Bufnagle: the Podcast

Rafe discusses sundogs and Edward Thomas' 1915 poem "There's Nothing Like the Sun".  The sun, like life itself, is the greatest blessing you will possess.

#bufnagle #sundogs #parhelia #edwardthomas #poetry #worldwarI #1915 #1917 #november #endoftheyear

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As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

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As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe points out that the end of the year is coming and that means we spend time thinking about the end of things, in particular, what will happen at the end of our lives.

The Church has a rich tradition around such things and makes note of what are called the Four Last Things  — death, judgment, hell, and heaven — and dedicates much of the month of November to understanding them.  Kicking off November is Hallowtide, a three-day period made up of All Hallow's Eve (aka Halloween), All Saints Day, and All Souls Day.

Use this time of Hallowtide to contemplate the Last Things and your preparation for them.

#bufnagle #lastthings #halloween #allhallowseve #allsaintsday #allsoulsday #death #judgment #hell #heaven #purgatory #liturgicalcalendar #seasons #autumn #winteriscoming

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe is joined by writer, speaker, husband, father, and Big Brain Smart Head™ Matthew Giambrone, editor and publisher of Hearth & Field, a cultural and literary journal focused on traditional Good things, a "quarterly journal for people seeking a richer, more stable, more thoughtful life, away from the noise and the screens".

Matthew discusses his background in the world of high tech, starting and running several tech companies, and how he has traditioned to a lifestyle more engaged with reality, more in tune with humans being corporal beings, body and soul, that exist in a real physical world that God gave us.  What results is an outlook focused on sharing with God in the co-creative process, making things that are True, Good, and Beautiful, and living a life that is "less frantic and more grounded".

Hearth & Field can be accessed https://hearthandfield.com and one can subscribe at https://hearthandfield.com/subscribe/  (The calm and relaxed nature of these webpages, coupled with their beautiful artwork, alone are worth your time to explore.  Click on one of the links and compare the experience with one might get at, say, Amazon or Ikea or some other such place.)

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

In this Buf Classic Re-drop from 2025, Rafe discusses where your suffering comes from and how your perception of it can change what it does to you.

Is this certainty of life due to punishment?  Temptation?  Testing? or simple Consequence?

Rafe looks at each one of these and comes to the conclusion that it's not divine punishment; it's probably a combination of simple consequence of living here in this broken world magnified by Satan's temptation but then tempered by God not giving you more than you can handle.  Suffering will come; Death will come; just don't let them turn you to Sin.

#suffering #bufnagle #satan #punishment #temptation #testing #consequence #warning #spiritualgrowth #certaintyinlife

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Once numbering billions of trees in eastern North America, the once-dominant American Chestnut has been nearly destroyed in the last 120 years by a blight.  The stems and branches die off, leaving only the roots that regenerate new shoots that climb into the sky but then also fall victim to the blight before they can generate seeds.

A number of scientists and foundations and wood-workers and all manner of citizens, however, has been working since the blight was first discovered in 1904 to develop a way to restore this once mighty tree to its rightful place in the woods of eastern North America.

This week's episode provides an update on the story of the American Chestnut, presenting the current state of things, as presented in a recent article by Susan Charkes in River Towns magazine.

#bufnagle #evolution #americanchestnut #blight #genetics #resistance #rivertowns #americanchestnutfoundation #americanchestnutcooperatorsfoundation

Return of the American Chestnut Tree story:
https://rivertownsmagazine.com/stories/the-return-of-the-american-chestnut-tree,146154

River Towns Magazine:
https://rivertownsmagazine.com

American Chestnut Foundation:
https://tacf.org

American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation:
https://www.accf-online.org

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™ and Big Brain Smart Head™ Bob Luzenski joins Rafe to discuss the very recent (yesterday!) Starship Superheavy flight, this one complete with an achieved orbit, payload deployment, de-orbiting, and an entertaining splashdown.

Bob discusses the nuances of the launch and all the parts of the flight and tells us why this one is important in the grand scheme of the current state of space technology.

We also get an update on the topics that were discussed in Episode 304: crash landings on the moon, satellite rescues, and Blue Origins launchpad reconstruction.

#bufnagle #space #startship #starlink #satellites #orbitalmechanics #reachingforthestars

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe discusses equinoxes and how they are defined, specifically, how to determine when they occur and how long they last.

The conclusion: you can legitimately celebrate the 2026 Autumnal Equinox for over 32 hours, enough to take two days off from work!

#bufnagle #vacationdays #equinox #astronomy #algebra #timezones #autumn

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe talks about a lesson learned during an ordinary baptism during an ordinary mass on an ordinary Sunday at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in downtown Indianapolis.

Sacraments and their Rites offer us a portal to another realm.  They are transformational events fills with sign and wonder, things earthly and things of heaven.

#baptism #sacraments #basilica #indianapolis #grace #rejectSatanandallhisworks #priestprophetandking #christiandignity #keepthelightburning #bufnagle 

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe discusses cabinet furniture design, joinery tricks, and what planing wood by hand can teach you.

#bufnagle #furnituredesign #cabinetry #woodglue #drawborejoints #tenons #mortises #DIY #patience #handplane #jointer #seekthegood 

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!

Following last week's Ozymandias poem and the lesson concerning avoiding hubris, Rafe walks the Buf listeners through John Henry Cardinal Newman's 1827 poem "Snapdragon".

In it we learn to bloom where you are planted, to be gracious for the opportunity to reveal the glory of God, even if you are just a small flower serendipitously planted in a crack in a stone wall.  Greatness can be obtained there if you seek to display the Unseen, the Will of God.

#cardinalnewman #bufnagle #snapdragon #oxford #poetry #humility #stonewall #WillofGod #Ozymandias #flowers

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!