More signs of job confusion

On Monday May 11, in South Carolina dine-in restaurants are allowed to open again.

On Sunday May 17th, in-person Sunday resumes with various provisions - (not from the State, but from the diocese and parishes); among them: Holy Communion is not to be received during Mass but as the faithful exit the church. AND confession is not allowed until sometime in June. (There is no reason Confession should have ever been cancelled!)

This makes sense?

Oremus pro invicem!

Echo

I have been using an Echo CS-440 chainsaw for years. We heat only with wood, so you can imagine how much I cut with my chainsaw each year (even if we do live in mild-winter SC.)

But I am behind this year (I usually try to have next winter's wood cut and split by the end of March. As of yesterday, I only had a couple weeks worth cut. My old saw needs a major overhaul - which I will do, but in the meantime, I need to be cutting wood.

I bought an Echo CS-400 today. A slight bit less powerful (displacement) but it was the one available, at a good price. (Probably would have opted for the CS-490, but it is hard to come by locally.)

I cut, split, and stacked almost a month's worth of wood this evening. The Echo was great, but the true test is whether I am still saying it is great in 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years, and 5 years.

BIG NEWS TODAY! In-person Mass resumes in our diocese on May 11. No word on confession returning.

Oremus pro invicem!

New Pigs

We sold most of our last litter very quickly and at a decent price. People quarantined start thinking of self-sufficiency. It was the same during the 2009 recession. I could not keep up with the demand for piglets. The demand went down as people went back to work. Thus it will be again.

Right now I have 1 sow. But I have a gilt bought as a piglet in December (?) to become a second sow. This week I bought a Hereford/Duroc cross gilt (piglet) to become a 3rd sow by the end of the year.

I am sure that demand will go down, but I think I will still be able to sell all the piglets I want.

Here is a picture of the new gilt. (Still in transport trailer. She joined a couple other pigs from our last litter in a generous and greeeeen pen.)

Oremus pro invicem!

Repost

Is it okay to repost things from your own blog?

My daughter was talking to me about her fear of planting seeds - her doubt as to whether they would ever come up. I pulled up the following for her from June 2009:

Faith is believing that seeds mature into plants that give fruit.

Hope is the expectation, based on your faith, that the seed you plant will mature into plants that give fruit.

But this hope will be fruitless unless the seeds and plants are tended with love.

Oremus pro invicem!

COVID 19 Thoughts

My son commented to me the other day that he doubted that during the Black Plague, everyone relaxed their penances - probably increased them. But we have Bishops telling us we can eat meat during Fridays in Lent cause things are so bad, we need relief.

And I note that Phil Lawler remarks that many Bishops have job confusion: 

“My number one priority as your archbishop is to ensure the safety and health of all who attend our Masses, the children in our schools, and those we welcome through our outreach and services,” Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington, DC, told his people. But that’s wrong. So clearly wrong, in fact, that it’s disturbing to see that sentence attributed to a bishop of the Catholic Church, whose number-one priority, always and everywhere, is the salvation of souls. The spiritual safety of the people is a bishop’s primary concern; everything else is secondary.

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We are told that we should stay home unless we are part of essential services or have an essential job. But I question this. I see trees being limbed and bushes trimmed on a closed campus'. I hear about minor road construction going on a closed campus - a campus where even faculty are not even allowed to retrieve items from their office. In fact I see all kinds of construction going on everywhere.

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In SC many small business' have been told to close, but big business' stay open. Why doesn't the govt order Walmart and Target to close all but their grocery and pharmacy - why do they get an unfair advantage?

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Lord have mercy on us!

Oremus pro invicem!

Jersey

There is no beef like Jersey beef. The hamburgers, the roasts, the steaks: all tender and delicious even when very lean. We (finally) put down one of our Jersey steers a couple weeks ago. With less help than in the past, it was a full day for me and Thomas. Then we butchered over the next two weeks. Hard work, but I think everyone thinks it was worth it.

I guess I am glad I am not Byzantine Rite. No meat or dairy during the great fast!

Oremus pro invicem!

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....

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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!