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Published: June 23rd 2009
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Bramble
Bramble, the Irish Sheepdog Rainbow Garden Centre
Kilmlihil, Ireland (near Ennis)
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Well, I wanted to get away and do something different, and now I have. Today was day 2 of working on here, and it's not easy work. However, it's very rewarding work. There's something to be said for being able to see the results of your work at the end of the day. I can't always say that about the normal 9-5 job. Today, for example, we spent most of the day clearing weeds from between two of the beds to create a third bed. We managed to clear over 5 wheelbarrow's full in the time spent out there, and the field looks very nice. It's not finished, and all the weeds aren't gone by a long shot. However, it's good honest work that lets you have instantaneous feedback in the form of being able to see the result. I like that.
Let me tell you about the farm and my hosts, Chris & Hilary. The farm is really close to what we'd call a nursery, only they typically sell their plants at markets instead of having a big drive-up business. Apparently the drive-ups were interrupting dinner, so
Resting
Sitting on the bench looking at the lake... they stopped that business. Anyway, Chris & Hilary moved here from England almost 11 years ago, purchasing what was then a decrepit farm house and 4.5 acres of very rocky land that the seller swore up and down would never grow. Today, they're making a go at it with a nice vegetable garden, 28 chickens, some pickling and winemaking side business, and their main business of selling small plants to home gardeners. It's taken a lot of work, and the house isn't big at all, but it's more than enough for the three of us (the other WWOOFer who was to be here canceled at the last minute, so I'm going solo here).
By far, the coolest thing about the farm is that, except for a phone landline, it's off-grid. The water is supplied by a nice well in the back (I've drunk the water straight, it tastes like fine spring water), it's heated and most of the cooking is done in a wood-fired stove, and what little electricity they use is supplied by a bank of batteries tied to solar panels and a turbine. I talked with them a bit about what it takes to do this, and
Midges
Goddamn Midges! These are the bites the gnat-sized creatures make they did a lot of work to bring down their usage. How did they do that? Well, they simplified. They bought an energy-efficient washing machine, use CFLs exclusively, the house is oriented to give good shade and a cross-breeze, and they don't own a fridge. Right, I said they don't own a fridge. Now this may seem a very strange and foreign concept, but they do own a deep-freeze that works really well. Since you can't freeze everything, their cold box that they use to store stuff is a cooler that's seeded with ice packs frozen in the deep freeze. There's not much in there, and they just buy what they need for the immediate future. Some foods are kept in the cool pantry without refrigeration at all (including cheese and all their eggs). I thought it kind of weird at first, but it's growing on me. And if you don't try to store a lot of stuff at once, you eat it before it goes bad. Plus, they always have dogs and cats to do their cleanup for them.
Yesterday was the first full day on the farm, as I didn't arrive here until 7:00 pm on Tuesday.
Power Plant
The solar & wind power supplies that powered the whole farm. The batteries & inverter are inside the shed I got an orientation to the place, which included general directions on how to feed the dogs/cats/chickens and where everything was. After that we headed up to the fields to dig up some daffodil bulbs. You see, in addition to selling various and sundry small plants at the market, this place also sells cut flowers and homemade preserves & pickles. Well, this field of daffodil bulbs had given for the last few years, and they wanted to dig up the bulbs and see that there has been an increase in the bulb yield. It looks like the yield after harvesting what was 5 kilo of planted bulbs will be in the neighborhood of 20 kilo. Not bad at all. The only bad part of this: the midges. I'd never seen one before, and it's this tiny little flying insect that is a cross between the worst of a gnat and a mosquito. They swarm in giant clouds that can be carried away by the wind, but when it's still they will surround you and just suck your blood like crazy. Nasty little creatures. Apparently the Skin So Soft story has gotten around here as well, because Hilary has several bottles
Josie
Poor Josie is such a skittish dog of the stuff around the house. It really works on midges, though, so no more scoffing from me.
Tomorrow I'm to help Chris at the Ennis farmer's market. He mentioned that he needed me to run the stall for a half-hour, hopefully it won't be an unmitigated disaster. I'm sure it won't be, they seem happy with my work thusfar.
Lessons learned:
The sun is intense, even if it's only 70 degrees outside. Got a slight burn on my neck before putting on my hat at the morning break.
Europeans really don't drink a lot of water, even when they're farming. It's something I'd noticed on previous trips over here, and I know Ryan has noticed as well. It's odd. I get very thirsty and my skin is very dry.
They're really concerned about making sure I'm happy with what I'm doing. Since there are always multiple things to do, they don't want to wear me out doing one thing repeatedly. It's very nice. When we were working today, I was asked by Hilary if I was alright. I thought she meant "are you getting your job done?" and said that I was still working on
Greenhouse
Many of the plants are started in the greenhouse the large docks (a type of vile weed we were clearing). She then said “No, I meant are you happy?”. Yeah, I was. There are a lot of docks to clear out, but I got many of the big ones today. Rather fulfilling, stabbing at the ground with a big metal fork.
After talking with Chris, he noticed that only one man had purchased cut flowers in the entire time he's been selling them. Gentlemen, take a tip and buy your best gal some flowers on occasion.
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Christophe
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Awesome
Cool intro. I look forward to reading more in the subsequent tabs I have opened.