The Wheeler House
As promised here is a bit more about my time at the Greenan Maze and Museum Farm. Above is the amazing hand-built house by Will Wheeler himself that I've been staying at for the past 2 weeks. The house is made of completely recovered and recycled materials and cost the family under €10,000 to build I believe. It also took around a5 years and they just moved into the new wing jutting out to the right a few months ago.
These are my hosts for the past two weeks, Anita Davis and Will Wheeler. Will manages the Greenan Maze and Museum with his Dad, Jonathan, who just built his own house nearby as well. They've came up with the idea for the maze and museum and have been at it for about 15 years. Anita helps manage the farm as well, and is studying and teaching about environmental practices. Specifically she teaches about transition towns, which is a process that a town can go through in order to prepare for peak oil (when oil will become more scarce than it already is). She taught me a bit about it, and it's quite a concept. You can learn more here if you're interested: http://www.transitiontowns.org/ Anita is also a brilliant chef and at night she taught me a few Irish soda bread recipes and I spent some time perusing her large collection of cook books, so hopefully I picked up a bit.
These are my hosts for the past two weeks, Anita Davis and Will Wheeler. Will manages the Greenan Maze and Museum with his Dad, Jonathan, who just built his own house nearby as well. They've came up with the idea for the maze and museum and have been at it for about 15 years. Anita helps manage the farm as well, and is studying and teaching about environmental practices. Specifically she teaches about transition towns, which is a process that a town can go through in order to prepare for peak oil (when oil will become more scarce than it already is). She taught me a bit about it, and it's quite a concept. You can learn more here if you're interested: http://www.transitiontowns.org/ Anita is also a brilliant chef and at night she taught me a few Irish soda bread recipes and I spent some time perusing her large collection of cook books, so hopefully I picked up a bit.
Anita and WillThey have three kids, the boy Neiche (2.5) below with super blond curly hair. The other boy is his cousin Tai. A few days a week I would forgo my usual gardening duties to look after him. We mainly listened to the Jungle Book soundtrack, The Elephant (he pronounced as ambulance) Song was his favorite.
Nieche and TaiWill and Anita also had two daughter, Abaihin (pronounced Awin, 7) and Alanna (Lanabell, 5). They're the two girls to the left, and the third girl was Abaihin's friend Laura. As you can tell from the picture, they were all super sweet girls.
Abaihin, Lanabell, and LauraAs for the house, it was a marvelous place to stay. I had a great bedroom all to myself with a giant double bed. I've been completely spoiled for the other farms already.
My roomThe kitchen was my favorite part of the house. Anita has every type of spice and cooking pan necessary all packed into a fairly small kitchen. She was quite brilliant at packing it all in there.
KitchenAnother place I spent a lot of time was in the sitting room. Off in the corner of the house they kept a sitting room with tons of blankets and pillows from all over the world. There was even a small TV and we watched a few movies on the weekend. My favorite was 'Withnail and I' a cult British comedy, and surprisingly not all that far off from my wwoofing experiences. Definitely worth checking out. 'Withnail and I' Trailer
Sitting RoomHere is another general picture of the kitchen/dining area. The house also had a loft with a gorgeous spiral staircase (in the middle of the photo) that led to an office area. The whole house was absolutely amazing, and Anita and Will were so sweet to let me stay. They even invited me back whenever I can make it, even if it's this week. So now I have a fail safe plan for the rest of my time in Ireland in case this farm is no good.
Kitchen/Dining Room
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