First of many to come

Here is the proud momma of our first three baby Boer goats. There are many more to come since we have (let's see 1,2, .... I think about 19) goats who are all expecting between 1-3 kids. These three kids were born yesterday sometime in the afternoon. They are soooo cute! The Pyrenese puppies so badly want to play with them but they will have to wait a little while.

Renew your prayers for an end to abortion!

The Novena for Life for upcoming Elections begins today. - From my Aunt over at Studeo

This year's election offers another opportunity to further the Culture of Life. Please join us in praying a novena for the victory of the Culture of Life at all levels in the upcoming elections, and in the Supreme Court decision on the federal Partial-Birth Abortion ban (hearing scheduled for Nov 8).

The suggested prayer is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, but feel free to substitute the Rosary, daily Mass, or another prayer of your choice. The novena begins on Monday, October 30, and ends election day, November 7, 2006.

Pro-life Video: To those who choose to abort because of serious birth defects or problems - you don't know what you are missing. Hat-tip Dawn Patrol

Rachel's Story
Video sent by voteyesforlife

We should also continue to thank God for those who are fighting for life

Here are two amazing articles about Gianna, a woman who actually survived an abortion:

You have no right to live
Testimony of Gianna Jessen

Solemn Profession - A life dedicated only to God

Yesterday Br. Morey made his solemn profession in the crypt of the future church. The Abbot from Fontgombault and the Bishop were both present. I was able to spend some time with Br. Morey's wonderful family who flew out from the west coast for the event - though we don't spend much time with the monks (after all they are cloistered) you can really tell alot about them when you meet their families. Enjoy the pictures ... though pictures really cannot capture how totally amazing and special it was:

Here's more about CC Monastery

Flickr Poster

Create your own poster

Why the country?

Well here are a few visual reasons you might enjoy.

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Don't worry - River does get attention too.

Close-up: calves checking out the camera

It's the most wonderful time of the year! No, not Christmas - it is Fall!

Anybody want a chicken?

When we lived back in California we ate meat like anyone would … steak for dinner, chicken sandwiches for lunch, the list goes on. But when we moved out here to the country we talked about raising our own meat. As a girl (and I believe most girls would support me on this one) the idea of slaughtering animals is not very appealing … would it not be so much better to buy a nice neat package from the shelf? Though many would probably answer yes now I would say no. This brings me to the point.

Basically:

-You are either a vegetarian and don’t meat
-Or you eat meat that was raised by a factory somewhere
-Or you raise and slaughter your own meat

Well we opted for raising our own meat and then we spent two days processing all of the 160 birds. We made it into a whole event – several of the families in the area came to help out and everyone went home with a few chickens for their labor. It was not a serious event by any stretch of the word, in fact it was a great time to work together as a community - to create a bond - and to actually have fun being together … even amidst the dismal task at hand. We had both boys and girls helping out … in fact the teens in the group ran the whole thing. Though I was not actually involved in the processing I spent most of the time cooking in the kitchen, carrying big tubs of hot chocolate, and passing out warm jackets (it was very cold) and helping to package the meat at the end (I had the best job in my opinion). Some of the girls were naturally not all that thrilled about helping to slaughter chickens, however after they watched the meatrix, they felt much better about the whole process. It was a long two days. But when it was all over everyone was so excited – they all just started playing games in our big field and then came inside for a pizza party. In all it was a long two day party even while processing chickens.

Is there anything else in here?

yuck! yuck! yuck!

Ooooh - so that's how the feather plucker works

Get on your gloves because Drew is ready to rock'n'roll

Don't worry Michaela, I won't get myself stuck in the scalder

See - this is how you gut a chicken

Chicken Fight!

Cheese!

Pope rumored to be releasing Motu Proprio permission for Tridentine Rite celebration

Procession before High Mass here in CC

For those not familiar with the Tridentine mass here is a quick summary:

"The Tridentine rite is currently available to groups of Catholics who ask and receive permission for its use from their local bishops. The old rite is celebrated in Latin and follows the Roman Missal of 1962, which was replaced in 1969 with the new Roman Missal." -From Catholic News Service (see Amy Welborn's Post)

*Note: This is the case for us here in CC.

The Rumor is that The new indult would permit any priest to introduce the Tridentine Mass to his church, anywhere in the world, unless his bishop has explicitly forbidden it in writing. - See Jimmy Akin's Blog

American Papist has the story

Open book - Amy Welborn and her post on the topic
Jimmy Akin also has more on the subject

This would be a big step for the Catholic Church in the modern world. A little more sense of the sacred would be a step in the right direction for our culture. I had never experienced a latin mass before our move out to CC, but now that we have the tridentine mass it is so hard to go back ... the old latin mass is just so beautiful. Even though at first it was difficult to follow the latin, with a little patience and persistence in following along with the missal, it is now very easy to understand, and even to know how to respond in the latin. Looking ahead - this would also be a very big step towards bringing SSPX back into the Catholic Church.

Create your custom online radio station

It is called Pandora. I have already created several stations ... in only a few minutes =)

It's free and easy to use.

