*Written the last evening on the farm, posted several days later*
Part II: the farm saga continues…
I had hoped that the second week of WWOOFing would bring a more positive attitude. We worked on some different things than we did last week, and the house was a lot quieter with only 3 of us WWOOFers around. We worked pretty hard again this week- a lot of house cleaning and manual labor.
I was excited to finally go pick some potatoes! Now, I have a greater appreciation when potatoes appear on my plate that I haven’t prepared myself.
We followed the tractor and collected potatoes into large crates, which we later bagged so the farmers could take them into town. They are sold at the local grocery store. Doesn’t get more local than that! I also fed the calves. They were too busy eating to smile with me.
Remember the room that we all busted our butts to finish last week for an Airbnb rental? The eventual plan is for it to be for Betty, the 80-year old mother of the farmer. Betty has been so sweet to us! We are staying in her home and it’s not really clear if she’s been on board with WWOOfers taking over her home…We ate many suppers with Betty and she took us to church last Sunday when it was too rainy to walk. I really hope she ends up with the little mother-in-law suite of her dreams! This is what the room looked like last week:
Anyways, now I have another picture of that space. We stripped the entire room from in order to divide the room into a bedroom and sitting room. Jeff taught me how to frame a wall and once we did that, we plaster boarded the outer part. That was all we had time for while we were on site.
I can’t even begin to describe how thankful I am to Jeff. He has been amazing these past two weeks dealing with my general dissatisfaction (bitchiness) about our situation. We were not always treated the way I believe we should have been treated- for example, the one night this past week when we did not have dinner because groceries had not been purchased in over 1 week. Pretty unfortunate when the sole purpose of our work is for room and board. I think we both have learned a lot from this experience, especially to set ourselves up with a better situation if we ever decide to work like this again.
We still have about a week and a half in Ireland and are renting a car to do more touristy things. I keep reminding myself that the money we saved by staying at the farm made it a little easier to book the B&B in Dingle that is over 100 euros. More on that soon!
-Cara
Enter Jeff’s Perspective:
I had fun this week, we did some manual labor which allows me to zone out and just get stuff done which is like meditation for me, and I enjoy building things so it was fun to make something. A little frustrating to tear apart some things we had done before, but I think the end result will be nice.
I think one of my favorite parts of this adventure was getting to know Betty. She had a great personality, and it was awesome to know that she had traveled quite a bit, including several trips to the US. It was really nice to meet someone that had been born and raised right near here and had seen other parts of the world and still lives in the same place and knows almost everyone.
Overall, I think the farm has been a positive experience. It was a little trying, and not always what we expected, but our hosts overall have been great people and are really nice. They are trying to find their way in the world and I don’t think they have quite figured out exactly how to deal with lots of WWOOFers and they are still trying to figure out exactly what direction they are headed. One of the big reasons we are traveling is to meet people different then us and get to experience how they live, so I think this has been a great part of that. Being a tourist is great, but it really doesn’t teach you how the average person lives.
That being said, I’m super excited to go play tourist for awhile again and see the rest of Ireland. Then its off to Germany and Italy with my parents, which is going to be awesome!
Jeff
These pictures are at the closest pier, about a 15 minute walk from the farmhouse. We would go workout near the water after work! We have definitely been blessed with good weather so far. Fingers crossed that it holds!