I will tell you why the posting has been delayed. It’s all because an Irish-born young man showed up on our doorstep when he noticed our property looked horrible…
He was doing masonry on another home in the neighborhood and was looking for new clients. My initial reaction was, “I have to blow him off. I’m not ready to do this and he has NO IDEA what he’s getting into. This is a job for industrial professionals.” (We are on a hill and the job is very complicated and very large.) When I noticed he was Irish, I said I’m half Irish and he said he thought I was probably Irish or Italian due to the statue of Our Lady up on the hill. I told him I’m actually both (my Sicilian father would spin in his grave if he ever heard me say I’m Italian). The young man with an Apostolic name, using the term “Our Lady” impressed me and I was hooked…I think you know where this is going!
So I am now engulfed in the management of a complicated, expensive project, that will take several weeks. To say my life is in an upheaval would be…literally accurate. Instead of concrete steps outside my kitchen door, there is now a precarious drop. The steps heading to the driveway are now completely filled with debris. Our cars are parked down the road and the neighbors are getting antsy. Anyway, the dog has been very good but a tad nervous about the jackhammering. A number of difficulties have presented themselves already, so it is constant damage-control. But it’s all gonna be okay because we started the project with a prayer to Saint Joseph-the whole team prayed with me.
I do think these 2 Irish brothers (yes, his brother ran up the steps shortly after him) were sent by God to give us the kick-in-the-pants we needed to get this difficult job done. So I deeply appreciate your patience in the weeks ahead and I will try to keep up with the blog and our “Autumn Prepper Rosary Program” as best as I can. I will try to post within the next few days.
PS Turns out my great-grandmother from Tipperary had the same name as these guys. They said they have family in Tipperary and some relatives had moved to New York in the past. Hmmmmmm. God truly works in amazing ways!
PPS By doing this project, we are knocking off THREE of our “15 Preparedness Points!” (See “Autumn Prepper Program Intro” side button for the full list.) Here they are:
#5 Know opportunity when you see it-even though we were not expecting to do this project this year, we were open to the possibility when it literally came upon our doorstep!
#11 Work on home improvement-self-explanatory.
#15 Address security and self-defense issues-we are addressing security issues by building higher, more secure walls and fencing.