Tag Archives: weather

2013/02/17 · 11:24

Brrr!!! & Sabertoothed Laudie-dog

laudie

Laudie dog, chomping away on a piece of cow-hide, is lying on her new bits of carpet acting as her bed right below the wood stove. She’s very happy to be inside. I let her stay inside for the first time last night, content, as always, below the stove.

The thermometer next to the wood stove says it’s 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) inside… next to the stove.

Outside, it’s heaps colder, and, with the windchill, about 7 below zero Fahrenheit or 22 below zero Celsius. This is a warm day in Siberia.

Of course, this is South Carolina (though up in the mountains). In Minnesota, we once got to 74 below zero Fahrenheit with 104 below zero windchill. That’s 59 and 76 below zero Celsius. Colder than Siberia. Hah! So, I should be used to it, right?

Today’s a day just to feed the stove. Brrr!!! Perhaps I’ll be able to steal some time to do up a couple hundred more emails.

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2013/02/02 · 17:39

Wintry Candlemas Day at Holy Souls Hermitage

ad orientem winter

Brrrrr!!! Snow everywhere. Earlier in the day, there was plenty of hoar frost to be seen. Just to say, this kind of frost is extremely destructive. When it melts, it causes remarkable erosion. This bit was under the roots of a tree, the longest strands being about five inches long.

hoar frost

But right now, this is what is to be seen all around…

winter 2013

Brrrrr!!! Ice and snow, praise the Lord! Praise and exalt Him above all forever!

By the way, those of you receiving this in an email surely didn’t see this post on the presentation of Jesus, as it is merely bumped to the top of the blog for the day, instead of being re-posted. It’s one of my favorites. You miss much with following by email instead of going directly to http://holysoulshermitage.com Here’s that post on the presentation of our Lord: Yikes!

 

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2013/01/31 · 09:18

Post-storm pics hopefully updated throughout the day today

torrent

So, the neighbors and I survived the storm, so far. No one’s ventured out, yet. This is the driveway just down from the hermitage yesterday. Not a good sign for Holy Souls Mountain road just further down the way. I may venture out to get some pictures. All the rain turned to ice, so it’s rather dangerous.

floodingA town in Georgia just over the border from N.C., was destroyed. People lost their lives in this storm. We pray for the repose of their souls. Hail Mary…

Here’s a pic of the steps of the school in town a reader sent in. They finally let the buses go when all was mayhem what with trees down, flooding, washouts.

Of course, not all is destruction and mayhem. Storms and their effects can be quite beautiful, providing an insight into the power of nature all around us, a majesty, really, which we might not otherwise notice.

I recall being up in the Alps, on the South side of “Cervino” with a certain Cardinal, when, looking steeply down into the cavernous valleys below, the tops of boiling, roiling cloudbanks were to be seen rising, but not rising, corralled by the unseen seeming magnetic force of the mountains, to which they clung with surreal tenacity, perhaps hung up on the pines, which themselves shrank in size in proportion to the elevation of the mountain, perhaps again, not because of lack of oxygen, but sucked down by that mysterious magnetic force. The mountains themselves laughed at gravity, throwing themselves exultantly high into the sky as they were doing.

Anyway, in Blue Ridge Mountains, we have waterfalls. Here’s the waterfall on Holy Souls Mountain, vastly much calmer compared to what it would have been during the downpour yesterday, but still beautiful, regardless of the eyes of the beholder:

More to come…

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2013/01/30 · 11:59

NOAA for HSH area of the Blue Ridge Mountains

volcano googled image

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING HURRICANE FORCE WINDS IN EXCESS OF 70 MPH. THESE STORMS WERE LOCATED ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM HOT SPRINGS TO LEICESTER TO CLAYTON… MOVING EAST AT 45 MPH.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN PRODUCE TORNADOES WITH LITTLE OR NO WARNING. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER IF A TORNADO IS SPOTTED.

THESE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE ALSO PRODUCING EXTREMELY HEAVY RAINFALL. FLOODING OF DRAINAGE DITCHES AND LOW LYING AREAS MAY OCCUR. DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH AREAS WHERE WATER IS FLOWING OVER THE ROAD.

Tornado: Tornado just spotted just North of us. Yikes! Saint Michael the Archangel…!

Lightning strike: Cathy L. put a link to this prayer in the comments box:

Jesus Christ a King of Glory has come in Peace. † God became man, † and the Word was made flesh. † Christ was born of a Virgin. † Christ suffered. † Christ was crucified. † Christ died. † Christ rose from the dead. † Christ ascended into Heaven. † Christ conquers. † Christ reigns. † Christ orders. † May Christ protect us from all storms and lightning † Christ went through their midst in Peace, † and the word was made flesh. † Christ is with us with Mary. † Flee you enemy spirits because the Lion of the Generation of Judah, the Root David, has won. † Holy God! † Holy Powerful God! † Holy Immortal God! † Have mercy on us. Amen!

