That’s tonight’s NOAA government forecast… with windchill factor included. I’ll have to collect some wood! And re-tack up some of the plastic sheeting that’s ripped in the winds… And there are gale force winds coming tonight as well. Already have had some of those. Things are falling down outside and banging around… Yikes!
UPDATE: O.K., so that’s eight small super-dead but still somehow standing white pines (bark off) that I’ve cut, hauled, cut again, tossed, re-tossed, and finally stacked inside the hermitage, or just outside the plastic sheeting door. The plastic in other places has been re-tacked. And… and… I moved the water of the chickens further under the hermitage, in their “coop”, where they’re cooped up, so that the hot water I’ve given them will last a couple extra hours before freezing solid. This sets them to purring…
SUNSET just occured in this part of the mountains… Instant drop in temperature. So, wood on the fire and now dressing in multiple layers. And, for tonight, happy to have the down! I hope the chimney doesn’t fall in the winds… That would be difficult. But I’m preparing for that eventuality…
9:00 PM Air temp next to the chair where I sleep: just at the “freezing point”. So, not so bad! The chair is next to the roaring fire in the woodstove, which is losing the battle to heat the hermitage. Very cool, so to speak! By the way, I’m not complaining. This kind of thing is always a challenge met with enthusiasm.
7:55 AM Sunday morning: I am reminded at this chilly hour of the day of a retired priest I knew, in his eighties if I remember rightly, who lived alone in a tiny trailer house out in the middle of nowhere. The bishop visited him one day in winter and criticized him, saying that he had to turn on the heat. It seems the bishop figured out that it was a bit too cold inside when the toilet broke because the water has frozen solid and expanded. It wasn’t that the old priest was batty. Instead, if I remember correctly, the old fellow was saving money which he would then give to the missions and to seminarians, saint that he was. He has long since gone to meet our Lord Jesus, but there are plenty of priests still around who are living saints. The mass media only speaks of the few fallen priests, but it is not this passing world which is important. It is the next life which is important: it is eternal. I’m happy to have the good examples of the many saintly priests there are out there. I know many. I need their good example. Knowing that I need their good example is a fruit, I am sure, of their prayers and sacrifices. So, I guess this little note is a note of thanksgiving for all the good priests out there. My plastic water bottle:
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. 
Thanks be to God for wood stoves and down comforters!
This barely-enclosed little hermitage is like an image of the Church somehow, needing much work to patch her up and chop wood to keep her work of love going. The dark and cold and howling winds and crashing of the world all around, but inside is Our Lord and His warm heart, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt.
I read one time that if you put warm water in your ice cube trays it freezes faster than cool water, because the energy of the warm water helps the freezing process. I hope this does not hold true for the chickens’ water! I wonder if there is a workable bucket or bird bath de-icer/heater that is solar powered or something.
Hello Elizabeth,
Of course, where Jesus is, there is the Church!
With the water thing, it’s even worse. I little vibration will instantly freeze water solid if it’s near freezing temps, and, of course, the ladies are always wanting to take a drink!
Very glad to see that the hermitage held up through the night (even the chimney!). God bless you, Fr. George.