Belfast

Spent the last 3 days on a trip to Northern Ireland. Barbara, my farm host, has built 3 holiday cottages attached to the 150 year old family farm house that we're just finishing and about to let out. Here's a page I put together for the cottages and for potential guests to check out. http://barbarascottages.blogspot.com/

We needed to completely furnish the houses before our bookings in just 2 weeks. Ikea was the place to do it but the Dublin store doesn't open till late July. So we hired a massive moving van and drove 7 hours to Belfast.

Stayed with a friend in Magherafelt that night then got up early the next morn and got to Ikea before they opened at 9am. Went over our gargantuan list while we downed some breakfast and coffee then spent the next 2 days meticulously raiding Ikea from open until close, a total of about 16 hours. We'd gone mad by the end of it and were dragging eachother out of there.

Northern Ireland was pretty interesting, having been in the south of the Republic of Ireland for the past 2 months there were many very noticable differences. For one there were Union Jacks flying everywhere, which I thought was fairly smug. The currency was sterling, which was a pain because we had to get our money changed over from euro. We didnt really have time to drive through Belfast city center but you could see a feel the torment that has hung over the city for ages. The people were really quite lovely though and I adore the accent. It's a queer blend of ancient Irish and Scottish. Very warm, light and melodic. Everyone sounds like there from The Secret of Roan Inish which I love. Overall I really liked the North and will be back sooner than later.

Our lovely Ikea associate that helped us with our mattresses.

Job well done.

Bicycle ride to Union Hall

Finally got my camera back from being repaired in the States, I now feel complete.

Went for a ride today, this is what I found.

Met the loveliest little girl at Keelbeg Pier.

Down the low road to Reen Pier

Up the high road to Ceim Hill

On to Castletownshend Cove

Another good weekend

I need to catch up on the last 3 weekends, every one of them an adventure. There's another farm-hand that joined us 2 weeks ago from Oregon named John. Great guy and the two of us make a mighty fine pair for getting into mischief on the weekends. I'll just briefly outline this last one.

First the bad news. One of our chickens died. Not sure why? Think she might have been picked on by our crazy old cockold.

Hitchhiked up to the closest town with a movie theater about 35 miles away to see Terminator Salvation. Shitty little theater but the film was so bad ass!!! When the T800 cuts John Connor's face to give him the scar that he has in the flash forward in T2 was probably my favorite part. And Kyle Reese as a kid was a complete bad ass.

Met a leprechaun in Clonakilty.

Watched out for old people.

Went to mass.

As we were hitchhiking on the way back to Skibbereen these two brothers picked us up and invited us to a house party out in the countryside of Leap. It was one of their birthdays and they were quite pleasant characters so we joined them. It was at a professional soccer player's house, a new modern house with lots of windows and nothing but fields surrounding in every direction. I made some lovely friends, spun some fire, danced all night and kissed a girl from Galway. They write songs about Galway girls.

"If her hair was black and her eyes were blue

I've traveled around I've been all over this world

Boys I ain't never seen nothin' like a Galway girl"

I probably only got about 2 hours of sleep that night. Got a lift back the next morning then made some homemade pizza to finish off the weekend.

And that's just a summary.

Month 1

I've been here in Ireland 1 month today.

What I've learned:
Knackered means exhausted
Give over means cut it out
Crack - a great party or good time
Blight - a potato disease
Point of lay pullet - a chicken around 6 months of age, now a hen able to lay eggs
Hitch hiking here is practically a form of public transportation
How to turn soil, make raised timber beds, and plant new crops
Go raibh maith agat - "thank you" in gaelic, pronounced gurra mah aggut
How to wire a battery on a 100 year old sailboat
How to wield a pick axe
Irish dairy was sent from God
Tea in Ireland is consumed more than water
It's common courtesy to say "hiya" and wave when you pass someone on the road
Everyone knows everyone
How to live with and be a big brother for a curious, inquisitive, trouble-making, 8 year old chancer of a boy
Ireland is more beautiful than any picture you'll ever see on a calendar
I still can't pull off a legitimate Irish accent
And that I'm starting to call this home

Up the road

Went for a walk up the road today, this is what I found.

On the Farm

I've been working here on the O'Regan Farm for exactly 2 weeks now, feels like 2 months. Everyday has been long, hard, exciting, educational and absolutely beautiful.