Just as I was praying that prayer, just at the bit about lightning, lighting struck, and I got a bit of shock through the keyboard, but the computer seems to be O.K. I wonder if the UPS I have got fried.

What a shocking experience, so to speak.

Trenches: In the worst part of the storm, so far anyway, I went out in the old irrigation boots with mattock in hand, intent on digging a bit more on the trenches in the path on Holy Souls Mountain. They were each like raging torrents. Yikes! Extreme Sport Storming!

Flooding: It’s not very frequent that my little creek get’s named for flooding, but, there we are. I’ll maybe venture out tomorrow and take some pics.

Snow: I doubt it. But later this evening the temps will drop about 1 degree every two minutes for about an hour, until it could, in fact, snow. But I think the precipitation moves along with the higher temps. No, we’ll just have frozen everything with so many inches of rain.

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2013/01/26 · 10:32

Angels and Laudie’s donkey ears and… “C’è nessuno?” and falling five times on the way to Confession: Aarrgghh!

ad orientem

An icy, icy, icy morning on Holy Souls Mountain. 26 January 2013

To this day, I can very much sense the presence of the angels in the hermitage and on Holy Souls Mountain, especially when departing or arriving. I think we can all recognize the presence of the angels, which is very much like the presence of Christ. That presence of Jesus is to be noticed as that bond of charity in all friendship which is stable amidst the ever-changing myriad of circumstances, so that we recognize that it is in Him that we live and move and have our being, although we are, at the same time, taking in by way of our senses all that which is presented to us in this world provided to us with such tender solicitation for our welfare.

Unchanging stability on the one hand, ferociously changing, must be taken care of circumstances on the other. Add to this our weakness before His strength, and we have the extreme sport of life, no? Rather mirthful, in the Chestertonian sense. The joy of the Holy Spirit. We are just so inept, but He holds us close to His Heart. I love that. The angels, of course, want nothing more than to encourage us to be in all out reverence before Jesus, what I call humble thanksgiving. Angels, mind you, are rather ferocious, and are patient with us only inasmuch as they see the work of our Lord within our lives.

With them around, we are reminded that we really, really, really want to be about doing the will of our Lord in our lives, staying away from sin, and being an ever simple child of God. Are we wretched as infernal hell without grace? Sure. And it is in knowing that that the joy of the Holy Spirit is all that much more enhanced. We know more just how good and just how kind Jesus is.

laudie

Meanwhile, Laudie is having a good time of it, watching me take a picture of her below the wood stove on a particularly icy-cold day. I suppose that she put on her donkey ears in order to enjoy listening to the fire crackle and pop just above her. A rather comforting noise, that. I’m wrong, of course. She’s ever attentive to noises outside, and jumps to attention wanting to go out at the first sign of possible trouble, like little branches burdened with ice breaking off and falling to the ground. And out she goes in full protection mode. Dogs, along with everything else, are a sign of God’s love for us.

* * *

Meanwhile again, with the whole heavenly court all about on Holy Souls Mountain, and right in the hermitage (just as they are everywhere, interceding for us all, especially those like me who are sinners), I am reminded of sitting in the back of a chapel, in the corner, in the dark shadows, not to be seen, in an ever so ancient monastery in Italy very many years ago. The chapel was in two parts, separated by a massive iron grille, behind which was the choir for the cloistered nuns. One of the nuns had a habit (sorry for the pun), when she was looking for another nun, of racing through the choir, from one side to the next, calling out, “C’è nessuno?” which means, “Is there nobody here?” hardly waiting for an answer, but racing on her way. I wanted Jesus in the tabernacle to startle her one day by saying to her, “Yes, I AM here.” Yikes! A good lesson that would be for all of us, no?

* * *

Today is the day after the ice-storm. No power lines down, but there is still ice everywhere, at least in these parts of the mountains. I went out to let the chickens out, and to throw them a bit of scratch feed to get them going for the day. As I looked in wonder at the icy beauty around me… CRASH!!! There I was, in a heap, sliding down Holy Souls Mountain just a bit, scratch feed everywhere. Hah! A good lesson, that.

We are all in danger of falling into sin one way or another at any time. We start not paying so much attention to Jesus, how He is drawing us to Himself, and because of that, with less agility of soul, we start not to recognize how we are paying too much attention to anything and everything apart from Jesus. CRASH!!! A fall. And we wondered how that happened. And then it is time for confession.

