will be the last litter Sam gives us as she isn’t that great of a mother. She drops 10-12 piglets consistently, but only weans ½ dozen.

Oremus pro invicem!

I was just thinking ...

... that I hadn't seen anything from Anthony Esolen in a while, but then this appears; setting things straight .....

No, there is no comparison. Rock stars are far more important than pastry bakers, in the same way that school principals are more important than parents, inside traders are more important than truck drivers, journalists are more important than people who read books to find the truth, and politicians are more important than everybody. They are more important because they hold the hammer.

Oremus pro invicem!

Repent!

From The Gulag .... (Solzhenitsyn)

Here is a rewarding and inexhaustible direction for your thoughts: Reconsider all your previous life. Remember everything you did that was bad and shameful and take thought-can't you possibly correct it now?

Yes, you have been imprisoned for nothing. You have nothing to repent of before the state and its laws.

But..... before your own conscience?

I don't have the Gulag for a purgation on earth. Is it a pity or a blessing when considering eternity?

Oremus pro invicem!

Does anyone else think this first statement is strange?

For example, would you think potatoes come from anywhere else? a laboratory????

Is this a ploy to make you think they are healthy? (Whether they are or not, you can see the made it to my table!)

I remember that my son Nick used to make some really good potato chips. Too bad they grow up and go to college. It would be nice if they were ours and not God's and we could just keep them.

But back to potatoes. We don't grow them usually because we can buy them so cheaply - sometimes 50 lbs for $8 at the farmers market.

Oremus pro invicem!

In passing (literally)

Sometimes you feel a special kinship with something or someone you really no nothing about …..

One day a week I usually travel to Lexington, SC for one of my several jobs. As I pass through Lugoff, I always see a middle-aged woman (Funny how “middle-age” gets older as one does. I would say I am middle-aged and yet I am surely past this point by some years. I don’t really expect to reach 104 + a few years. And surely this woman is 5-15 years older than I, but I digress….) walking to or from a job (I suppose). I pass her about the same spot every time, but can tell if I am running late (or early) by where I pass her. I can also estimate the weather by her attire.

I usually wave, but have never have seen her see my wave. But in some sense, I feel an acquaintance with her. If one morning she is absent, I will wonder if she is sick, retired, or on vacation.

I venture we should feel at least the same kinship with everyone we see or meet-greeting their Guardian Angels as we pass.

Oremus pro invicem!

The result is what counts!

Am reading The Soul and the Barbed Wire from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago.

In some sense, yes, it is the result than counts, ultimately - whether we have run the race faithfully and reached our eternal reward.

 

In daily life however, we need to make sure that "the result" is aimed towards the ultimate result discussed above or is directed at an earthly goal-and oh how we can get lost from the true direction!

 

What should the result be, for example, our little homestead? Is it the neatest garden? The most productive garden? The fattest hogs? The sweetest corn? The creamiest milk?

 

If these are the results that count, this homestead has failed!

Oremus pro invicem!

Best Laid Plans ....

C.S. Lewis writes (via Marcus Grodi):

 

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own' or 'real life'. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life-the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one's 'real life' is a phantom of one's own imagination.

 

Of course this has always been precisely one of my greatest struggles. I live by "the plan", thrive by "the plan" - only it is always my plan - not God's.

 

Since being married (read into this what you will!) I am getting slowly better (day by day, decade by decade) at being able to deviate from the "the plan" without throwing a fit.

 

But still I struggle - some of those struggles being recorded in these spaces.

 

Homestead life is also a good leveler. You can never plan for the pigs getting out, for instance.

Oremus pro invicem!

Hooray!

After countless (actually, I counted them) $, and countless hours, and two years, we have finally been licensed by SC for foster care.

Oremus pro invicem!

Backpacking Log

So, son Thomas and I went backpacking/camping this weekend up to Jones Gap State Park. I hadn't been there in over 12-14 years. Thomas had never been there.

 

We left here early on Friday and returned Saturday afternoon. We got to Jones Gap at 11:00 AM and headed into the woods at 11:45 AM .

 

We arrived at the campsite at 12:15 PM. After setting up camp, including a new 1-man tent for Thomas, in which we both were determined to sleep, we left for a hike.

 

Jones Gap trail (5.3 miles) runs along the Middle Saluda River. There are several falls along the trail or on spurs. We had already backpacked in 1.1 miles, so we decide to walk the rest of the trail and back.

 



Thomas at Jones Gap Falls



We went up to see Jones Gap Falls on a spur. The we stopped for 30 minutes or so at a rock formation in the river. We soaked our feet (coooooooold water); Thomas waded around.

 



Then we took off again. Just shy of the 4 mile mark I took a spill. Not hurt, but somehow this spill started a blister on one of my toes. Instead of chancing it, we turned around at 4 miles and got back to camp. (3:45 PM)

 

We gathered some firewood and got a fire going. For supper I wrapped a potato in foil and tossed it in the coals. I grilled some fish fillets. When the fillets were 80% done and I figured the potato was about done also, I removed both from the heat. I cut up the potato, the fish, and added okra in a saucepan. With a bit of water, salt and pepper, I put the mixture back on the fire til it boiled for a bit.

