Oreo!

One of our new gilts, Oreo, farrowed last night. 4 litters on the ground right now!

God is good!

Oremus pro invicem!

Notes

Red farrowed 2 days ago. Patch followed last night. I have 3 pregnant gilts - one may be due on or around April 2. But I have no more farrowing pens ready. Get to work!!!

We also are suddenly back in eggs, gathering 2 dozen last night. But we haven't finished the new chicken coop we want to move 2 groups into together. More work!!

We 1/2 butchered a large hog on Saturday - the other half is on ice and will get done Thursday this week - I hope!

The garden is going in slowly. Corn was planted last week. I have had broccoli, kale and Brussel sprouts in for a few weeks and more started along with some spinach. I planted a few peas on Saturday. I started Roma and cherry tomatoes this weekend. I need to remember to bring all the starters in today as we are having another cold snap this week.

This all sounds like a lot of work, but it is a most satisfying kind of work, especially when done with together with family. 

There seems there is never enough time in the Spring to get everything done (still cutting wood for next winter) but God gives us just enough time if we use it wisely. I pray I do.

We are doing a novena to St. Joseph - what happens if you miss a day? God is not an accountant, but ....

Oremus pro invicem!

Why Can't I use what I have?

 Why Can't I use what I have?

Root coming due: UPDATE

Last night Root gave birth to 11 live pigs. All doing well this morning.

I don't think she is due until the 26th (just after we are due to have a catastrophic ice storm), but she is definitely coming along. We finished refurbishing (and strengthening - as she is an escape artist) her new farrowing pen and moved her into it on Saturday.

Oremus pro invicem!

of cows

My son gave me a new Buck knife for Christmas - I broke the tip off my last one doing some plumbing. But this just isn't any knife. It has a quote of sorts, referencing a comment I made during an interview which aired last year on an EWTN series on homesteading; I mentioned in this post. My part was very quick and very minor, but my memorable comment lives on at least for some .....

Oremus pro invicem!

Merry Christmas!!

The obligatory picture of our tree! 

Today on the feast of the Holy Family, Father J reiterated the constant and consistent Church teaching on the definition of marriage, the sanctity of life from the moment of conception, and the obligation of children to care for their elderly parents. 

I was surprised, but heartened, that the third was included with the first two.

Oremus pro invicem!

Work & Play

 This essay caught my eye this morning. 

Wading in a river and lumberjacking in the woods are at once work and play, play and work, ....especially that manual work is play.

I have to agree in many ways.

Lots has been happening here - but I see I have not posted since early October. All the little pigs are gone now to new homes, but waiting for more soon. 

We held a square dance/hog roast after Thanksgiving, and that was work ... and play!

Oremus pro invicem!

Little Red!!

 Yesterday Little Red looked pretty ready ....

Last night/early this morning she gave birth ...

Oremus pro invicem!

Patch has another litter!

 First of the fall litters this weekend.  

Oremus pro invicem!

Delicious!

 Crown roast the other night. Cooked beautifully! Thanks Mrs. Curley!

Oremus pro invicem!

Full House

In the past week we have acquired some chicks (bargain roosters - more on this later), turkey poults, a few feeder pigs, a couple new gilts to add to the herd, and some dairy cross beef bull calves.

Morning and evening chores just tripled in time with this past week acquisitions. 

We have been quickly running out of beef (thus the bull calves). Besides, as far as revitalizing the land, cows do go the most!

We can't keep up with demand for piglets - thus the new gilts, which will be ready to enter the breeding herd in about 3 months. 

The turkeys - well we need something for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner!

The bargain rooster chicks .... First, they were a deal. Second, we have seen our land losing fertility with the dearth of livestock. This would seem to be fixed now, but we didn't know we would be getting new calves and pigs when we go the chicks. So our plan was/is to put the 39 chicks in chicken tractors and move them across future garden space to re-fertilize the land. At 5 or 6 months old, we will either sell or butcher the roosters. Still the plan.

In September we will probably get some new chicks to replace our laying flock for the spring. With all the new life around here, it almost seems like Spring instead of the doldrums of Summer.

Oremus pro invicem!

EWTN: On Good Soil

 Check out the series airing this week M-F (July 7 - 11) at 5:30 PM (Encore at 2:30 AM) 

Jason Craig compares and contrasts modern suburban home life and the homestead, noting which lifestyle leads to families working together and which tends to drive families apart.

Host Jason Craig describes how homesteaders participate in a natural economy and indicates St. Thomas Aquinas’ warning against a false economy centered on wealth accumulation.

Oremus pro invicem!

The Clock

I made this clock for my Dad over 30 years ago. This past year, with both Mom and Dad passed, it was returned to me, but it was not working. 

I put a new battery in, but it didn't turn. So I started looking for a new clock insert. The face is 8" diameter requiring a 3.125" mounting hole.

