The Homestead

It surprised me to see an updated satellite image of our homestead on Google the other day. This was taken in April of 2012 I am guessing. I can tell because of the cars present and the configuration of the plantings and pig houses. And it was in the spring as you can see in the field adjoining the property that some plowing has been done, but not finished. You can even tell we had the horse out that day because of the dark, just turned soil compared to the soil next to it.

In the front yard on the top side of the property you can see garden near the road, but also some pens with houses-last year we moved many of the pigs to the front yard.

Our milk cow (cows at the time) and bull and barn are located on the South side of the house (next to the house in lower portion of the photo).

On the South side in the back we still have a couple farrowing pens, but the rest was planted in sweet corn (which we picked June 1st last year and are still eating). The fences are still up as you can tell, but no housing.

Lots of things have changed since this photo. - Oremus pro invicem!

My latest wrting effort can be found: http://catholiclane.com/prayer-life-growing-pains/ . It's about trying to maintain a family prayer life as the children get older and busier, working etc. Enjoy it.

Here's a preview:

So on May 29th we surprisingly (and unexpectedly) had everyone at home in the evening. I had spent all day under my oldest son’s truck working on a very stubborn bolt while trying to change the starter. I had been struggling with this bolt for several days and was close to the end of my options. He really needed his truck back on the road for work, and in fact was off work because of the truck. As I was giving it my final effort, I thought about May and Mary, and how everyone was home. I made a promise, “Mother in Heaven, if you let me get this bolt now, I promise a May crowning today.” Then I started putting force on the lever and heard Nick shout, “It’s turning!” Sure enough that bolt came out. I told Nick of my promise, but cautioned him, “I only made the promise based on the bolt turning, not that installing a new starter will get the truck rolling again.” But Our Lady was generous. 10 minutes later the new starter was installed and the truck cranking.

Oremus pro invicem!

Four Types ....

I remember going to see the 1973 re-release of The Sound of Music in the theater as a child. I had a fleeting familiarity with the story-a family of singers who fled the Nazis by walking over the Alps. I thought and hoped the movie would be a chase through the wilderness. Initially disappointed that it was not the wilderness adventure, I still thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was.

Watching The Sound of Music on TV became a yearly event in my house growing up. It remains a great musical and tale, even if it is highly unhistorical. Do read Maria von Trapp’s The Story of the Trapp Family Singers for a wonderful story steeped in the Catholic culture of this family.

Several weeks ago, when we watched the movie as a family on VHS, my wife and I saw the movie in a new light, as an allegory for what is and has been happening in these United States for the past few years. Four characters in the movie (some fictional) illustrate four types of Americans and our country’s increasingly inevitable path to depravity.

Herr Zeller (played by Ben Wright) is an Austrian apologist for the Third Reich and enthusiastically welcomes the Nazi takeover.

Max Detweiler (played by Richard Haydn) is a friend of the von Trapp family, musical talent scout and apolitical. He doesn’t particularly like the Nazis but is keen on avoiding bloodshed and confrontation.

Captain Georg von Trapp (played by Christopher Plummer) is a retired Austrian naval hero and adamantly opposed to the Nazis.

Rolfe (played by Daniel Truhitte) is a young Austrian caught up in the new order.

All these men are Austrian, but each respond differently to the Nazi takeover of Austria. Herr Zeller facilitates it; Max Detweiler watches it, as first with distaste, but cooperates with it as inevitable*; Captain von Trapp resists it and finally flees in order to avoid cooperation; Rolfe joins the takeover, believing the lies and promises that a ‘new order’ will bring to society.

In America today we have these four characters: those who would destroy the moral order and force all others to accept the destruction; those who watch at first with disapproval or indifference, but then capitulate; those who resist and are increasingly the subject of marginalization and ridicule; and those young people who believe the lies, possibly because their teachers and even their parents belong to one of the first two groups.

I don’t tend to pessimism, but I think we have passed the crossroads. The new path is being chosen at an increasingly alarming rate. The time for penance is here. (It has been here for some time, but too many of us have ignored it.) The time for suffering is just around the corner.

