Pine Box

Part of the priesthood is to be a rock in the middle of the good, bad, and ugly moments of life. This past week tragedy struck a family in the parish with the death of their young son. Not being able to pay for all of the funeral expenses up front, Dave and I volunteered to make his casket. 

A rather sobering project take on, building a child of God's resting place as they await the Resurrection was actually a real honor. 

Tounge and grove blue pine was the lumber of choice. In the Rocky Mountain west where many forests have been hit hard with beetle kill, if you catch the dead pine trees right, they have a grey tone to them, which we call blue pine.  

Dave and his shop have all the right tools. 

Plan your work and work your plan. Most of the fastening came from screws on the inside. 

Keeping it simple was the goal. No fancy finish. 

Just a good coat of linseed oil. 

Should work. 

It only seemed fitting to brand it with the Rocking Chi Rho. After all, in our baptism we are branded for Christ, we are His. Baptism is where we spiritually die and rise with Christ. That sign is a reminder that our physical death does not have the last word. Resurrection does. May our little brother rest here in peace until the Lord awaken him on the Last Day. 

Holy Cross

The Cross is a sign hope.

           https://youtu.be/KdfSSdx6kgk         

God and Man

The hypostatic union: Jesus is one person with two natures, human and divine. 

           https://youtu.be/F5C6KJmjfHw         

Brisket

When I start in on cutting a cow the first thing I go for is the brisket. It's handy to get to and it opens up the front quarter to other potential cuts. It also takes more doctoring up that most other cuts, so it's nice to get out of the way.

Briskets are basically a cow's pectoral muscles. The grains of meat go every which way and the fat is always abundant.  

Briskets are that wattle looking mass in between a cow's front legs.

Beings I halve and quarter the carcasses, my briskets are a bit smaller than store bought ones. This cow has been aging for 21 days. 

They are easy to identify and cutting is not complicated either. These hooks make a big difference in butchering. They help keep your own limbs out of the way of the knife. 

It's good to cut plenty beyond the brisket itself and do the trimming at the table. 

They do take some cleaning up.

And especially a lot of trimming of the fat. There is way more than most cooks know what to do with. 

The under side takes plenty of trimming as well. 

Money.

I like to cut briskets and I enjoy eating them. But I'm not any good at cooking them. This is an art that is in the hands of the next guy down the line. A good brisket is hard to beat, though. Low and slow makes this woody meat fall apart. 

Today's 1.5 hrs of cutting in between other priestly responsibilities, marks the beginning of this years butcher season. Taking a bit of time during the day for this creative hobby only fuels my ministry as a priest. That's the beauty of living out of one's sonship. It properly orders our vocation to stem from our relationship with God the Father. Then we can remain peaceful and be creative in fulfilling God's mission in our life. 

Evil

God didn't create evil, but He did redeem it. 

           https://youtu.be/t7VqtG0obG4         

Referee

In confronting someone, avoid accusations. 

           https://youtu.be/T4Tk7a9shwE         

300k

Today was a big day on the ranch. White Horse turned 300,000 miles. I wouldn't be the priest I am today without my trusty steed. She has gotten me to Mass, up the mountain, and everywhere in between.

South on 59 heading to celebrate Mass in Wright where she rolled over. Fitting place, I'd say.

I love what you do for me, Chevrolet! 

Chris Ledoux said, "It ain't the years, it's the miles." The more miles the merrier, for me. That's where the stories lie. White Horse and I have quite a few. And I'm confident that quite a few more are to come. Let's ranch!

Long Looking Love

Jesus shows us how to humanly get over obstacles to admonishing the sinner. 

           https://youtu.be/waGqoDastAg         

Chiminea

Wanting to burn some wood on the deck, but not wanting an open flame, which could get out of control, I started to look into a chiminea. Turns out Mom had one sitting at Aunt Fran's house that wasn't getting used. Might as well see how it fits in our shanty. 

Pretty good, I'd say. I do remember this showing up on our patio back home shortly before I left the house. Don't remember ever using it, though.

Not only does it fit nice in our gig, but we also have plenty of wood to burn from our pergola project.

I like the boy scout mode of criss-crossing wood to get a fire started. 

One match will do. 

Seems to have a good draft. 

I dig it. 

I love wood heat, just not a fan of the smoke. The chiminea seems to burn nice while getting the smoke heading in the right direction. We'll see. With fall arriving, it's never too early to be thinking about winter. If gas costs get to high to heat the house, we can always come out to the cabin and stoke up the chiminea. 

Coming Home

I was planning on leaving the girls up at Joe's for another month or so. But, being the generous man he is, he welcomed another rancher to bring in some cows. We could have left them, but I didn't want to spend the energy to dig them out of a larger bunch. So, as they say, might as well get while the getting is good.

Here's the new girls: about 20 head of red replacement heifers. Nice cows.

After Chief and I rode around a bit for fun, we found our girls in another pasture hanging in the trees. 

Super simple trail up the fence line.

And into the corrals.

Then we got backed up to Joe's fancy load out.

And walked the girls in. Nice and easy.

Let's go home.

Beneath these western skies. 

It's all good. We needed to bring the cows home anyway. They'll be happy here with all the grass/alfalfa they want. Only three critters left. This'll give me plenty of opportunity to drive out into the prairie to throw them hay. Can't beat it with a stick.

Into the Deep

Grace perfects our nature.

           https://youtu.be/J6wKNcTPXzs         

Stuck Pivot

Modern farming technologies are great, but not trouble free. Irrigation around the Bighorn Basin has evolved from flood irrigating to pivot sprinklers. Pivots are great, when they keep moving. 

Dad's sprinkler went down from being out of alignment. We figured it probably got stuck from all the corn dragging along as it's climbing up the hill in the mud. Not uncommon if so. 

So we got the drone out and flew the field. 

And found it wasn't just stuck, it had a flat tire... in the middle of the field!

So we got geared up and drove the side-by-side down the pivot track until we came to the tower. 

Sure enough... it was flat. 

With enough blocks we were able to get it jacked up. 

Once unbolted we had to dig it out. 

And load it up. 

Dad's corn is looking pretty good. Within the next couple weeks they will chop it into silage. 

I bet some of it is 12' high.

Back in business. 

Dad and I are always up for an adventure. A flat pivot sprinkler tire in the middle of a corn field is right up our alley. Farming is fun, and can even pay the bills at times. But I think it's the challenge that makes it the most enjoyable. Men need to be tested. It's what gives us strength and builds up our character. Giddy up.