From Polytunnels to "Grab a Granny"

This morning I woke up and was a wee bit tired from the goings on last night... but more on that later.

Every muscle on my body is sore. It is no wonder that the people that work on farms are in good shape, because it is tough work. I know a lot of you out there are probably thinking "Duh, this is what you signed up for" but I still think that point needs to be stated!

Yesterday began with feeding all of the animals, the screaming pigs really do a number on you mentally. It is this loud cacophonous roar as you approach the gate with all of them pushing against the gate and you just trying to push your way through them without letting any out to make it to the trough. I am hoping to catch it on video before I leave.

After feeding the animals we had to carry these 200 lb metal drying racks down to the fields. Erin and I carried them and it was a workout! The drying racks are to dry leeks, onions, and garlic. This work makes you seriously hungry so I was really looking forward to the 15 minute break at 10:30. At lunchtime we had a wonderful salad with vegetables from the garden, homemade bread & butter, and a lentil salad consisting of currants, lentils, & chives. It was so good! Dessert was yogurt.

After lunch it was pouring rain so we weeded the polytunnels. A polytunnel is like a large greenhouse in a semicircle shape. John & Laura have three here and they are growing beans, courgettes, lettuce, beets,and fennel in them. I have decided there are some serious spiders, slugs, and small scorpion/millipede things hiding in the polytunnels! After and hour or two the sun came out and I had to organize an area in front of the polytunnel where everything was strewn about. Items were huge logs, barb wire, hoses of various assortments, old seedlings that didn't make it, and random things like a coke bottle.

We were quite fatigued after the days work so we passed on riding bicycles to the nearest town with a store and called a cab. I needed to go to the store to get more warm clothes as I didn't bring enough. Literally all of my warm clothes are caked in mud and animal droppings so I picked up a couple of sweatshirts. When you see the pound sterling price it is almost a gut reaction to think "Wow that is cheap" until you do the conversion. (:

We wanted to find Irish food but the only restaurants in town were Indian and Chinese so we opted for Indian. It was quite good, then we decided to go to a pub for a pint. There was only one pub in town that had 2 people in it so the waitress told us to go about 3 miles out of town to another that was quite popular. This one had 6 people in it! The bartender was so nice and when we asked him to take our picture he invited us behind the bar to get our picture taken there! It was pretty fantastic. While we could only understand about every third word he said, he was so friendly. Everyone we have met so far is really friendly.

The cab driver had told us about another bar that had dancing last night and when he mentioned country music Alix's eyes lit up like it was Christmas. Thus it was off to the dance club!

Turns out it was "Grab a Granny" night. This means younger men go there to pick up on older women. It was certainly an experience! There was a surreal moment when they played "Country roads take me home, to the place I belong, West Virginia..." and everyone got out of their seats and ran to the dance floor. They were singing along with every word, arms in the air, and loving every minute of it. Then you have to two Americans who were sitting in a booth against the wall and not dancing at all! (:

The demographic of this nightclub was a lot of older women 50's and 60's dressed to the 9's in stilettos and dresses dancing like no tomorrow. All of the men were standing around tables watching them (until the aforementioned song came on!) It was quite a memorable evening and one I will not soon forget!

Signing off for now as time to get to some farmwork!