Each of us must decide who we are in this cultural war and reform our life accordingly. If we don’t actively choose resistance in our words and deeds, we will become Max Detweiler, if we haven’t already, and our youth will become Rolfe.

This is a call to arms-or more accurately, a call to get on our knees. Our only recourse is prayer, penance, and Christian action; that is to say, personal holiness. It is always the same, but it can’t be restated too often.

*Max Detweiler does, in the end, facilitate the von Trapps’ escape, but his overall character is one of capitulation. I don’t think the viewer is expected to view this act as permanent conversion on Max’s part to become an Austrian patriot.

Oremus pro invicem!

In September 2008 I made a proposal on this blog about a Catholic Trade School for men. Nothing ever happened after that initial proposal except a few positive comments here and there. But the idea has never completely left my head. Every time I pass the abandoned motel on the outskirts of town I think, “That would make a good residence hall for the school”. And every time I pass the old high school down the street sitting on 20+ acres, I think, “That would make an ideal campus.”

So here is a re-cap of the problem and a possible solution for some.

Many Catholic young men either have no means and/or no desire to attend a 4 year degree program, yet these men still need more than a high school education in liberal arts and the Faith and need a skill or trade so they can provide for themselves, their family, and to live a life giving proper glory to God. It would also be beneficial for these young men to experience a Catholic cultural environment.

The solution could be a 2-year trade school for high school graduates which both teaches a trade and prepares young men with the knowledge and spiritual tools to be a Catholic man (and father) in today’s world.

The proposal: A 2-year school (post high school) for men which had a core-curriculum of theology, philosophy, history of western civ and classic literature, social teaching of the Catholic Church (i.e. Rerum Noverum) and a course in practical arts (cross-training the basics of the trades to follow). Majors would be in a trade: Electrician, Plumbing, Carpentry/Cabinet making (both with hand and power tools), Agriculture/animal husbandry, Butchering, Engine Repair (car and small engine), as well as a course in running a small trade/farm as a business.

I would envision the campus to have student housing and a permanent chaplain and chapel. The spiritual life of the school would include daily Mass, some of the hours prayed in chapel, community meals, and at least weekly adoration and rosary.

The school could have some income by selling services (student mechanics, electricians etc.) and produce/meat to the local area. A somewhat rural location with low property costs, but with some access to great population centers (possibly apprenticeships?) would be ideal.

Finally, while the students would board at the school, at the end of the course, men would be urged to return to their family and community of origin.

Besides start-up expenses for the physical campus, the equipment and tools needed for teaching each trade would be a barrier.

A number of men who also believe in this model need to be sought out to form a board of founders so work can be begin on establishing such a school.

Oremus pro invicem!

So our corn was up, but our roaming game chickens went and destroyed it. My fault! I like to have 1 or 2 gamecocks and about 8 hens at the beginning of Spring. These provide enough chicken for us as each hen will set and hatch twice or three times during the season (each clutch averaging about 8-12 chicks).Come February, if we have too many hens, we either put them in the freezer or sell them. This year we had some 25 hens and 7 or so roosters left. We whittled down the roosters some, but did nothing about the hens….yet.

Replanting the sweet corn today. But we did harvest our first broccoli yesterday for supper, and I notice flowers on the peas!

We have our small crop of peanuts in the ground and are in the process of plowing the leased acreage next door. Since my two oldest sons are working most of the time, I am taking my share of time behind the horse plow. Things are going well.

Oremus pro invicem!

