The Farm in Mountrath Ireland

After almost boarding on the wrong bus (good thing I asked questions!) I made it to Mountrath ok. It's about an hour and a half south west of Dublin in a little town with about 1500 people. Roy was there to pick me up and we drove to the farm which was only a few miles from the bus stop. Right as we pulled in I learned they have a handicapped son (down syndrome) which is awesome! I find it interesting because I worked with handicapped people for over ten months in St. George. Hmmm. I then met Roy's wife Bokka and all the animals! I had no idea, but they have 5 dogs, 2 cats including a baby kitten, 2 geese (that was somethin else ha), chickens, hens, and 2 horses! I love it! And one of the dogs is like a mix between a corgi and rat terrier, looks like MaxAMillion (ha my parents dog). After I met everyone Roy took me on a tour of where I'd be staying (basically an old trailer) and around the farm on a golf cart. They have a little over 7 acres of land on which they have hazelnut trees, fig trees, walnut trees, apple trees, plum trees, fruit garden, vegetable garden, poly tunnel (nifty contraption for growing food and herbs that need warmer temperatures), some huge pastures for their horses, and of course all the hens and chickens.





For dinner we had pasta with bolognese. As they pulled out the white pasta the nutrition part of my mind is like oh great I'm gonna eat that and it's gonna convert to sugar in my body. And then they microwaved the sauce and I'm like noooooo please nooo! Don't nuke the nutrients out of that nice local meat! Hah. But it was great, and I've been learning to let go of that part of me, and just appreciate what is given to me.

And for anyone reading this interested in doing anything like this I've been using the resource wwoofinternational.org to setup the farm arrangement. Pretty sweet deal! Every farm differs a little but on this one I'm required to work 30 hours a week and then in return I get free accommodation and free food. Free life experience.  

The next day I woke up around 8:00am and I can't remember what it's called but I had oatmeal with a bunch of nuts and dried fruit. Tasty stuff. And honestly I was feeling a little so-so. I suppose it was the change of environment and getting used to a completely different lifestyle, but as I started to work it got more and more satisfying. I broke up some dead trees into smaller pieces for firewood, used a machine to break down wheat straw to put in the fruit garden (prevents slugs because they like smooth surfaces and helps with weeds), filled in about 4 feet of dirt around a fig tree (they are locking in the roots to prevent it from getting too big), and other miscellaneous jobs. By lunch time I was riding off a natural high from just being out in nature and good old fashioned hard work. The key for me while I was working was to still be aware of the birds, the sky, the clouds, the sun, the grass, the trees, the wild rabbits hopping around (oh, yes), and really just everything in my environment. It was a beautiful day, lots of clouds, great temperature, and some sun. By the end of the day as we were all in the living room with most of the dogs and cats (ha love the animals) watching some telee (television) with the fire lit up, I was feeling so good. It's such a simple lifestyle and I'm starting to understand the joy of being a farmer. I feel at home here.

Today I did some of the same jobs but also some different ones. They have huge pastures for the horses and I began mowing one today with their sit down lawn mower. So much fun! And I also used a gnarly trimmer with a backpack thingy that clipped on to it for extra support. It's so easy to be farming and enter into a state of trance. It's easy to be connected with nature here.

Few more things before I head to bed. Last night we had a local beef kidney stew, and maybe it's just because anything tastes good when I'm working my butt off, but it was good. And tonight we had rice with a slow cooked chicken that they butchered themselves. A-mazing. I had two huge plates dang that was so good. Everything is great here in Ireland! Oh and one thing that I wasn't expecting is that it doesn't get dark here until 10:00pm! More time to journey around via their bikes :)

Feels good to be a free man, free in the sense that I am the co-creator of my life.