A Lesson in Gaelic & A Toast to the Scots

Our trip to Ireland seems like ages ago and I think the three of us miss the Irish characters.

I told you in my last blog about the Post-it that saved us and the people we met along the way.  Join me again as I tell you about the rest of our trip and the back roads we took to make new friends.

We left the Blarney Stone and headed to Killarney, which is part of the Ring of Kerry.  

After a good nights sleep in a B&B and live Irish music, we were ready for an adventurous day.

We were in search of a waterfall when we ran into a man named Danny and his horse named Molly.

Danny said he had been waiting for us all morning.

They gave us a ride through Killarney National Park.  Danny told us many stories of its history and landscape.

We found the waterfall, Torc Waterfall, at the base of the Torc Mountain.

Danny was shy at first, but warmed-up to us at by the end of our carriage ride.

He was one of our favorite Irish characters.

When we said goodbye to Danny, we headed for the old farm tour in the park.  Sarah and I, the farmer's daughters, stopped to check cows along the way.

I spotted this bench on our trail and wondered who had been here before.  Who had sat on this bench and walked down this path, what did they talk about and how long ago were they there.  Ireland is full of history and a long history, it has to make you wonder. 

 I lost Sarah and Carrie along the way at some point, this wasn't really surprising.  

Apparently they found some dogs to play with on the farm. 

I found more cows and great views and some peace. 

Then I met Brendan at the schoolhouse, a replica of one from the 1930s and 1940s.

He taught me some Gaelic and we talked agriculture in Ireland before the girls arrived.  

We thought about punishing them for being late to class.

Schoolteacher Brendan, continued to give us a Gaelic lesson and taught us the word feirmeoir, farmer.

We stopped for lunch and some Guinness before making our way further into the park. 

This was a beautiful, great stop along the way.

We headed up a mountain where the road was so narrow, it was basically a shoulder.

We all had a few heart attacks running into tour buses and almost hitting the rocks on the side of the mountain.

But when we got to the top, we saw Ladies View.  The view at the top is a scenic point in the Ring of Kerry.  The name derives from the admiration of Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting during her 1861 visit to Ireland.  We look like ladies, right?

We were in Killarney for two nights before we headed around the coast to Dingle.

Remember, back roads and random stops are some of the best parts of a trip.

As we were enjoying the coastline, we came upon a small beach.

I drove onto the sand and parked in front of some kids playing a game of beach soccer.

And the views at this stop were amazing.  

I kicked off my shoes, grabbed my camera and headed to the water.

Barefoot on the beach was the only way to go at this stop.

There were more kids playing and enjoying the cool water.

We continued on our drive and came upon this view.  

Again, we had the best weather and sunshine that illuminated God's green earth and his favorite color.

Then we made a treacherous stop at this corner on a cliff.

We parked at what seemed to be a rest stop for a few travelers and decided to stretch our legs.

We climbed this hill for awhile, and because I am so out of shape I forgot to turn around and see the view for a few minutes.  But when I did, this is what we saw!  The picture does not do it justice.

We climbed over a fence and some rock walls to what seemed to be a forbidden part of the trail up this hill which I eventually ended up calling a mountain.

If we would have tripped, this is what we were dealing with.

But the views were amazing.

This edge of Ireland is considered by some as the westernmost point of Europe.  While controversial and others say the honor goes to a place in Portugal, we think it's this place.

As we enjoyed our Irish roots, we were looking west towards America, our home.

So when you go to Dingle, you go Dingling which is exactly what we did all day long.

We made several stops along the Dingle Peninsula and enjoyed historic sites and made new friends.

This is the Gallarus Oratory, one of the early Christian Churches built between the 7th and 12th centuries!

When in Dingle, you also get Murphy's Ice Cream!  It's handmade, the old fashion way, right in Dingle.  

They even have Irish Soda Bread ice cream which was actually really good!