 

Then we ate.

Me at Jones Gap Falls

 

It is good that we were very hungry! Not even the amount of salt and pepper I put on could make it good. But it was hearty and we ate it all.

 

After supper we played cards, prayed the rosary, and talked. Retired at 9:30.

 

We both squeezed into the tent. It rained cats and dogs from 2:00 to 2:30 AM.  When we rose, we decided that instead of coaxing a fire with all the wet would and kindling (which we COULD do if we had a mind to), we would break camp and find some breakfast back in civilization.

 

Just part of the scenary!

 We were in the car heading out by 9:00 AM. Great trip.

Oremus pro invicem!

Exclusion

I have been planning an upcoming backpacking trip with my son at a state park. In order to make a campsite reservation, (unless making it for less than 24 hours in advance) I had to make the reservation online with a credit card.

It occurred to me that this is an entry barrier to some (many?) who either don’t have internet access or, more likely, a credit card.

Now, there may be a way around this (I didn’t spend the time to explore all avenues), but on the face of it, here is a case of government efficiency (is there such a thing?) excluding a class of citizens.

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Thinking of exclusionary policies, I have been musing a bit on immigration policy. I don’t contest the right of a nation from protecting and/or controlling its borders for at least some reasons.

On the other hand, we have historically contested the right of the American Indians to protect their borders. Because we were more numerous and had better technology, we consistently drove them off their land, made treaties giving them other land, and repeatedly broke those treaties to take their land again.

I am not so naïve to think the situations heretofore mentioned have don’t have nuances, especially regarding lands of plenty and justice, but in generality, this is something to ponder when considering immigration policy today.

Might makes right? Or is it Manifest Destiny-or these days: American Exceptionalism - that we don’t have to respect borders, lands and treaties because we are God’s people? But others (I guess those who aren't God's people?) need to respect our borders, lands and treaties?

We are able (potentially at least) to stop immigration from Latin America with our technology, but how is the Latin immigrant seeking a better life and/or freedom (at least to the limited extent the USA offers) different from the earlier settlers and pioneers?

No doubt we have a right and duty to our citizens to exclude violent invaders, criminals, and terrorists. This goes to controlling our borders. How about the others? Have we really run out of room and resources?

An economic situation where food and jobs are scarce enough for US citizens may justify limits to immigration, but is this even real? Note that in the recent poor economic downturn the net flow of peoples was to Mexico, rather than to the US.

I have written as if all these things are simple, yet I understand they are not. Not everything is considered in my analysis. It is just something to consider among all the other factors.

Oremus pro invicem!

Some years ago, my then 90+ year old neighbor, told me how the generation after his became enamored of "things" and so left the farm for the city.

I read similar sentiments in Marcus Grodi's Life From Our Land:

As long as they (the rural family - JC) lived untouched by the obsession of the outside world for lesser material goods, the simple contented farm family lived happily, content with their food, drink, clothing, shelter, and the spiritual enrichment of their local parish.

 

However, when the simplicity of the rural farm family was shattered by the lure of the city, when farm children were lured away to work in factories, or to train in college for leadership roles in factories, trading houses or investment firms, not for the procurement of more bodily goods or spiritual enrichment, but for "wealth and what it will buy" their lives became limitlessly driven.

 

There is a lot in here. But first, I remind myself of my post below where Pope Benedict (in Spes Salvi) notes that technology and progress are good with virtuous guidance.

Secondly, rural life can be hard. There is no sugar-coating this.

But, I will say this: the satisfaction I gain from a day or a week of hard work on the farm is totally different than the satisfaction I get when I complete a patent case and submit an invoice. I am not sure, but I think the difference is that on the farm the thing I have worked for is direct. In other words, I planted a vegetable garden and that food will be on my table. (as opposed to, I wrote a patent and got money so we could go to the store and buy food to put on the table.)

The connection between the work and the result is definite (as opposed to: the money could be spent on anything).

 

I think this may be something worth exploring more.

 

It is not simply instant gratification as the work you do may take months to harvest.

 

It may be that man was meant both for intellectual labor and manual labor, yet most of us get so little of the manual these days.

 

It may be that our work, whether intellectual labor or manual is meant to have a definite connection with the fruits of the labor and not an indirect or remote connection.

 

Something to ponder on. Maybe someone will write a book on it, and I can find out what the answers are....

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

Homestead update

Corn is up! Peas and radishes have been up.

Unexpected rain Monday night.

Still waiting for the Swiss chard, spinach and broccoli to come up.

Spinach plants not looking so hot.

Broccoli plants doing okay.

More corn to plant as well as other things. Seems like not enough time, but we'll make it.

Oremus pro invicem!