They do ask for a basic registration with your email, zip code, and one other thing I can't remember right now (just be sure to uncheck the checked box to recieve updates)

Hat tip to Muse

The auction is on!

The auction for the monks of Clear Creek is now in progress. If you would like to see my art piece click here. Please pray for the success of the monastery and their new building project.

It is finished!
(Art is a labor of love)

I was up till midnight last night finishing my art piece. It has been in the works for about 3 months, but now it is finished! I must say that this was the most time intensive piece I have ever done … this is not obvious (in my opinion) when compared with past works. My previous pieces were very often based on other artists work but this piece was done completely on my own - from beginning with the idea in my mind to the last few strokes with my charcoal pencil.

I will humor anyone who has read this far by telling you about that journey from the idea to how I got it on paper.

It started in the front yard with myself, my camera, and my tripod. I would set the automatic timer and then run around in front of the camera and pose for each figure in the picture … any cars driving by must have wondered what was going on.

Then using my favorite program (photoshop) I merged all those pictures of me together. It was kinda scary seeing all those duplicates of myself (artists go to great lengths to create art)



I then created a rough sketch from the photomerge … I was beginning to conceptualize the idea on paper.


Once I had the basic idea I created a small values image. This showed the tones – the lights and the darks, and overall what the picture would look like.

I then transferred the photomerge to a large draft paper using the grid method (breaking the image into squares and drawing the same number of squares [on a larger scale] on the large paper and then copying the image square by square). This is a legal form of cheating in my humble opinion however since this was not a project for self enjoyment but rather an important project with a deadline I made the exeption which helped me on my proportions. Proportions are hard to capture especially after not having done art regularly for over year.
Once the image was transfered I went through several versions and a few sizes. Here are my two first drafts

I then started on what I thought would be my final but when I was nearing completion I was not satisfied with the gray areas of the art … they looked muddled and not clean. I also had some new ideas for the angels which sprung from sculptures I had seen by the artist Bernini.


So I sacrificed my image for the greater good of a new piece which if it turned out like I imagined would be much better than the one I was working on. I decided to try it out on gray paper. This way I would not have to draw the gray tones as much, and I would use white pencil for the highlights and rays of light. BTW the dark tones were done with charcoal pencil. I used ‘transfer paper’ to transfer the old picture to the gray paper. Once I made the leap of faith everything began to take shape like I wanted it to. I spent several very productive late nights to complete the picture. And now it is done! Yeah! And my room is back to normal (instead of the typical artists studio look).

I brought the picture to the monastery today and left it with the monks. Sometime this week it will travel with Br. Jerome up to Tulsa to wait for the auction on October 21. I hope it does well!

I have been tagged by Ria - so here it goes:

1. A Place You've Visited and Your Favorite Thing there
Colonial Williamsburg – The beautiful buildings all together in a cozy town, the beautiful dresses and hats, the rich and civilized dialoge of the citizens, the lush gardens, and the people working with tools like those used centuries ago ... was that supposed to be one favorite thing? =)

2. A Country You'd Like to Visit and Why
Rome! Rome is where the Holy Father lives, it is my spiritual home on earth, and it is filled with tons of beautiful art and sculpture. What more could a young catholic artist ask for…

3. A Place From History You'd Like to Visit and Why
The Holy Land during the time of Christ. Why? - Could it be more obvious? I could meet Him, meet His mother, and I could follow Him ... what a blog post that would be!

4. A Place You Know a Lot About
San Diego CA – I lived there most of my life. Though it is changing so much I won’t know it well much longer.

5. A Place You'd Like to Learn More About
Africa. So much is happening there, the little I know makes it seem like a different planet.

6. A Fictional Place You'd Like to Visit
The places from CS Lewis’s Space Trilogy

Ria tagged my twice so here is the other meme ... thanks Ria =)

Five things in our freezer:
1. Frozen bananas (we use them in smoothies)
2. Ice cubes
3. Ice cream (leftover from dad’s birthday)
4. Ice pack
5. Frozen steralized mason jars (after we milk the goats the warm milk is chilled right away when we pour it into the mason jars. This helps keep the milk fresh longer)

Five things in my closet
1. Clothes
2. Clothes
3. Tripod for my camera
4. Empty frames
5. Large pad of paper for drawing

Five things in my car
Since I don't have a car, I'll just say the family car
1. Water bottles
2. CDS
3. Work gloves
4. Rope
5. and, of course, the diaper bag

Five interesting things in my backpack
Since I don’t have a backpack my purse will have to do:
1. wallet
2. burts bees lip balm
3. 2 zebra fine point pens (my favorite)
4. my cell phone
5. and a bag of lemon drops from my trip to Williamsburg

I'll tag my Dad, Femme Fascinante, Muse, coolrich59 and Moms for kids


BTW I am working on a post about my Williamsburg Trip. There is so much to tell and so many pictures ... so as you can imagine it is taking a little longer. Also I am finishing the art piece for the monastery and my Christmas Project for Catholic Answers. Both are due this week so I will probably post after they are done.