The place I originally ordered it from doesn't carry any inserts over 4" in diameter now. I found another place which had an 8.5" face, but it required a 7" mounting hole. 8.5" would have looked too big, and of course would have required some reworking of the mounting hole. The same store had a 6" face with the proper mounting. But, I think 6" would have looked lost on the clock - and besides, the beauty of an 8" face is that it can be seen easily from across the room.

What to do?

Well, I put a new battery in again and then tapped it a couple times. It has been keeping good time since!

Oremus pro invicem!

Taking care of chickens?

Fox News has an article  today about the increase in people buying plans for DIY chicken coops and chickens.

In the article they quote Kate Murphy, animal preserve caretaker at Hoyt Farm Town Park in Long Island, New York. She cautions:

"Owning any animal is a lot of work, but chickens are a huge responsibility," she said.

"You must take into consideration that your feathered friends may be around a while," she long while" she said. 

"If you are like most Americans and looking to raise chickens for fresh eggs, hens can lay eggs for two to three years at the most and then enter retirement, which they most definitely deserve, because egg laying is brutal on the hen's body."

Murphy said chickens "need love" once they're done laying eggs.

But perhaps the biggest commitment is financial, according to Murphy — who noted that avian veterinarians are "not cheap."

Let's take this one point at a time. 

1. Chickens are probably the easiest of homestead animals to take care of after you have the coop set up. You water and feed them. You collect eggs.

2. What chickens need after they "retire" from laying eggs, is a good pot to cook in!

3. An avian vet? I am sure there are some people who will bring their laying hen to a vet, but I have never met one of those people.

Oremus pro invicem!

Early man to older man

I have been reading (for a year at least?) Wendell Berry's "The Need to be Whole".  I read this passage the other morning:

I am unsure how much I have felt of the settled and sustained hatred of the feuding families of old, or of the haters of "the deep state" or "the new Confederacy," but when I was young and could spare the energy I felt plenty of personal dislike and anger, which I enjoyed very much. I learned eventually that such emotions use up a lot of energy and so are weakening. They also are powerfully distracting. They distort one's sense of what is real and necessary and valuable.

This was clearly me. I was full of anger and energy "fighting" the left when I was young - and I enjoyed it. But it was weakening and a bad use of my energy - which I needed to be a good husband and father.

Oremus pro invicem!

I do not regularly assist at a TLM. My feelings on the TLM and the Novus Ordo and Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgy have nothing to do with this post. Yesterday I read:

The Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina will significantly restrict the practice of the Traditional Latin Mass, limiting it to a single chapel in what Bishop Michael Martin said is a bid to “promote the concord and unity of the Church." 

But won't the result of this move be exactly opposite of the stated purpose? It will promote dissension and division within the Church.

With TLM being celebrated in a parish, a number of positives occur. First, often the parish priest is celebrating both the TLM and the NO, therefore he gets to know both congregations, and can influence both to unity. 

In a parish setting, occasionally (just for practical purposes) some of the TLM community will occasionally assist at the NO and vice versa. In a parish where the TLM is celebrated, most likely the NO is being celebrated correctly and reverently.

Finally, the community will cross over during parish activities: the annual picnic, ccd, pro-life groups. etc.

All these things promote understanding, concord, and unity in the parish and in the Church in general.

But isolate one community? You are dividing the Church purposely - probably with the ultimate motive of suppressing the TLM community. 

Oremus pro invicem!

Root

UPDATE: 10 total. 

Root is in the middle of her farrowing right now. We went out to mover her to her farrowing pen ... oops! She had already given birth to 3. We move her anyway and she gave birth to 2 more a few minutes after the move. Now waiting on the rest....

Oremus pro invicem!

It has been busy and challenging

We are doing some interior renovations to increase our accommodations - at the same time trying not to get behind on planting. We did manage to plant some cucumbers, pumpkins, green beans and cantaloupe in the last week or so.

We picked some cabbage this week, our first peas of the season, and have put up broccoli twice. The gardens are looking great, with more to go.

But renovations have to continue to move forward - you can't live easily in a house under construction work. And there are deadlines.

On top of all this, we are still mourning Mom. 

Oremus pro invicem!

Pigs and Confimation ...

 Little Red had a litter on May 2nd. All doing well. 

Doing some cleaning out and found this gem from my father's Confirmation, which happened to occur on this 14th birthday.

Oremus pro invicem!

Requiescat in Pace.

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Mary Teresa (Shaw) Curley who passed from this life in the early morning hours this morning. (1932-2025). She was beloved mother of 12 including myself. Grandmother of 35? and great-grandmother of 6.

Fr. John O'Holohan a former pastor of mine, used to say if a mother had at least 3 boys, she had a straight ticket to Heaven. My Mom had 4 (plus 8 girls.)

May her soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace.

Oremus pro invicem!