Today’s Saturday, a good day for confession in a church not far from you. Spend a little time with Jesus. He is there. He is Someone. He does love us. The angels are encouraging us. If your priest has made time to hear confessions, encourage him by going to confession. You might just save his soul in doing so.

ice cleatsMeanwhile, yet again, I am reminded of a horrific ice storm in Lourdes, when I was a chaplain some years ago. I was headed down to hear confessions when… CRASH!!! Down I went. And I was paying attention! We can be just that inept, that weak. And then, crash and crash and crash again. Fully five times. No broken bones, but I was a total wreck by the time I got to the confessions chapel. I was wishing I had had some ice-cleats. But, in the spiritual life, there’s nothing that can help us like Jesus Himself grabbing us and lifting us up. The sun came out in Lourdes, and all was well again. Jesus also shines on our souls, and then we rejoice exceedingly.

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2013/01/25 · 10:53

ICE ICE ICE

ice

All roads closed. Ice everywhere. Powerlines may break soon. The picture above shows the frozen rain and sleet in my roof-water buckets outside.

Maybe my thermometer is broken, but it said 11 degrees Farhenheit, and that was at 8:00 AM. At least the inside of the hermitage is warmer than outside, sporting indoor temps in the 30s Fahrenheit. Extreme sport hermiting!

Just to say, I did put up a bit of insulation on part of one wall. I wouldn’t want to think what it would be like without that bit of help. And I did move my chair, which was five feet away and facing away from the wood-stove. Now I’m about three feet away, alongside the stove.

I count my blessings, however, and praise the Lord. The marginalized sleep in their millions out in the cold, you know, “street-people”, victims of down-sizing of psych hospitals, and so very many refugees, so many who are homeless after natural disasters (like those still out in the cold from hurricane Sandy, because FEMA, with zillions of dollars won’t do much: here), so many who are on the run because of lack of religious freedom, such as in China, where the persecutions especially against Catholics are always worsening, and all with the blessings and now the beginnings of imitation of America.

I think of all the march for life crowd in Washington, D.C., who welcome the opportunity of such iciness to be all the more in solidarity with the unborn, who can face such icey bleakness as they grow up, hopefully, in their mothers’ wombs. Yikes!

I think in particular of one lady who is till in need of much healing, here.

We look forward to heaven!

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2012/11/18 · 18:27

Breezy Point Madonna — The rest of the story — Bringing it home

Where FEMA and DHS fear to tread, guess who sticks around…

The Breezy Point Madonna, still  standing after 100 homes burned to the ground, has become a place of faith.
By  Published: November 16, 2012

Where the McNulty home once stood on the  corner of Oceanside and Gotham, a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean on the spit  of land in Queens called Breezy Point, there now remains a charred, twisted  ruin. Flooding and fire have left behind nothing but Continue reading →

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2012/10/27 · 19:23

Burnt orange sunset at Holy Souls Hermitage, colored by Sandy, the super-mega-extra-tropical storm.

There’s a rather orangey glow to the inside of the hermitage, thought I. Looking ad orientem, I saw the above, but thought there must be more to the color change than some brilliant leaves. Looking West through the horizontal branches of the towering white pines marching down the other side of the ridge, this is what I saw:

The sky is ablaze with a water vaper sunset, with hurricane Sandy — closer than I thought — being responsible for this.

58 people were called to their judgment due to her, so far. We hope that they were prepared to go. Natural disasters, accidents, sudden incapacitation from medical conditions need not mean that death was not prepared for. But we desire to have have the consolation of the last sacraments if at all possible. Ask Saint Joseph for his intercession that you might be granted a good and holy death. To have a good and holy death is the greatest thing we can hope for in this life.

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2012/02/14 · 07:47

Ice and snow, bless the Lord!

Ice, sleet, snow, slush, more ice… Very cool! It’s just starting. I suppose there’s going to be plenty of ice-weighted branches crashing down. Hey! That makes for easy collection of firewood. I like that… as long as no chunks of ice fall on my head!

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2012/02/11 · 16:15

-13 Fahrenheit / -25 Celcius at Holy Souls Hermitage

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:

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2012/01/13 · 05:31

O.K. That would be minus 7 degrees Fahrenheit at Holy Souls Hermitage! Very cool!

NOAA.gov has a java-script wind-chill calculator HERE.

Thanks to benefactors enabling me to get the stove, stovepipe, chainsaw and woodsplitter. Thanks to those supplying the army blankets and the down, not to mention warm socks! This is when I realize that the polyurethane rolls that I spread out and tacked to the frame of the hermitage are not insulated. But I’m not frozen. No complaints here at all. It’s a challenge supplying enthusiasm.

The windchill calculator above would be worthless in Minnesota, where I’m from. It was once minus 74 Fahrenheit, with a windchill of minus 104. Yikes! Another time there was crisis on Lake Superior outside of Duluth. The largest and heaviest ocean-liners in the world (the Minnesota Iron-Ore boats) all got stuck in the ice, all with a gargantuan ice-breaker ships between them. The lake was freezing at a rate of five inches a minute. Brrrrrr! Not that cold here.

