Recap - Part IV

The time had come for my brother and I start our intended purpose of the trip, WWOOFing. The farmer, Robin, picked us up in Ennis in the afternoon and we swung past the train station to see if the Italian guy, Lorenzo, was there waiting before we headed back out to the farm. He wasn't there, so we began our journey. It was about a 40 minute drive out into the countryside. The farm was located atop a big hill overlooking the very small village of Kilnaboy in County Clare. Kilnaboy didn't have much to offer besides a junk car lot, the old old church, the old church, and the new church, a post box, and a pay phone booth. Believe it or not, there was not a pub in the vicinity! We drove up the big hill past a few other farm houses before pulling into Dromoher. As soon as the van pulled to the back of the house to park, we were overtaken by the beauty of the vista. There were flowers and trees, and green, green, green as far as the eye could see...



Robin showed us our room...



and introduced us to his wife, Miriam, who was busy in her knitting studio, and we sat down for some tea. Then we pulled on our boots for a quick walk around the farm...



First, we met the sheep and lambs. The lambs were only a few days old, and were the cutest things every. We stocked their "house" with some fresh hay and saw where the food and water went. Then we walked around the gardens and heard about what veggies we were going to be planting and met Harry, the horse.

We went inside to get settled and Miriam started whipping up her famous fish. Robin also informed me that one of my ongoing jobs was going to be stocking the stove that heated the kitchen/living room with turf. At first I thought he was joking, since it's such an archaic activity to a spoiled American, but he was dead serious...







While dinner was being made, Robin went to get Lorenzo back in Ennis, and got home just in time to eat. We had a nice dinner of salad, fried mackerel and bass, mashed potatoes, broccoli (from the garden) and cheese sauce, and apple pie. After dinner, we cleaned up, and listened to music and played card games.

For the remainder of the week, we planted a bed of onions, pulled up the mustard plants, planted shallots, dug up the Jerusalem artichokes, fed the animals, brought in the sheep (which was quite the funny adventure when Lorenzo and I were in charge for the first time, considering we had to chase the sheep all around their yard in the mucky mud), transferred the strawberries to the top of the big hill, planted seeds in the polytunnel, cleaned the house, and of course, did lots of digging.

We also ate like kings, including, but not limited to: porridge, beef stew, salad, cheese sandwiches, scones, Indian food, fish and chips, and more apple pie. My God, the food there was amazing, and since we were working all day long, it just made it taste even better and soooo satisfying! All of us worked together to get the meals prepared, which was a nice family feeling, and we always knew that someone would be in charge of chopping up "loads" of garlic for every dinner!

We also learned how to play cribbage, and met some of the kids (who are adults now) who were visiting the house. Our evenings always consisted of reading, listening to music, and playing various card games. It was a great first week!