T----boy Farm

I have officially had a full day at my second wwoof farm, T----boy Farm in County Roscommon. It's quite beautiful farmland, not unlike Wicklow, although slightly less hilly. It seems I've ended up in the only really hilly parts of Ireland for both farms. Fun fact, T----boy farm is also closest to a town named Boyle, which is where Farmer Matt picked me up when I arrived, and is also the headquarters for the Ireland UFO association. Apparently there are a ton of crazies in this part, possibly including my hosts!

Farmer Matt sends his love to my family by the way. He runs the entire farm, without any staff, which is quite incredible. He reminds me a lot of Dick Van Dyke except a lot crazier. Along with Matt, is his wife Eileen, and their three older (14 and twin 18 year olds) sons. Also at the house is Matt's niece, Grania who is now my closest friend on the farm and is also 18. Finally, there is also another wwoofer here, Lizzy, 25, from Hungary. She's much quieter though, and she's working with the animals so I don't see her all that much during the day. As for the accommodations, Lizzy and I are staying in an adjacent house and we both have our own rooms. There are a tons of bunk beds because they have language camps during the year, but no one else is here right now so we have the run of the place. I did manage to get startled last night when at 2am the bed I had chosen decided to break and sling me onto the floor. Luckily I just had to choose a different one and all was fine.

As for the work, I'm helping out at the summer camp their having with 13, 5-10 year old kids. They are the most rambunctious kids I've ever seen, and Matt pretty much gives them run of the place. There is a ton of screaming, but I've learned almost all of their names now, and hopefully they might actually listen to me tomorrow. Today they got a tour around the farm, which is pretty much a GIANT petting zoo, and we also went for a terrifying ride across acres of farmland in a giant wagon with no seatbelts. Once the kiddies left, I then got to accompany Matt to go pick up a baby goat and bring it back to the farm, and boy was that an adventure. I had to sit in the back of the car with the goat while it screamed it's head off and prayed that it didn't bite me, but after a few moments, it just went silent and stayed still. It was pretty sad, but it will at least have a good home here.

The other excitement of the day was getting to see Matt try and breed two horses. I won't go into detail but it was the craziest thing I've ever seen. I can't even imagine what I'll be up to tomorrow, but I think it might involve teaching the 13 children how to fish, if that isn't the most hilarious thing anyone's ever heard.