Originally published April 10, 2026 for our weekly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor. Subscribe to get weekly issues.
By Paul Gordon Collier, Editor
“Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil and let us see what we are made of.” – Charles Spurgeon
Since last we checked in on our Riqueday Castle project, we had been struck by a prolonged subzero ice storm that left us in limbo wondering how much damage had been done. Initial findings suggested the results might not be as bad as we feared.
Last weekend, we conducted a thorough inspection of the Riqueday Castle, where we learned the primary damage was to the heating element pipes in our basement. The pipes to our two kitchens and two bathrooms all turned out to be fine, save for one leak in the drain of one of the bathroom’s sinks.
Our castle is heated with steam, which comes through water heated up by a natural gas furnace. The pipes that lead to the registers, the actual heating systems, were the ones to suffer damage, with MOST of the pipes in the basement becoming disconnected.
Fortunately, we did not have the water turned on at the time of the disaster, so there was no flooding (save for minor flooding in our mezzanine bathroom), which would have cost damages we most likely would not have recovered from.
As for the damage to the pipes in the basement, the overall cost of repair will range between $3K and $5K. We have until next winter to get the pipes fully repaired. We plan on having the work done one section at a time. We have a contractor in the queue waiting to start work.
Due to the prolonged days of freezing sub-zero weather without heat, any cracks in our walls got worse, which affected a part of the sanctuary and our first-floor kitchen. Both will need wall repairs, with the kitchen also needing some ceiling repairs. We have a handyman who will be addressing these small repair issues.
It does appear we have two registers which will need to be replaced; these will cost another $800-$1K (including installation costs). While the overall damages are more than we thought after our previous inspection, they are still far less than was originally feared.
Outside of the new damages we must now repair, our initial targets for major restoration are the roof and the basement floor. We will be getting estimates for a new roof. We plan on installing the new basement floor(s) ourselves.
After the roof and the basement floors (which will also include waterproofing and a thorough steam cleaning), our next step is to make my brother’s quarters habitable (which includes installing a shower in the first-floor bathroom) and my wife’s and my quarters habitable (which includes installing a bathroom/shower on the second floor).
At this point, we will begin to be able to use our space to serve the community around us.
Beyond this, we have doors to replace, outside stairs to fix, a basement redesign, and more. We envision this project will take up to five years before it is “done.” We had originally planned for three years, but our circumstances have changed.
One reason we think it will take this long is we are working on more than Riqueday Castle, we are also working on our Harrisburg Estate. This property belongs to my mother, who hopes to see the property become a Hope Castle like Riqueday Castle.
Her property includes nearly a half-acre of unoccupied land (a rarity in the inner city of Harrisburg, which is where the property lies), a row of 8 garages in the back (4 on each side, with one facing inward in the property and the other facing out on the alley behind the property), and a four-unit 3-story apartment building.
The two properties, Riqueday Castle and the Harrisburg estate, serve radically different communities. The Canton property (Riqueday Castle) serves a 95 plus percent white community that is overwhelmingly conservative and Christian. The Harrisburg property serves a diverse community with a slight majority black population that is overwhelmingly progressive.
It is our hope that as our castles come online, the communities that emerge from them will have ambassador exchanges, with Harrisburg members spending some time in Canton and vice versa.
We do not recommend people begin two large projects at the same time such as we have, but this emerged out of necessity, not design. Our mother’s health is such that she needs help now, which includes simply holding on to her property (which my brother, Bill, has been helping her to do, including paying property taxes).
Currently, my brother owns his home in Blossburg and we (my wife and I) own our home in Bethlehem. We had originally planned to sell our homes and use those funds to further invest in the Riqueday Castle, then when our mother’s needs became apparent, we added Harrisburg to the plan.
We still might end up having to do that, but we are working on funding plans to potentially hold on to all four properties under one trust, with Blossburg serving as a support to Canton (Riqueday Castle) and Bethlehem being its own future “colony.” For now, what we hope is that our daughter becomes the steward of the home while she continues to go to college in the region.
Our home in Bethlehem is not large enough to be a fully functioning castle, nor is Bill’s home in Blossburg. In the end, we might have to sell both homes, but for now we plan on holding on to them, believing their uses will become apparent in due time.
For now, BOTH homes are still needed. Bill’s home will be a transition home for our mother (when she and one or both of us aren’t at Harrisburg) as we continue to prepare the castle for occupation.
Our home in Bethlehem costs less to hold on to (including taxes) than paying for room and board for our daughter’s university. She lives less than 10 minutes from her university, which will be her home until she gets her master’s in psychology (at least another 3-4 years).
Due to the shift in our focus from one Hope Castle (Riqueday), we are now going to call our Project the Hope Estates Project. Our monthly updates will focus on the whole project, which includes Harrisburg, Blossburg, Canton, and Bethlehem.
We ask our readers inclined to do so to pray for us as we seek to build sources for more revenue that will enable us to fund this project. We are working right now on a version of MIA that will serve a broader audience. It will be called Bellwether Intel. It derives its name from our Bellwether Deep Dive reports.
There will be considerable overlap in content between the two projects, but some significant differences. For instance, BWI will not include a Final Thought feature. Generally, MIA is serving a Christian, mostly conservative, and primarily American audience. BWI will serve an independent, assumed mixed-belief and non-belief audience that isn’t exclusively American.
While MIA analyses news from a Christian Americanist perspective, BWI will analyze news from a more “neutral” perspective, or, rather, a geopolitical reality of power perspective.
The subscriptions we offer BWI will be different than MIA. As we announced in a past issue, the price on MIA will not change, but BWI subscriptions will cost more than MIA’s, with a lock on new subscriptions to follow AFTER BWI fully comes online. For our longtime loyal readers, especially those who were there when the founder, Don McAlvany was the editor, nothing will change for you.
So long as we have legacy subscribers, we will continue to serve you, which includes allowing for renewals even after we freeze new subscriptions.
We will update you as that project develops.
The Harrisburg Estate is about 90 minutes away from Washington, D.C., which is where potential clients are for Regal Blue Media, the parent company of MIA. As soon as we fix up the top apartment in the Harrisburg Estate, brother Bill will be able to visit D.C. more often to generate more business for our personal and opposition research, marketing, and political campaign services.
If you’re in the market for any such services, let us know at miamailroom@gmail.com.
In addition to these potential income streams, we continue to rely on stock dividends for revenue. On that front, my wife and I are educating ourselves on investing to figure out how, if possible, we can increase our stock dividend income.
The bottom line is this; To make our Hope Estates project a reality, we will have to raise more revenue. As we are not interested in forming a non-profit at this time, this means we must raise the funds ourselves. THIS is why we ask our readers to pray for us as we seek paths to fund our project into existence.
Next week, we will have an update on Don McAlvany’s ministry for our Final Thought. We originally planned on covering that story this week but flipped the order as we had no real Hope Castle update in our last monthly issue (where these updates will regularly appear).
