Wow, what a week. It is cold again and icy. We haven't lost a tree yet, but I am sure we will by tomorrow. It's in the 20's and been raining/icing since late last night. It is almost stopped now, but supposed to go down to 17 F overnight.

I know this is nothing like New England where I grew up, but having been away for 15+ years, it is hard to get used to.

Big Spot (pictured here a few weeks ago) is due to farrow this week. She isn't due for a few days, but am anxious that the cold and ice may stress her into an early delivery. She had a litter of 16 in July. She's even bigger this time and looks to be starting to bag up.

Broke down about 1 mile from home last night in the G30 van. I forgot to take the cell phone and Mrs. Curley was busy with dinner so didn't notice my tardiness. The van just quit. Instead of pushing it off the road, I decided to try my hand at pushing it home. There is one (up) hill on the way, but it follows a steep downgrade, so I figured I had chance, especially if Mrs. Curley showed up with the strong backs of my boys. Turns out my neighbor showed up first with a car dolly-but after I pushed for some 1/2 mile. It took a while to get the van loaded, but it's home now, just ready to be worked on. (Not a battery or a belt, so we'll look at the fuel pump and distributor cap.)

More later. Oremus pro invicem!

Sorry for the absence; been getting work done. We finished the new farrowing area and hut for Big Spot (Duroc/York/Hamp sow), due 4 February. Mrs. Curley painted the hut and did some painting on some other hog shelters.

We got Big Red (Duroc/Tamworth cross gilt) bred this weekend, and finally bred back our Jersey milk cow. She will be due in October. I would have rathered early September, thus having her dried off in the hottest months of July and August, but this will do.

I can't believe it is almost February. I think I did my first planting in mid-February last year. Boy, I am not ready yet.

Yesterday Mrs. Curley and I walked around the property and figured out our plans for this year-where we will keep the turkeys, meat birds, rabbits (yes, we will try them again-and to boot, rabbits are not regulated.) etc. I think we have a good plan. Now to get it working.

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Am working today also to make sure Requiem Press book Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church by Russell Shaw gets back into print. We sold the last copy of the 2nd printing this past fall. We hope to have it back for sale by mid-February.

And we have at least one other book targeted for early 2010. More on this later.

Oremus pro invicem!

pigtures to share

Appropriately on the weekend enclosing the feast of St. Anthony the Great (patron of swine-herders), we slaughtered and butchered two hogs. Of course we had some help and some beer (which also helped.)

Here is number three son with one of the skinned hogs, just before evisceration. Not to brag (well, okay maybe to brag) but, the hog I helped to skinn, we took the skin off in one piece with the head; so it looked like a pigskin rug. The picture is too blurry to include, but take my word for it-it's a work of art.

The deep freeze was too much for some of my greens. With two weeks of deep freeze (not to mention us being under the weather for one of those weeks) some things have gotten behind. We need to move some pigs, build some fence, and resurrect a farrowing area (due in Feb) in addition to playing catch up on other maintenance. Lots to do.

Oremus pro invicem!

Just one demonstration that we are doing much better: Number 4 Son decided to do some sliding on the ice this morning (instead of tending his chickens) and wound up falling and having his front teeth go completely through his lower lip. His comment? "I hope the blood stains don't come out of my pants and gloves."

So, thankfully we are almost back to normal. A few coughs linger.

It is still cold, but we are supposed to get a break today. One thing about homesteading in SC, you don't just bundle up in the cabin and wait till spring. You can grow year-round. Although I think this recent deep freeze probably ended at least some of the greens.

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Changing gears, reading this piece at Inside Catholic on booing in Church reminded me of something I read in Monti's life of Thomas More (albeit the subject is different). Erasmus writes of More's children:

And if the priest has babbled something foolish, something impious, or something otherwise improper for a preacher-which we see happening frequently nowadays-they know whether to laugh or to ignore it or to express their indignation. Now that's the way to hear a sermon! -Eramus letter dated 1521

It would seem from context that the "indignation" is openly expressed. I have read (although can't place my hands on where) of other saints standing up during a homily and correcting a priest for uttering heresy during a sermon. I believe the situation in the link may have been somewhat different, but touches on the point of what is appropriate during Mass. Do we keep quiet in respect for the Eucharist even if the preacher is disrespectful in preaching heresy? Is this the proper "English" thing to do? Fortunately I haven't faced this situation in years.

