May 31, 2012

Day 11: Cape Clear, Co. Cork, Ireland

This morning, we woke up in a cloud. The weather was ehh for the most part. Not really that cold but you couldn’t see much in front of you/around you!

When we woke up, Gayelan and Sandy went to milk the goats with Ed and Zoe and I did a bit of housecleaning. Ed’s guide dog Izzy (who I will post a photo of shortly) is a gorgeous German Shepard, but she is shedding like it’s nobody’s business! Zoe and I attempted to brush most of the loose hair off of her this morning too, but after a few rounds of fetch (which Izzy is obsessive over) and chasing her around the driveway, we only half succeeded.

For lunch, I made another sandwich with the tuna salad and had some tea (as per usual) and afterwards all of us trekked down the hill to Ed’s craft shop to do a bit of cleaning. It has been closed all winter and this will be the first weekend it is open since it’s technically the start of summer! The 4 of us spent about 5 hours in the shop, sweeping, dusting, cleaning, reorganizing, stocking shelves and polishing silver. It’s a cute little shop with things like handmade cards, goat ice cream, goat cheese, books, CDs, ‘Goats Rule’ swag (pictured below), jewelry, celtic things and more.  A cute little addition to this island! It seems that Ed’s WWOOFers run it all summer as well, so that will be a fun job for Gayelan to carry on as she spends the summer here!

The crew- Sandy, Gayelan, Zoe & I!

When we came home, we were relaxing with some tea and a woman came up to the door to let us know that the goats were in the road- ah! We typically walk them over to the south pasture every morning so they can graze for the day after they’re milked, but for some reason the whole herd had gotten out and was in the road. The pasture is surrounded by electric fence but not all of it is active, so we think they must have been spooked by something or other and hopped over it. Anyway, after a bit of chasing, we led the goats home to their pen.

Zoe and Ed made pasta Bolognese for dinner (yumm!) with lots and lots of veggies in the sauce, which turned out fantastic! I also got a chance to sit by the fire and talk to Ed for a bit about his music as we listened to his CD. He told me the little stories that went along with each of the songs, the experience of recording them, etc. He is an incredible storyteller!

After we all sat down to dinner, we each got some goat ice cream for dessert! I had mint, which is absolutely phenomenal. I also tried the chocolate, the strawberry and the rum raisin, which were also delicious! Especially the strawberry since it’s made with whole strawberries (I think- they come in cans. Another interesting thing.. Strawberries in cans.), not just strawberry flavor!

We hit the hay relatively early- Sandy is leaving tomorrow and we want to get up to see her off!

That’s all for now- busy day tomorrow- first day with the shop open and lots of yard work to do!

Favorite part of the day: Cleaning the shop and seeing the before and after results. We did some serious work- very rewarding! :)