SJV Theological Seminary

With my delayed flights causing me to miss the last plane to Gillette last night, I hitched a ride to the seminary and enjoyed a little walk down memory lane today.

I spent from 2012-2016 here at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver CO. Inspired by Pope John Paul II's visit in 1993, they call the grounds the Center for the New Evangelization. 

About every 2 years I find myself down here. Always fun to walk around.

Christ the King Chapel is where we celebrated daily Mass at noon during the school week. Most beautiful stone work in here. 

There have been many changes recently, most notably in the Tower Chapel. Beautiful, but hardly recognizable since I lived on this floor. 

The seminarians were on retreat. When they get back tonight, they are going to have a mystery night in the library. This year's theme is the Wild West. 

This was always a great place to land in between classes. Tamara and team do a great job keeping it up.

To my surprise they even have The Catholic Cowboy Way on display for tonight's festivities. 

These grounds look beautiful no matter which angle you look from. 

The Prophet Elijah retirement house for retried priests is new since my time.

The Monsignor Michael Glenn Center is brand new. Msgr. Glenn was the beloved rector when I first came. 

Pretty impressive basketball court.

Combined with a fitness room.

Which looks out onto an astroturf soccer field. Impressive.

Good stuff.

Fun to have a little leisurely time around my alma mater. The school still goes strong. I'm thankful for my time spent here. I do have to tip my hat to them for helping me become the priest I am today. They drilled into us that the foundation of our priestly identity was to be a beloved son. Ranch on.

Augustine Institute

When opportunity knocks, I like to open. Such was the case when my buddy Fr. Cody said he was going to the Augustine Institute in St. Louis for a free conference on Catholic education. With the possibility of starting a Catholic elementary school at St. John the Baptist in Buffalo next year, I decided to take in the conference with him. 

Part of the incentive was to check out the new facilities that the Augustine Institute recently acquired, which was once a conference center for Boeing. Impressive. 

Once on the ground, I wanted to get a lay of the land. There are walking paths all over this place. 

Which lead down to the muddy Missouri River. Soon after this point, it teams up with the Mississippi. 

The main cafeteria area is shaped like the windshield of a 747. 

Which over looks the Mighty Mo and the Missouri farm land. 

The conference was put on by the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education and was for priests. It's always fun to meet guys from different dioceses. Instant brothers. ICEL provided us with a solid vision for pastoring an authentic Catholic liberal arts school. 

The Augustine Institute has made impressive use of this grandiose facility. Here, they transformed a ballroom into a chapel. They hope to soon begin construction on a larger chapel. We celebrated Mass in this space both days while I was here. 

There is a lot of buzz around these grounds and the cafeteria highlights it. They have residential graduate students. There was a nearby diocese on a convocation. Plus, much staff and random other clergy. Good stuff. 

Our last evening here, they treated us to dinner at the chalet on the hill. 

This building is 100 years old and is still in immaculate shape. We toured around and were not disappointed in its beauty. 

Upstairs is a gothic library.

Outside, we enjoyed some fireside under a pleasant southern-midwest sky.

Amazing! It is so providential that the Church has access to this facility through the Augustine Institute. They already provide exceptional catechetical and theological material for the Church. Now they have a venue that can host the propagation of such teaching. Few entities in the US could make use of such an establishment. In God's providence, the Augustine Institute was able to get this facility for a fraction of what it is worth. The fruit of this goodness is that the grounds are crawling with Catholic activity. This was definitely time well spent. We received great tools to keep a Catholic school on the right track and our hearts were restored by the beauty we encountered at every turn. Special thanks to the Augustine Institute, ICLE, and all the benefactors who made this experience possible. Ranch on. 

Desires

Prepare our hearts to receive the gift.

https://youtu.be/CJPJfa8JuE4

Authentic Authority

I'm all yours Lord!

           https://youtu.be/BCJ2L8H_254         

Elk Processing

It's fun that the first critter we ran through the meat locker was an elk. I've been around cutting them up but never taken one on fully myself. Until now.

My brother Matt shot this 5x6 in the southern end of the Bighorns last Saturday. Wanting to help him out and gain the experience, I took it on. 

Skin it just like I do a cow. Or, I skin a cow just like I do an elk. Regardless, we left the hide on until we were ready to process because the carcass will dry out so quick. Not the meat, but the thin gristle on the outside. After 24 hours of being exposed to the air, you just about have to skin it agin. 

Once skined, we quartered it so it was a little more user friendly. 

First up, the back strap. Nice sized young bull. This will make some good steaks. 

There is not much fat on wild game, but they do have a layer of silver. This doesn't complement the meat, so it's good to fillet it off. 

Not being marbled meat like bovine, elk steaks are usually thiner. We cut these at 3/4". 

Money. 

Seeking other steakable cuts, we turned to the flatiron. 

Good sized.

We just cleaned them up and will let Matt deal with how he want's to cook them. 

The rounds were a force to be reckoned with. 

Not wanting to just grind them up, we pulled off some round steaks and a couple roasts. 

After that, we went to boning. We might have left a little meat, but not much.

Three lugs of burger meat should do just fine. 

For good elk burger, you want to add some suet. We've had some saved over from the cows that should work good.

Sure enough. 

Done.

150 pounds of burger, 85 steaks, 10 roasts. Not bad for wild game. 

Good stuff. So fun to get back to cutting. Just like old times, a few hours here and there and it's in the freezer. The experience, in itself, is great. But providing dinner for someone is the funnest part. That's it for now. We have a cow back home that needs to be cut up soon. In the meantime, we'll get this meat shipped out and kill the coolers. That's the beauty of this operation, we can come and go as we please. Ranch on.

Back in the Saddle

Today marks an historic moment for the universe, Fr. Bryce's meat locker is back up and running. Not that we are operating the business like we once were, but we are able to freely cut meat for those in need. Let's ranch.

So fun. This 45' reefer was a gifted to us back in 2020 and we retrofitted it into a meat processing plant. Over a year ago, we trailed it from Gillette to Buffalo, hoping to plug it in and be able to work. However, the 3 phase power at this site was the wrong kind. Thus begun a long process of discernment and perseverance in order to become operational again. 

The first step was to get a nearby single-phase meter transferred into my name, bump it up to 200 amps, and run some heavy duty power cable through conduit and over to the trailer. 

Then we had an electrician mount a new beaker box and hook the power up. 

He also rewired the entire trailer into single-phase power. 

For the 3 phase power compressors, he mounted the boxes and hooked the converters up to be run individually and as needed. 

Part of why we chose this site is because it had a water supply near by. This casing has been sitting empty for years. 

So Dad and I picked up a little transfer pump and ran a suction hose down into the well. 

Wanting to clean the water up, we attached a filter to the pump and began filing our holding tank inside. 

Ready to ranch.

The freezer is anxious to get some meat in it, even if only temporary.

Knives are sharp and ready for action. 

And the cooler is already full of my brother's elk, ready to be processed. 

So good. What good is a meat locker with no power? Exactly. It was well worth the investment to make this guy operational again. Even if we aren't slinging beef like we once were, it is still good to have around when the need arises. We'll have fun here. Cutting meat to serve people's needs is super fulfilling and joyous. It's not without work, though. But what kind of authentic fun is? I'm just thankful to God to have this up and running. What kind of use it will get, we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, we'll ranch on.