Corns up. Broccoli is making. Peas are looking great. Still cutting & splitting wood.  Fixing chainsaws, tillers, engines-business picking up a little bit. Will be planting peanuts by the end of this week. We start plowing for the sweet sorghum crop tomorrow.Had our spring square dance this past Saturday. Cooked 1/2 hog on the grill and danced and danced. (Actually I am the very amateur caller, but, being the caller, I don't dance much.) Mrs. Curley is laid up with bone spurs, so I had to Virginia Reel with my youngest daughter-but what a treat. (To see me VA reel with Mrs. Curley, see the cover picture on the song in the post below.Sold three of our sows 2 weeks ago, including our 8 litter old-timer Big Spot. We still have our best sow Harry and a gilt we will think about as the future sow. One sow provides us with all the pork we need plus a little extra. Scaling down a bit will give us more land to plant on.Oremus pro invicem!

a song

Here's a new song written and performed by my son Matt Curley. Hope you enjoy it. The picture is mrs curley and I doing the Virginia Reel at our square dance some years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

Oremus pro invicem!

In looking back, I believe one of John Paul II’s primary missions (or what he accomplished) was announcing the Gospel to the world, to everyone, but especially to young people; “Do not be afraid to follow Christ”, is the line I heard and remember from John Paul on the Boston Common in 1979. Maybe he wasn’t a great manager, but his preaching around the world is responsible for many, many good vocations to the priesthood and religious life as well as many devout Catholic families who directly trace their catholicity to the preaching of John Paul II.

To say Benedict XVI wasn’t humble because his papal wardrobe is just ignorant. (However TS and Amy Welborn are ahead of me on this.) Further, Benedict’s papacy was not a failure as many would have us believe. The Church’s job won’t be accomplished during any one papacy. History will tell of Benedict’s contribution to reforming the liturgy and beginning the reunification of Christian churches.

To say (as the media says) that Pope Francis election is a repudiation of the papacies of both Benedict XVI and John Paul II seems to be very ignorant or very wishful thinking.

And to the media and poorly catechized Catholics who are being interviewed all over the place who think that because Pope Francis isn’t Benedict XVI and loves the poor that he will change the Church’s moral and doctrinal teachings (most especially with respect to artificial contraception and women priests) I can only say they don’t know anything about the papacy or the Catholic Church.

There, I have gotten it off my chest. I am excited about Pope Francis, but I was excited about both John Paul and Benedict. I have hopes that Pope Francis will reform (rebuild) the Church and continue the Evangelization of all men with his own talents and charisma; but it comes down to Pope Francis’ response the Holy Spirit. Thus I need to pray for him and the Church.

Since I am getting things off my chest, here is something else which has been on my mind:

As Catholics, do we still believe in Purgatory? The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraphs 1030 to 1032 would seem to very clearly affirm the doctrine of Purgatory.

Then why is it never preached?

Maybe the subject doesn’t come up very often in Scripture and is thus not preached during most homilies, but at funerals?

Is the funeral Mass just for the consolation of the living? Or is it being offered for the deceased’s soul? Or may be the funeral Mass is both for the living and the dead.

And why would a funeral Mass be offered for the deceased’s soul if everyone goes straight to Heaven?

I ask because I have gone to many funeral Masses over the years, both for family members who have died and because my sons have served as altar boys at many funeral Masses over the years. Yet only one priest has mentioned Purgatory in all those funerals. Mostly I hear about the deceased looking down from Heaven at his gathered family and friends.

A funeral Mass is an opportunity for the priest to teach about what happens when we die. In this way we can be reminded both on how to continue to help the deceased on his way to Heaven with prayers for his soul and also be reminded of the possibly destiny of our own soul.

It may seem awkward or even uncharitable to tell family members that their departed loved one may still be suffering, but in reality it is uncharitable to withhold the truth-the truth that their departed loved one may still be suffering on his way to a Heavenly reward, but that they can help relieve his suffering and speed his path.

Purgatory is a mercy from God-without it few would reach those pearly gates. To cover-up God’s mercy is not merciful or charitable.

How many languish in Purgatory because no one is praying for them?

How many of the living will later languish in Purgatory because we believe we will go straight to Heaven upon our death?

Oremus pro invicem!

Cutting wood, cutting wood, cutting wood. This describes much of my days these days. My neighbor is thinning his pine forest and there are many hardwoods interspersed. The race is on. I need to get as much as I can before he burns the rest so he can replant pine. Most of it is cherry and oak. We have been taking it out in 3-4 foot sections to be cut to size and split later. I think we have more than enough cut for next year and the year after. My chain saw has been getting a workout. I think it is near to the point of needing some refurbishing (new sprocket and chain). I have gone through three chains (actually 2.5) since September. Just shows how much I have been cutting. I have another saw which I plan to refurbish for next season-an Echo- which also needs a new sprocket, chain and bar.


