Repentance

Great time of year for it.

           https://youtu.be/03oFRvoqJlk         

 

Pork Chops

Wanting to celebrate Gaudete Sunday with some glad rejoicing at supper time, I pulled out some pork chops dinner.  

Not having cooked them a lot and wanting to do these guys justice, I called my pig farming buddy Fr. Jacob for some advice. He said chops like that need to be smoked low and slow. That's a foreign language to me.

My buddy Casey fattens hogs and gave us this fully processed pork. Thanks, brother. Muchas gracias! 

Not following Jacob's advice, I turned to the old standard cast iron skillet. 

After showering them with a little Lawry's first.

Once seared good on one side, I flipped them to the other. 

Meanwhile, I warmed the oven up to 400°.

Once seared, I placed them in the oven for eight minutes. 

Looked good from the outside.

And even better on the inside.

Good stuff, literally. I enjoy pork. Not ready to raise pigs, but I'm definitely happy to have one in the freezer. Special thanks to Casey and family for their generosity. We'll keep working at how to cook pork just right. In the meantime, we should stay pretty well fed. Rejoice! For our God comes to save us!

Long Game

 Rejoice through thick or thin.

             https://youtu.be/yHCZA1ufR0o           

December Trimming

Jack's roping arena grew one of the finest crops of Canadian Thistle I have ever seen. Average of 6' tall and thick! That's what happens when barren ground goes dormant. Use it or loose it.

I don't plan on going roping anytime soon, but I do want to use this pen to house some cows occasionally. Tending to these weeds has been a desire of mine all fall. However, this could be done at anytime compared with more weather sensitive needs. So we waited until the time was right and tackled it. 

First step was firing up ole Bobby. The dang thing sure starts good, even in cold weather. 

Pretty chilly today. No sun drove that point home. 

The plan was to brush hog it. I've seen these mower attachments for skid-steers but have never used one. So we rented one to find out how well they work. For starters, I'm really not very handy with a skid-steer. Hydraulic levers with my feet, confuse me. Another frustrating point is hooking up the hydraulic lines. Talk about a finger-pinching, knuckle-busting, make-you-want-to-cuss son of a gun! And yes, I did neutralize the lines before attempting a hook up. We got it, enough said.

This guy means business. I was first attracted to them by the nice job of mowing they do. The versatility of a front mounted unit also makes it ideal for our job. And, we happen to have a skid-steer siting around. Let's ranch.

First round was tough. I didn't know if it was going to work. Then I started tilting it back as I pushed into the thistle. Slowing down also helped. 

Out in the middle, the thistle died out and tall grass stuff and old weed stems took its place. Mowed even better. 

Once we got into the light stuff I tipped the unit forward, with the front down, and it mowed nice. 

Good enough for me and the girls. 

Jack told me that it was too cold to be mowing weeds with a skid-steer. He was right, but the job had to be done. With these weeds knocked down, we can see what we have to work with. Plenty of potential. The fence needs tending and some gates need addressing. But other than that, she'll work for a big corral to hold the cows and run them into the smaller pens. Then we can work them all we want. Might even feed them in here come February. We'll see. Job is done. On to the next one.

Pivotal Character

Is St. John the Baptist 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-gv--c2EH8

Comfort

Trying comforting people back to the Faith.

             https://youtu.be/Fvy7uzLiG60           

Immaculate Me

 We can relate to Mary.

             https://youtu.be/NOskVrsgJms           

Salvation History

We are players.

             https://youtu.be/8BCtW6HANkI           

 

Burn Piles

If the Lord is going to give us an open winter, we are going to take advantage of it. Eventually it will snow, which will make perfect burning conditions. So we took a little time to gather old lumber and pile it up for the right time to burn. 

Our hilltop has been a catchall for the past 45 years. Some of this was Grandpa's doings, other slash piles came from his kids, and Dad and I have made our contributions as well. No more! 

So we grabbed the 4010 and started piling all the wood into burn piles. 

These old cedar shakes, toped of with power pole stubs, should burn well. 

Often, when we are on a cleanup mission, Hank shows up to lend a hand. 

We put him to work by pitchforking some surrounding shakes onto the pile. 

All burnable lumber is welcome on this pile.

That'll burn.

While we were at it, we dug out some old power poles that will never get used.

And drug them out where we can get to them easy. When we get ready to burn, we'll take a chainsaw and pile them up tight. 

We have plenty of fence posts from our corral project down below. 

So we piled them up as well.

Let it snow! It's good to clean up, and burning wood is a beautiful way to get rid of it. And no funner time to do it than in the dead of winter. Grab the marshmallows and hotdogs, we are going to have us a bonfire! Ranchin. 

Willful Acceptance

God's will begins with receiving reality. 

             https://youtu.be/r2Ju6TdbIbY           

Death Destroyed

Jesus is God.

             https://youtu.be/NABt0k_QZA8           

Mother Cabrini Shrine

A while back, Dcn. Jay received a request for us to go down and lead a one day retreat to the staff of his former parish in the Lakewood Colorado area. Having an open widow and not wanting to turn down a good time, we headed south. 

The staff retreat for St. Jude's parish was held at the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, CO. I had been here years ago in seminary, so it was fun to go back. 

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini was an Italian missionary nun who established some 67 charitable institutions around the United States in the early 1900's, including an orphanage here in the Golden area and discovered a spring on this land in the foot hills. Inspirational character. 

I gave a handful of talks to the folks as well as celebrated Mass in this chapel. Pretty cool.

The big draw at this pilgrimage site is the trek up the mountain to the shrine of our Lord.

Some 350+ steps rise from bottom to top, which are lined with the stations of the cross. A workout with a cause.

On top is a 25' statute of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Which overlooks the Denver area.

Good stuff. It was fun to get out of town and see the country side. I have pretty happy memories of my fours years of seminary in Denver. Retreats like this are good and fairly easy to put together. They are always good experience for me of an area in ministry I don't feel real confident in. However, the only way to gain confidence is through experience. Hopefully the parish staff picked up a thing or two in the process. Back at the ranch now. Let us carry on.