June 2^nd, 2012

Day 13: Cape Clear, Co. Cork, Ireland

We woke up this morning to a rainy, windy, cold landscape. Quite a contradiction to yesterday.

After a quick breakfast, I trekked down the hill to the shop to open at 11am for the tourists who might have been on the boat. Needless to say, the weather wasn’t attracting many visitors today. A few stragglers came into the shop just to look around (or to find a haven from the rain, I’m not sure which), but it was pretty much dead.

After I finally made it back up the hill, I worked with Gayelan and Ed to give the goats de-worming medicine. An interesting process, for sure. I can’t imagine anyone would really want a syringe full of medicine shoved down their throat, and the goats certainly didn’t either.

We did some things around the house for the rest of the night and after a beautifully put together dinner of potato & zucchini pancakes from Zoe, we sat around the table with tea and listened to Ed tell his story (after putting the goats to bed, of course!). Zoe interviewed him about his relationship with the goats and we also had some conversations about how he lives his life without sight. It was a very very interesting conversation that left me with a lot of respect and appreciation for Ed an all that he does on a daily basis.

Overall, not a very exciting day with such terrible weather. Our last night on Cape!

Favorite part of the day: Talking with Ed about his life and experiences both being blind and being a goat farmer. The man is full of surprises!