One of our stops in Dingle was a local brewery owned by Paul and his wife.  Paul was kind and told us that when we left Dingle, we needed to drive through the Conor Pass and enjoy the views.  This would save us time on our way to the Cliffs of Moher.

On the only foggy day we went through the Conor Pass, which is the highest mountain pass in Ireland.  Carrie said it reminder her of "Land Before Time" and said a taradactle was going to creep over the mountains and get us.....

Once we were through the scary pass, we headed to the ferry on the River Shannon.  

I have always wanted to drive a car onto a ferry and take it across a river!

As we were about to open the car doors, a semi zoomed past us just a few inches away from our car.  They really make it tight on the ferry!  And we weren't sure where this guy came from either....he didn't have a vehicle.

We eventually climbed our way out of the car and headed to the top of the ferry to enjoy the views.

Carrie waved goodbye to her favorite place, County Kerry.

Our next stop along our route was the Cliffs of Moher.  

It's an overwhelming view. 

When we were in Dingle, our friend at Paul told us to stop and see his friend Billy in Lisdoonvarna.

Lisdoonvarna is home to a matchmaking festival, a historic downtown with a castle a few steps from their roundabout and Billy's Roadside Tavern where the locals come to relax and gossip.

After Billy's we made our way through The Burren, home of the "great rocks" and more scary roads and scenes from "Land Before Time".

Galway was our last city before making our way back to Dublin.

On our way to dinner that night, we heard music coming from this old church.

We stopped in to listen to the choir practicing for their Sunday Services and a charity event the following week.

Galway is full of pubs, restaurants, shops and people.  Every block had live music and sometimes people dancing.  We met interesting characters, yet again, who made us good drinks, good food and pointed us to the best shops.

Galway to Dublin is a two hour drive on a motorway which was good after a 

long week of curvy, scary roads where Jesus was posted.

We returned the car with no dents and no scratches!

After checking into our hotel for our last night, we had to make our way back to the pubs for some local, delicious Guinness one last time.  Our cab driver took us to a street full of pubs with the best Guinness in town.

The people we met that night weren't Irish, they were Scottish.  Characters and the nicest people just the same but they were wearing kilts.  The Irish and the Scots were playing a soccer game the next day and they were all out celebrating, win or lose, they always celebrate.

This guy was our absolute favorite.  He sang, danced and kissed us, "oh you Americans, I love ya!"

So while drinking the Irish Guinness and whiskey, we enjoyed our last night with the Scots.

I would return to Ireland in a heartbeat.  

She's a country full of history, Guinness, whiskey, good food,

 kind people with lots of craic (crack) and character.

Ireland is covered in God's favorite color, green, and incredible views unlike any other.

Thanks for reading and enjoying the views with us!

A Country Cookout with a Side of Fancy

"Hey honey, I think I'm going to have people over on Friday when my friend Paul is in town."

"I am supposed to be gone on Friday!  You can't have people over!  Who will cook the 

cute food and decorate and such?!?!?"  

"We are grilling out, not a huge deal.  It's fine.  I can handle it."

"NO, it's not.  I'm staying home now.  Oh my, what kind of new appetizers can I try?!"

"Oh gosh" he says, "here we go.....".

My husband is perfectly capable of a lot of things, I mean he survived without me before we met and were married!  Well.....he survived by his survival standards.  

And he is perfectly capable of having people over for a country cookout.  

But he is not capable of  whipping up gazpacho and serving it on a fancy tray.  

He is capable of reminding me that the rain that poured down during our cookout is completely fine because our crops need it.  

And he is perfectly capable of encouraging his nieces and nephews to play in the rain on a beautiful
  country night.  

But he wasn't capable of setting up for our fancy in the country cookout.  

And apparently he didn't think to buy the boys water guns for the cookout either.  My country ways come out a lot even though the guns were placed on a fancy table.

But he was capable of grilling our country farm sweet corn and our lamb and beef brats.

And I let him add one thing to the menu, the classic summer country dish.  I am just not sure 

he would have made it look so fancy.

