Good ole Boys

I dig this island life. Pretty easy going. The past couple of days we have just been trolling around. Snorkeled some and visited some good folks. 

Our first stop Wednesday afternoon was along the North Shore where the Eddie was to visit our old classmate Fr. Rumple. Good guy and beautiful parish. 

Today we met up with Bishop Larry Silva. Generous man. Bought us Mexican food. 

Then gave us a secret tour of some holy relics. 

St. Damion of Molokai and St. Marianne Cope are some of Hawaii's Catholic hero's.

The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady Queen of Peace houses their relics. Bishop Larry was able to get us up close and personal. This might have been the highlight of our trip thus far. 

Later we invited some of the boys over for a guys night out.

Bear busted out the cigars.

And then the ukulele.

Another fun time had by all. These island are full of good ole boys. Much like home. Turns out surfers and cowboys have a lot in common. Tomorrow... Kauai. 

Day in the Sun

Chris Ledoux once sang, "A fool I may be, but a coward I'm not." I ain't gonna lie, I really wasn't looking forward to going surfing, but to uphold my cowboy dignity I went for it. Bucket list, check.

Bear is a world class surfer, so Joe and I felt pretty safe.

They say the best surfer is the one that has the most fun. In my estimation, Joe won.

I was super impressed, Joe got up on his first try.

I don't think you can say that I ever got up.

Later we took Bear's Corvette for a cruse along the cost.

And then landed back home for some Lungren Brothers steaks.

A fun day was had by all. The ocean beat me up. I'm sore and worn out. But we did it. The drive was fun as well as seeing the country side. Beautiful. Who knows what tomorrow with bring. Guess we'll wake up and find out.

Touchdown Jesus

With a winter storm rolling in, my buddy Fr. Joe and I decided to get out of Dodge. Hawaii sounded like a good landing. So on a wing and a prayer we blew out early Monday morning and headed for Honolulu. My buddy Bear Woznick lives in Waikiki beach and had a place for us to crash. So far so good. We landed here about 4:30 their time and Bear showed us around.  

This is actually my second stab at Hawaii. Last year I over slept my flight and things went down hill after that. Joe said that was divine retribution for not waiting for a time when he could go. So this year things worked out for all of us. This is from Bear's living room in the Foster Tower.

Bear and Fr. Joe. Bear Woznick is host of the radio program Deep Adventure. He's had me on a time or two. Fr. Joe Paddock is a priest on the MSU campus in Bozeman MT. We went to seminary together and have remained good friends. Bear took time to give us a quick lay of the land. 

Giddy up!

This should be a fun 10 days or so. We don't have a lot planned other than getting some sun and hanging out. I'm sure the Lord has some surprises in store for us though. The first one being that today was the feast of St. Marianne Cope, who ministered to the lepers on the Hawaiian islands. We also have some priest buddies down here. Stay tuned. Aloha.

Detach

Ranch with open hands. 

           https://youtu.be/7x68ckuKWMM         

 

St. Agnes

Virginity, and chastity in general, requires a martyrdom. 

           https://youtu.be/BmwgGtN4CmM         

 

Snowmobiling

The day finally arrived to get the sleds out. We didn't have a lot of time, but it was still worth meeting up with Kurt and heading into the north Big Horns. It was a bit of a drive for a couple hour ride, but he fresh smell of 2-stroke in the air made it all worth while. 

If nothing else, it was worth loading up just to turn heads around town. 

White Horse's lift arms make light work of loading and unloading. 

Kurt just outfitted his new dirt bike with his snow-bike kit. It did pretty good for the first time out.

Ranchin.

The snow was pretty light, but we found enough to keep our sleds cool. It's always good to get into the mountains even if its only for an hour or two. Now that we know the sleds are going to preform, we'll be ready to hit it hard when the late winter snows hit. On to the next one. 

Continuity

Jesus picks us up where we are at and starts fresh.

           https://youtu.be/2BpnSlQAI9E         

Behold

Behold the Lamb of God! Behold, Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

           https://youtu.be/7t5BDtRVugA         

Mom and Dad

January 14th marked the 50th wedding anniversary for Mom and Dad. They were married in 1973 on Mom’s parents’ 25th anniversary. This has always been a special day for all of us and this year was no exception.

And the two shall become one flesh.

Dad always said that he was related to half the town and then married the other half. 

We threw them a nice party. We started off with Mass where there was a special blessing for them. Followed by a reception down stairs. Lungren Brothers provided the beef. 

Mom baked her own cake. 

One big happy family.

Special thanks to all who helped make this celebration go so well. Aunt Tuni on the organ, Uncle Scott as lead vocals, Uncle Chris and Aunt Fran as readers, Lynn Murdoch for cooking the briskets, and everyone who showed up! Congratulations Mom and Dad. Your fidelity has meant the world to all of us. 

Off the Hook

Well, the season is finally over. We started with 15 cows and ended up with 13 in the freezer. That should be enough to hold us over until summer. 

As much as I love hanging beef, seeing an empty rail is a pleasant sight. 

This last cow put 50 notches on our scabbard.   

Chad lent a hand for the final push. 

That should last us a while. 

God bless America!

On to the next one! This freezer of meat should get us till July. Hopefully we’ll have 12 more critters on grass by then. We’ll worry about that later though. There’s snowmobiling to be done!

Harden not your Hearts

Be open in faith to listening to the voice of God.

           https://youtu.be/gxFOFyxY3YA         

Suffering

Christ has suffered in all ways so that we can relate our suffering to Him.

           https://youtu.be/ELPnWccvko4