After all, Jesus is here in the tabernacle… The flames of His Heart warm all who come to Him, even this most insignificant of hermits. He’s very good and kind.

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2012/01/11 · 16:56

A little tornado at HSH? Dunno, but…

It was so quick. Calm. Then… BAM! The wind was like a freight train slamming through the forest at the top of the ridge. I froze in place getting showered with the literal waterfall that dumped out of the heavens, showered even though I was standing in the middle of the hermitage. The water was moving horizontally, with visibility about 15 feet from what I could see out the windows, and coming in the itsy bitsy holes under the rafters. Yikes! None of the plastic was ripped off, and the chimney stayed up. “Thank you!” is what I immediately said to my guardian angel. He, or, perhaps, they, are very good and kind. Yikes! Just like that, about one minute, it was totally over. Calm, blue sky. I survived, again! Did I mention the hail we also had? Double Yikes!

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2011/12/22 · 18:43

Such a storm on Holy Souls Mountain! Yikes! and Yikes again!

It’s Winter. Yet, plenty of lightning, thunder, and pounding, pounding, pounding rain and strong winds. The roof is certainly being rain tested. So far, so good… Yikes! Things I had leaning against the hermitage are being knocked down. So far, the plastic sheeting walls are holding, but… Yikes!

/// Just before this round of storms began a couple days back, I was able to bring up about 20 boxes of books and things. Still about that much to go, but this was good, to get them out of the 100% dripping humidity of the neighbor’s barn. With the woodstove going, it’s about 30 points lower up in the hermitage. The path up is almost impassable with mud underneath the pine needles and leaves. Makes me wonder why there are not more landslides around here.

/// The other night was a bit dramatic as well. I had to sit out in the jeep for a good while. The stovepipe got a bit of creosote around the cap. The next day I cleaned that up and cleaned out the stove and put 2000 degree proof caulking around the imperfections of the stove and some to hold a gasket on the door… But a good fire going on now… if the chimney doesn’t fall down. The wind is pretty horrific right now… Yikes! Thunder… Lightning…

/// The roof has sprung a leak… I think. Actually a bit of water was flowing in underneath one of the rafters from the outside. I think I know how to fix that, but not now! A bucket appropriately placed does nicely in the meantime.

/// So, it’s about two hours before sunrise… I’m still alive! And the hermitage is still standing. According to weather.gov and weather.com, it looks like it will be a beautiful day. Thanks to those who prayed for no disasters to happen! Very kind and thoughtful of you. Very much appreciated.

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2011/11/29 · 17:04

The first good snow on Holy Souls Mountain, and thanks!

It’s a bit of a slushy snow, but great to see!

I finally figured out an easy way to plug up the spaces betweent he rafters on the outside walls. Since I grew up in Minnesota, I know that the tiniest open space no matter how small, will invite a snow drift right inside.

To warm things up a bit, Anon., at the instigation of Anon., sent in these cooking items that will fit the stove wonderfully. Very, very thoughtful. Thank you so very much.

There’s even a jug of olive oil. I did have a bit of that, about ten months old and now frozen solid. It was just a bit further away from the stove than the chair I sleep on at night. I love olive oil and it’s healthy.

Couldn’t resist adding another shot of the waterfall. One couldn’t really see any rocks some hours before (when I didn’t have my camera). The road crews were out today looking for washouts. Amazingly, there weren’t any.

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2011/11/21 · 09:45

The incredible power of ice

Although the unfinished hermitage is open to the elements, I’ve been sleeping in it for the past week or so, since the feast of Saint Albert the Great, O.P., a priest and one of best scientists of his day. Today, the neighbor, in whose loft of his barn I was sleeping, showed me an indication of the incredible power of ice…

In this picture, you’re looking at a bit of the metal construction that was holding up the bridge stretching from the nearby cliff to the loft of the barn. The bottom pipe had filled with rainwater, perhaps not much more than a gallon. When it froze, it pushed the upper pipe upward, streching and bending the half inch pin and the quarter inch heavy wall pipe. One would need some pretty awesome machinery to do such a thing. Here’s where inventors could learn to harness the incredible power of nature.

When I was doing my thesis on Genesis 2,4–3,24, I depended on the scientist, Saint Albert the Great, to get me through. I was making the examination as absolutely scientific as I could, knowing, with the student of Saint Albert, namely, Saint Thomas Aquinas, that reason and faith never contradict each other. This is what got me through. No one could argue with anything in the thesis, but they were dumbfounded as to how Catholic such an ancient passage was, in every way.

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2011/09/15 · 13:28

Looking up into the sky. Reading the signs of the times at Holy Souls Hermitage

Early this morning, a cross reflected from the moon, in the light of Stella Matutina…

An hour later: “Red in the morning, sailors take warning…”

Forewarned is to be forearmed: Take up the Cross! Follow Jesus! This is, btw, a Church Militant!

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