And after all that work for a fancy in the country party, all they wanted to do was make s'mores!  

So after supper time, God decided to listen to the kids instead of the farmer and let the rain pass.  Then these country kids helped build a fire to cook their s'mores.

After all my worry, he was capable of throwing a country cookout without me.  

I made my fancy food and made it all look nice, but all that really mattered at the end of the night was the fact that the kids got to make their s'mores (and so did they adults).

Oh and don't forget about the mason jars full of dead lightening bugs I found on my front porch the next morning.  

The best of  summer nights with a lot of country and a side of fancy.

A "Normal" Summer Day in the Life Of....

I am NOT a morning person.  NOT.  Can't do it and I'll be the first to admit to it.  

But I married a farmer and sometimes "that's just part of it".  And I knew I was going to have a #GreatAmerican Day so....I woke up before my early morning riser husband to "take on the day" as he says.

Even though I stayed up too late watching the news and a CNN special on The Sixties, I was still motivated to get up the next morning to celebrate my husband's hard work and to relax after a full week.  

Saturday we did things that we normally would do on Saturdays in the summer, but this particular Saturday we combined it all into one and it was fabulous. 

We did as many farm couples do on each morning and "got up with the daylight".  We headed east to Batesville, Indiana where our meat locker is located.  The boys had taken some cows there the week before to be butchered for some of our grass-fed beef customers.  I was pretty excited because we no longer had enough ground beef for ourselves and I had been craving tacos!  

(As a side note I do not buy beef at the grocery store, I find it in my freezer or one of our many deep freezers.)

After a routine stop for our only-made-on-Saturday blueberry cake doughnuts from Schmidt's Bakery, we headed across the town square to our butcher, French's Locker.

Our family has used the same, local butcher for a number of years.  They provide great service to us and to our customers who order the beef directly from us and provide their beef requests to them, the butcher.

And they meet us before the store opens on Saturday mornings......that is saying something after a long week and knowing a bustling Saturday is coming in the butcher shop for those customers that want a successful and tasty afternoon cookout or BBQ. 

We had delivered 4 cows to French's that week and picking them up for our customers who buy the meat directly and for our customers that we sell to at the farmer's market filled up the bed of the truck.  

This is one cow that is custom ordered in various cuts that a customer has ordered or that we sell at the farmer's market for those that may be interested in grass-fed beef.  

After unloading the boxes at the farm and meeting a customer for his delivery, we headed downtown to the Columbus Farmer's Market.  When we arrived to the market it was busy with purchases from loyal customers and questions from potential new customers.  The market is always a great way to educate people about our beef, the agriculture industry and our farm life.

After the market we headed west this time to our favorite date night location, The Brick.  There are a few things to know about this place before you arrive.  

1.  No cursing.

2.  You should be respectful and drink your beer out of a glass.

3.  There are no plates, only parchment paper for your greasy burgers.

Don't go there expecting to smell like roses and sunshine upon your exit.  But do know that you will experience a #GreatAmerican establishment where a date costs 20 bucks and you don't have to talk, just listen to the old-timer stories and the classic country in the background.  

After leaving the Brick, Brett and I headed to the lake where it was peaceful, and I napped as soon as we arrived (remember, I don't do mornings and when I do I need a nap).  

After a nap, two magazines and a 3 mile walk around the lake, I found a summery tray to fit our sort of planned meat and cheese tray that my farmer husband had suggested for our evening, lake-side meal.

It was perfect and delicious with 3 different meats, 4 different kinds of cheese, fresh bread from the market, nuts, some stuffed peppers, fig ham, horseradish sauce and some good 'ole German stone ground mustard.  It wasn't that difficult to put together and the presentation didn't take long.  After our doughnuts, butcher pick-up, the farmer's market, The Brick, our walk and our nap, we were ready for this....for our fancy meal in the country with the mosquitoes biting our ankles.  A perfect Indiana summer night in the life of this farmer's wife and her farmer.  

Oh and just in case you were concerned, I slept in the next morning.