I did put in broccoli, brussel sprouts, Swiss Chard, Romaine Lettuce and a few rows of peas (early Alaskan and sugar snaps) last week. We needed to re-plow and harrow some of the garden-which is now done. I plan to put in a whole lot more peas by weeks end.

Last year I started planting corn by this time (picking our first corn on 1 June). This winter has not been very harsh, but it is certainly hanging on longer than last year. It will be a few more weeks before the sweet corn goes in, much to my relief, I have so much to do before then.

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I am writing a book! How to Slaughter and Butcher a Pig. I have it about 70% written, but have lots of figures and pictures to add. I am hoping it will be available (at least electronically) by the end of the summer. I haven’t figured out yet how and where I will sell it, or if I will offer a print version.

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Mrs. Curley and I plan to end our Lent by doing an at-home, eight day retreat (1- hour per day) based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Pray it goes well and that we succeed in setting aside the time required (the real challenge.)

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Number One son is working all kinds of hours as an EMT to pay for college-Wyoming Catholic-which he will be starting in the fall. He has worked hard for 2 years. We will miss him around here-but he works so much, we already miss him.

Oremus pro invicem!

Getting the garden ready

Today the boys plowed up the garden area as I need to get some brocolli, romaine lettuce, Swiss Chard, Kolrobi, early peas in the ground.

We haven't started plowing up the leased field yet, but this garden work will get Old Man (the horse) in shape. This year we are thinking about sunflowers (seeds are great for lactating cows) and sweet sorghum (syrup, grain for hogs, and fodder). Lots of work.

Our gilt Henri (daughter of Harry-get the trend) had her first litter today-maybe still in process. Last check she had between 10 and 12 piglets.

Another great day!

Oremus pro invicem!

What’s up with gas prices? Two weeks ago I could find gas for $3.14/gal. This morning I saw $3.75 (although I bought gas for $3.50).

Butchered our bull (800+ lbs) this past week after ascertaining that our Jersey was bred. I am really hoping for a heifer (well, we always do). But this time especially, as the bull was a Brown Swiss cross. My favorite milk cow was part Brown Swiss.

The slaughter and butcher went well, especially considering we had only one extra hand helping. The weather cooperated too-giving us three days to hang at least two quarters before butchering. But I am surely glad it is over. After Batman 2 weeks ago and the bull this past week, I don’t want to see anything over 300 lbs for a while.

I saved the loin for steaks and the brisket for corned beef (and of course the tongue). I also cut a half dozen or so roasts, but the majority was put to ground beef. Alas our grinder appears to be broken with about 20 lbs left to grind.

I am disappointed in the grinder. We only had it a year or so. With most hogs, we are only grinding 20 or so pounds in a given day. With the bull, we were careful to grind only about 40 lbs at a time before giving it a good rest. But apparently even this was too much for it. Friends of ours had the same model and it also broke after grinding about 30-40 pounds. Industrial meat grinders really cost ….

Oremus pro invicem!

Pictures

Here's a repost of a picture of one of our gamecocks and hens from last year. And below that a shot of our newest litter (we had 2 last week) nursing. And below that, some more work being done on 'Batman' with some friends watching-they didn't just watch, this was a great effort by all.

Oremus pro invicem!

'Batman'

Yesterday we slaughtered and dressed 'Batman'. He was a very special hog: raised on cream (1/2 gallon per day), peanuts, and grain. We felt he was too big to process this summer, and then things (including warm winter) prevented us from doing this sooner. As you can see, he is/was a monster.

 

 

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Our Chimney Sweep

We need to clean our chimney (a zero clearance stove pipe extending up our brick chimney) once a month. It involves getting in behind the wood stove and into the old fireplace opening, blindly removing the waste cap, and then brushing the chimney with our chimney brush.