I begin everyday at 9am, reluctantly jump out of my warm bed and into my cold clothes, lace up my boots, brush my teeth and head to the kitchen. I have 3 fresh eggs every morning that I collect from the chickens, 2 slices of Fields of Skibbereen toast topped with pure Irish cream butter, orange juice and a cup of hot tea with honey.

Our Cuckold and chickens

The eggs from our 10 hens

After breakfast I feed the chickens then spend the rest of the day in the garden, earthing-up potato spuds, weeding, and turning soil for our new crops. We'll be planting carrots, lettuce and sunflowers very soon, currently we just have lots of potatoes and onions.

The potato spuds, and frame for polytunnel we'll put up soon.

Most of the worms I find in the garden are about this size.

We compost just about everything here

I work all day until Reuben gets home from school at 3pm and then we go off on adventures, running through the hills and doing cool stuff like making wilderness shelters.

The beginning of our shelter.

The house.

Window box on the left is my room.

The kitchen, where I spend every evening making dinner.

Okay, thats enough for now. There's so much more that happens around here and I have A LOT more photos but I think thats good for now.
Okay, one more. This is a prelude to my next story. Um, shit. They're running straight for us. Stay tuned...

Holy Day

What an extraordinary day. It began by attending First Holy Communion at Castlehaven Parish, my first Catholic experience of any kind. It was basically exactly what I expected. I enjoyed it, lots of prayers, kneeling, standing, then kneeling again. I even ate the eucharist wafer and made the sign of the cross while mumbling half of some prayer I'd heard a few times throughout the service. Reuben was singing in the choir and they sounded lovely. Here's a recording I got of them. Click HERE to listen.

The weather this morning was dreadful.

After Holy Communion Barbara's sister Susan came to collect Reuben and I and bring us back to Baltimore where she lives. Baltimore is a beautiful seaside sailing village about 20 mins from here. In the past week I've actually contacted a lady, Anne, in Baltimore on HelpX.net that has a 100 year old sailboat that needs help repairing. I told her I'd call her when I got into Baltimore. To my pleasant surprise Susan informs us in the car that we're stopping in Skibbereen to a attend a protest. Due to the economy the government is making lots a cuts, most recently they've planned to terminate the bus route from Drimoleague to Baltimore. This is the only bus to Baltimore and many people rely on it as their only from of transportation, like school children and elderly folk. A local politician organised the rally with signs and banners for us to walk through the center of town. As we were all gathering and huddling under eachothers umbrellas I was introduced to some of the locals. I kept noticing a lovely lady with long dark hair looking over at me and smiling. She eventually approached me and introduced herself as Anne, I politely responded by introducing myself but I was getting the feeling like I was missing something. It took a second to click but then I realised it was Anne from Baltimore with the sailboat. She had already figured out who I was by my American accent and heard my name as I was introduced to others. We both had no idea either one of were going to be at the protest, pleasant surprise. She introduced me to her best friend Becky, beautiful half Spanish half Irish woman, and the three of us spent the rest of the evening together.

The little one on the left is Reuben. It was his first protest and he loved every minute of it. The photographers from the local paper loved him too.

After the protest we stopped for tea then piled in the car and drove down to Baltimore. Some of the most beautiful part of the country I've seen yet. Rolling green hills with shimmering coves and sailboats in every direction. Anne and I were dropped off on the side of the road and she led me through a field, over a barbed wire fence and down to the shipwrecked cove where Atlantis Adventurer lay sleeping.



Anne gave me a full tour of the 50ft beauty inside and out then we sat in the cabin for a bit to chat. In 2 weeks when I'm done here at the O'Regan Farm I'll relocate to Baltimore and begin living and working on the boat. She's having a sea wright come to do some work and I'll be his assistant. I'm beside myself to say the least.

After the boat we walked up the road, climbed over a weathered stone wall into Anne and Becky's back patio, stepped through the small garden and into the house to make lunch. We spent the rest of the evening together preparing and eating a delicious vegetarian meal, drinking tea, lounging in the sunroom and listening to their travel stories and of the many years they lived in the commune called Atlantis in Columbia South America. It was an absolutely delightful day. I'll be joining them again this weekend.

Life gets better everyday.

Fishing with Reuben

After a long day of earthing-up spuds, Reuben and I took his rods and walked down to Castletownshend, the old fishing village a few miles down the road. No luck with the fishing but we didn't mind, he found lots of treasures on the shore and I love being down at the beautiful cove with all the fishing boats.