My first Wwoof Farm!

It's now been a full week since I made it to my first wwoof farm in Ireland. I would have posted earlier but we're all the way out in the country and they have limited internet usage cause of it! The farm is absolutely wonderful. I'm staying with a small family, Anita Davis and Will Wheeler, and their three kids, Abhaine (7), Illana (5), and Niesche (2). I'm staying in the house Will built by hand which is absolutely unbelievable. It's gorgeous and I have my own amazing guest bedroom with a huge warm double bed.

During the week I tend to wake up around 9am, leisurely make my way downstairs before 10 for some breakey (muesli has been my choice as of late), and then I'm usually doing some type of housework until lunch. Sometimes it's hoovering, sometimes dusting or just watching the kids. Then around 1pm it's off to lunch at the tea room on 'the farm'. 'The farm' is an awesome giant tourist attraction that Will and his father Jonathan own and run, right next to the house. It has a giant hedge maze, farm animals, old heritage museums, walking trails, and a tea room! So I get my lunch in the tea room, usually some soup and a sandwich, and then I spend the rest of the afternoon, around 2-4:30 weeding in the garden, watering the polytunnel, and completely whatever odd upkeep tasks they have around the farm. After that, I usually go and have a cup of tea or coffee at the tea house and read outside for a while before returning to the house to help with (ie watch Anita make) supper. We've had the most marvelous food thus far: lamb burgers, venison stew, chili, laksa (a Thai noodle soup), classic Irish stew. It's been great! Then my job is to clean up the dishes, and it's off to watch a movie with the family or finish a book in the sitting room til bedtime! What a wonderful day.

Thus far in the 6 days I've been here I've finished, The Time Travelers Wife (4 stars for plot, 2 stars for writing - wonderfully fun book overall), and I'm a few hundred pages into Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Both books are Anita's that she's let me borrow while I'm here. This weekend has been wonderful as well. I spend yesterday cycling around the countryside, and then in the evening Anita and Will took me along to a party in the mountains hosted a Jewish family that lives in a Mongolian yurt. It was quite a scene, like something out of a movie. They had a belly dancer and everything! Then we went to this amazing pub in the middle of nowhere that was PACKED with people, and I drank way too much beer, as seems to be the custom here. We drove back over a mountain on the way home and were up so high, we got covered in clouds!

Today I went out on a fishing expedition in the family's newly bought caravan, with 4 kids in tow (we added a nephew to the pack). Although it was a grand time, I don't think I'll be going on anymore caravan trips with kids in the near future. I did manage to escape the kiddies for a while to go hiking in the woods and I came upon some old castle ruins which I was able to climb to the top and take some pictures of. I'll post those next weekend when I have more access to internet. Other than that, this next week should be just like the previous and I'm looking forward to finishing off a few more books and eating some great meals before heading off to my next farm!