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Speaking of Thomas More, a few years ago Requiem Press was going to come out with a new (never before published in the states-but reprinted from an English work) biography of my favorite saint. We are hoping this is the year this effort comes to fruition. Stay tuned.

Oremus pro invicem!

So, the kids have been sick (low fever, high cough) for a week or more now. Mrs. Curley and I have undertaken all the livestock chores during that time. We've had fun working together alone. We've been working hard, and our tired old bodies are feeling a little sore. (It is good for us to do all the work occasionally. It lets us see how much work the kids do, and what improvements shoudl be made to the system.)

With the cold weather, we've been breaking up ice and lugging water to the pigs and chickens 2-3 more times per day than is usual. And we've been constantly refreshing the straw bedding in the livestock housing to keep all the animals warm during this cold snap. (Our hay supplier had extra straw and has delivered several round bales to us for free this past week.)

Last night snow (flurries) were predicted, but we got barely a sprinkle. For the first time in a week, the water troughs were not frozen this morning.

We hope the kids are on the mend, cause Mrs. Curley and I are fading quickly with our own coughs (no fevers yet.)

Oremus pro invicem!

Coooooooooooold!

At least for SC. And it is supposed to get colder-down to 10 overnight on Sunday. (A neighbor claims it was 8F early this morning-but not here.)

Now that the 12 days are over, I may start posting a bit again. In the cold weather, keeping the livestock's water from freezing-even during the day has been a challenge. We don't have heated waterers...afterall, it is SC.

We still have not mailed Christmas cards, but I figure we have til February 2nd to do so. Our tree will be up until then at least.

To work! Oremus pro invicem!

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!

The turkey is on ice. We have the house pretty clean, plumbing problems sort of resolved, the dryer sort of working, the ceiling for the living room is out in the garage (hoping for a quick install in the morning).

We've been selling piglets-but have a couple left.

I treat you to a picture of our turkeys (above) and a few pigs still here from our first two litters (white pig born in April, about 220 lbs in this picture; the black one born in July). (Isn't the black one a real beauty?) We've had rain (thankfully) for the last few days, making the hog pens a challenge to keep dry....
Oremus pro invicem!

Job, dryers and pigs!

As I struggled with the dryer this week and now some plumbing problems (I had the water shut off half the day yesterday wrestling with a leaky toilet and broken valve-neither which is completely fixed, as of the present writing, but is "under control"-that is the water to the bathroom is capped off until I get some more stuff), I felt called to read some of the book of Job this morning-and now everything seems to be in perspective.

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Speaking of the dryer, I will report the intermediate conclusion of this saga. After speaking again with the folks at RepairClinic.com yesterday, they are sending me a replacement coil for the heating element free of charge. These folks and their website has been very helpful in fixing our appliances here over the years. This is the first problem I had with something I purchased from them, and they resolved it fairly. I do recommend them and will be going to them again.

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Finally, pigs for sale! From 2 litters, one born in August (the white pigs) and the other in September. Here are a couple pictures of the piglets at various stages of life - the black piglets only being a day or so old in this picture. Email me (on the sidebar) if you are interested in any. Several are already reserved, so don't wait. (Our next litter is not due until January.)

Oremus pro invicem!

Traditional feast of St. Stanilaus Kotska

Not to belabor my last post, but 10 years ago today we buried my father, Stanley Curley, on his name saint's feast day. Both on the 9th and the 13th of November every year we pray the Office of the Dead.

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The dryer is down. Visitors here will notice the clotheslines hanging in the 'den' as we've had a welcome (but untimely, considering the dryer) run of rain and cloudy weather. I replaced the heating element in the dryer at the end of May. It starting failing again in September, but I wouldn't believe it was the heating element. Turns out it was, and the company I bought it from won't replace it; the manufacturer only warranties 90 days. But clearly the new heating element was defective. I am trying to get the company I purchased it from to discuss the matter with the manufacturer on my behalf. We'll see how this goes. You only have to replace a heating element a few times before you could've bought yourself a brand new dryer.

