Other than the ability to consume large amounts of Guinness with little ill effect, the quality I most wish I possessed from Irish ancestry would be that of digging.
I'm not being racist or anything, far from it, in fact. Much of America (and England for that matter) was built on the backs of hard working Irish laborers who could have probably dug the Chunnel if someone had put them up to it.
I have moved on to the next rung of the interminable project list, to 'The Porch'. It has been on the list for several seasons. I mean *list* as in Tower of Pisa list. The winters in Vermont can be hard on old buildings, and the last few have all but squashed one side of our aging porch. It has sagged badly. It's been one of those things that I have really wanted to get on with, but I've never quite had the time. Now it's getting urgent. Winter will be here in a jiffy , and it won't be able to take the snow.
So, out with the 5 ton jacks, the bracing and the demolition tools and forward I go into unexplored territory under the porch. I'm not easily scared by a little bit of rot or a complete lack of foundations. Anything can be fixed with enough tools.
Surprisingly expediently, I now have 5 new foundation piers sunk 4 feet into the ground, and the whole porch above is floating, seemingly unsupported, on a collection of jacks and beams.
No small bit of digging, that. Hence I wish I had a little more Irish in me, so my back wouldn't ache quite so much today. Still, each pint of Guinness makes me a little more Irish, right ?
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