 

Because I am not a flexible as I used to be (and possibly too rotund-but this hasn't been definitively determined) one of our boys graciously volunteers. The question around here is whether this is a before or after picture?

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Rest in Peace

In the early hours of this morning, my bride's grandfather passed away. He was a WWII veteran, seeing action in the Atlantic on PT boats. More importantly he was a father and husband (60+ years), and grandfather. He died with rosary in hand.

 

We pray for the soul of Norman Hoyt and for the consolation of his family.

 

May the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.

This is the major time of the year for us to process poultry. Of course one first thinks of turkeys. This year we didn’t purchase any turkey chicks. We instead bought a couple breeding pairs of Bronze turkeys (although one is part Bourbon Red) last year. Each hen hatched and raised several turkeys. While there were some losses, those losses weren’t as expensive as those chicks purchased from a hatchery. On the other hand, the raised turkeys are not as big as the Large White commercial breed we’ve raised in the past. We will select the largest for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Additionally, it is time for the major harvesting of our gamecock flock. Last year we ended the fall with 35 game hens and 20 or so gamecocks. We kept 3 roosters and 8 hens from last year and they did their job laying, hatching, and raising their own biddies. (We even had two hens hatch clutches in the past two weeks.) But once again it is time to thin the flock and fill the freezer with chicken.

We usually spread the harvest out over a few weeks and thus have been doing a few chickens at a time. These chickens rustle all their own food and water from our small holding. They taste great, especially if you don’t let them get too old.

One tip: before putting poultry in the freezer, it should be aged in the fridge for a couple days to ensure tenderness.

On this (traditional) feast of St. Stanislaus Koska – Oremus pro invicem!

Open for Business!

Logs and Hogs!

Still cutting wood. I think we might have enough for the winter, but am not sure. Last winter was so mild, it is hard to judge what we’ll need this year. Folks in the area have been so good, letting us cut up downed trees on their property. My goal is to get way ahead of the game. After all, I won’t have sons to split wood the rest of my life.

This year, with my two oldest sons working in most of their free time (oldest as an EMT saving for college and number 2 at the hardware store) my number 3 son has split virtually every piece of wood we will burn this winter, and number 4 son has stacked virtually every log we will burn. Of course, I haven’t been idle-I man the chainsaw.

I’ve done a 5-month stint on the local quail farm. This will be ending in another few days. The extra income was welcome, but at a cost. Our own homestead suffered with the quail commitment, which was not quite as advertised. I didn’t have time to plant the Crowder peas we on planned our leased acreage (but we did get a good peanut crop), and I didn’t get a fall garden in for the first time in eight years.

We have two new endeavors in-the-making. First is my small engine repair shop which I think I mentioned a few months ago. It never got off the ground with the quail farm in the mix. But this week the sign will go up out front, and we’ll be in business!

And then there’s the pigs … In the past we have sold mostly weaned piglets, keeping just enough to fill our own freezer. This fall we are raising most of our last two litters to sell as either bbq hogs (~ 120 lbs or so) or as butcher hogs (~ 230 lbs. or so.) We will sell these hogs and deliver them to the butcher of the customer’s choice. The customer pays us for the hog and pays the butcher for the desired cuts of meat. The goal is to get great tasting pork into customers’ hands for about $2.75-$3.00 per pound.

In fact, I have started a facebook page (never thought I'd do that!) to let local pork lovers know about this unique opportunity. The current crop of pigs will be raised on peanuts, dairy, produce (when available) and grain. This pork will have a great flavor.

Finally, the coming presidential election … oh I can’t say anything good, so I won’t say anything.

Oremus pro invicem!

What have I been doing?  Working and cutting wood for the winter.  Since last posting, we've had 2 litters of pigs and one bull calf.  Been working on thinning out the livestock to the necessity as feed prices are going through the roof.

Oremus pro invicem!

The View from My Front Porch

at Front Porch Republic:  http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2012/07/the-view-from-your-front-porch-8/

Oremus pro invicem!