In Irish Country

My first day in Ireland began at the Dublin airport. My phone having already been disconnected from any American services was now just a useless flash light for all I was concerned. Using what wits I had, I looked for my bus to take me to Cork. Which is the next closest town to the farm I would be staying at. The ride there was nice enough after getting used to the backwards streets 'right way' of the road being on the left hand side. The towns were rows of clay/brick buildings posted along on the highway, as to attract all the passerby's. The houses were all cottage style two story and a nice yard attached, mostly used as a driveway. Then my stop after another bus change was Bantry. I was in the middle of a coastal town. The bay to the west was scattered with boats that were currently stuck in the ground but in 6 hours the tide would rise another 12ft higher to set the boats back in water. I stayed in the town for a couple of hours to catch in all the sights. It took roughly 10 minuets to circle the town. Small shops were going out of business with for sale signs hanging with Christmas spirit. I waited or the long awaited embrace of my hosts, that would be my new family for the next fortnight. We met and Catherine a mother of five younger children embraced me as my own mother would have, and said well lets not wait in the sun and get a move on shall we. With narratives of her everyday family life as we rocketed past fields on a small two way lane to her country house. After some tea and bread I shuffled off to bed to get rid of my jet lag. The next morning I woke up early to clear out the barn so that we could sheer sheep that afternoon. Above the house and barn was roughly 50 acres of rocky grazing land for the sheep, roughly 4 acres wide stretched along their long strip of land from the top of the mountainous hill, then past the house another 80 acres of land mostly for farming hay to a river bed at the bottom of the hill. We had to move 75 sheep through a dozen or so gated areas to reach the barn. Then a professional sheerer came to cut off all the sheep's wool. We put the sheep back into the pastures and repeated the process for the other 60 sheep below to house. I tired to sheer one, but I was so afraid of cutting the sheep that I barely got any wool off the animal. The next couple of days I spent doing small chores like standing hay, mowing the front lawn, feeding the lambs, and moving the sheep from pasture to pasture. Everybody is so friendly here, they say each town has it's own distinct accent. Also the beer is given to anyone who can handle the strong taste. I was given a beer and I tried to gulp the whole thing down with a smile. Well that's all for now ill let my pictures tell the rest. And it's in the middle of the country so when I get to a computer ill upload all my photos from my camera online.