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Got a new sow this week. She isn't what I planned to get, but the price was right, she's both young and proven, and she looks healthy. We'll see how it goes.

Work to do ..... Oremus pro invicem!

I can't believe it has been 10 years (today) since my Dad died. May his soul rest in peace!

Oremus pro invicem!

Whew

....It's been a long time. Not that there has been a lack of things to write about. All Saints Day has come and gone. (Great gathering here of just a few families. Prayer, games, food - our first turkey!-I played St. Isadore the farmer this year.)

All Souls has come and gone also. Usually I plug Requiem Press 's Daily Prayers for the Church Suffering and offer deep discounts on quantity purchases. Not this year. We have only a few left. We originally printed 6,000 in the summer of 2004. We have sold many, but have given the rest away-one in every order shipped. I hope they have done some good. I'd like to reprint, but don't have the money. Perhaps we'll print it in-house as we do on a few other items.

But don't forget the holy souls just because I can't sell you 100 copies (we still do have enough to sell in quantities of 10 or less, at least for now.)

We also passed our 5-year mark on the blog in mid-October. I wish I had more time to devote to the blog, but now the homestead work is quite demanding of time. (Today for instance I need to distribute straw to housing, cut some piglets, start separating peanuts from plants, ... and it goes on.)

But I will leave you with a reading suggestion: on hardware stores at Front Porch Republic . My comment after reading the article was:

We still have a small hardware store and an independent feed store. The big boxes are 30 minutes or more away. My wife knows a trip to the feed or hardware store 2 miles from the homestead will more often than not be long-winded. We talk politics and business and farming. Its not just talk. The livelihood of many of the folks who stop and talk depend on these centers of the community. We get to know who can help with what and who we can help. Our small town needs more revival, but it still has life, but a low enough population that the big boxes will stay away for at least a bit longer as “real” jobs are almost an hour away.

(Is it okay to quote yourself from another blog-or is this just the height of vanity?)

Pray for the Holy Souls and have a great week.

Oremus pro invicem!

Of animals

We have now hit 3 deers with 3 different cars in less than 5 years. I should call our fleet of cars deer magnets. I hit a buck on Route 1 just north of Camden on Monday. The grill and right headline are gone. The radiator is bent and was knocked back into the serpentine belt. Fortunately (and miraculously) the radiator did not leak. I had a piece of wire in the truck and tied the radiator back to the front of the engine compartment. And it made it home okay. Don't have comprehensive on the '87 truck, so I am on my own. I figure a new radiator isn't that hard to install and I can pick up a grill at a junk yard.

I would have put the buck in the back of the pick up and brought it home (I did kill it) but I had a 200lb pig (another story) in the back of the truck and had no room.

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Goats were born last year on number 2 daughters birthday; our cow calved on my birthday this year; our roving gamecock hen hatched 5 bitties on number 3 daughter's birthday this October. I guess this isn't so coincidental considering how much livestock we have around here, but it is interesting.

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Today it is official, I now have 3 teenage boys in the house. God is good.

Oremus pro invicem!

We have a gilt from our July 23rd litter which we were keeping for our own freezer-but boy she looks too good to eat. I have never seen a pig at this age have so much definition. Her growth is good also. She would make a fine addition to someone's herd. I'll try to remember to post a picture of 'Blackie" (some people around here think she should be named "Inkie", however being bound, at present, for the freezer, it doesn't seem to matter much.)

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I am being interviewed on the Catholic Radio station here in SC today, around 2:30. Every year they broadcast live from the State Fair which opened yesterday. They re-broadcast the interviews during their radio-thon. I will be talking about Requiem Press and hopefully in particular pushing John Meehan's Two Towers-the de-Christianization of America and a plan for renewal.

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Our cow is Irish-Catholic although she was raised Baptist. I know because when milking her she is most quiet during my singing (and I have not a good voice) of Danny Boy, Praise My Soul the King of Heaven, and Haily Holy Queen.

Oremus pro invicem!