As of 5 August, 2011, the current state of the construction of the hermitage, along with a shot of some of the firewood I’ve been hauling up while things have been relatively dry:
Note the platform for the steps turns the almost attached staircases 90 degrees to keep them away from the boundary of the property, a good four feet away. Also note the bricks!
Some say that there is slow progress on building the hermitage. However, about everyday one can say that it was a dark and stormy night, with thunder and lighting sounding and striking all about. The lightning can be so close that one can hear the sizzling of the bolt just before the thunder shakes you off your feet. A bit like Mount Sinai, and Calvary. I walked about in the downpour to see if there was any good being done by the counter-erosion prevention best practices activities (which worked utterly superbly, with not a drop of water out of place), and when I reached the top of the hermitage, and stood where the Blessed Sacrament will be, please God, the heavens tore open to let some rays of sunshine through the deep darkness of midday:
Very cool!
In this rain forest, the humidity is reflected by sunshine:
I have to apologize to the Fathers of Mercy, for the little Mass kit gym bag they lent to me for the beginning of my time on Holy Souls Mountain has turned into mould and mildew when I wasn’t looking. I’m actually using the things Father K.L. provided!
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
