The Great 2018 Irish Adventure -- Part II

If you missed the first part of our adventure, click the link...

The Great 2018 Irish Adventure -- Part I

It may be an Irish thing, it may be an Uncle Con thing.  But the door to his house stayed wide open 80% of the time that we were there.  And when the door was open, this was Jess's spot.

Uncle Con's farm goes all the way to the top of that mountain.  And all the mountains have names.  Uncle Con's mountain's name is Mentecreagan.  On the way out to Uncle Con's, there are a couple signs for the BlueStack Walking Trail.  The Blue Stack Mountains begin near the property and Mentecreagan is one of the Blue Stacks.

One day, E, the kids & I decided to take the quad out and try to drive all the way to the top of Mentecreagan on the quad.  It was quite the experience, an experience Finorah wanted to quit at least three times.  There were lots of BUMPS, lots of turnarounds, and LOTS OF BOGS...  In order to get to the top of the mountain, we had to find a couple small ground bridges that go over the bog trenches that naturally exist on the landscape of the bog.  We may have also almost tipped the quad.  Quick thinking got the kids off, my legs over the high side and E throwing it in four wheel drive.  There was never a question of us actually tipping over, but it was enough for Finorah to put her foot down and "be done".  We found the small trail going up halfway.  We stopped at the top of the trail, only halfway up the mountain.  We didn't have the right footwear.  It was still beautiful, even if we didn't make it to the top.

If you look closely, you can see Uncle Con's farm about halfway up on the right.  And you can also see the beginning of Benbulbin (which is the mountain near Sligo) 3/4 of the way up on the right and just below that, the Donegal Bay which leads into the Atlantic Ocean.

More of the Blue Stack Mountains

While we were there, E worked quite a bit for Uncle Con.  The kids got to participate in herding sheep.  They were able to be "gates" to keep the sheep from running down the driveway and herding them into the gate to go into the field.  There was also a lot of wool hauling.  Uncle Con is the main wool collector in the area.  He collects the wool, paying the farmer and then sells the lot to the businesses.  He had collected over 4+ metric tons of wool (in a later post, you'll see just how much that really is).  He sells the short wool to be used in clothes and the long wool will be used in carpet.

Just one of the many "lifts" they did to pick up local farmers' wool.

The wool is paid by the weight.  Once they arrive home, they weight it to see how much each bag weighs.

At least every other day, we would go into Donegal Town to get out and see people or see sights.  And almost every single time, the kids got a "99".  We would sit in The Diamond, which is the town square to eat them.  The crows abound in Ireland and Conall was desperate to catch one.  Alas, he never did.

Uncle Con's home is heated by a wood-burning stove, which they use to burn peat, or also called turf.  He has his own bog and once a year, he hires someone to come in and cut peat, which is stored in a little outside room attached to the house.  The peat bucket gets filled daily and the kids helped fill it on multiple occasions.  If you ask Conall what peat is, he will tell you it's mammouth poop.  Hmmmm, wonder where he got that one from.

On Uncle Con's property, there are two old, old stone houses.  One is called Tullniglack and the other is Cloughveen.  E's grandparents lived in Tullniglack until the 70s.  But because of the thatch roof, it's nothing more than stone walls now.  Cloughveen is the home that is near and dear to E.  His mother was the last person to be born in the house and it was the home that his mother lived in until she left as an early teen to make money to bring home to the family.  One day, we drove out to Cloughveen to show the kids.  The nettles were high, so you can't really see much of the house.  But on our last trip to Ireland, you could see the home structure better.  While at Cloughveen, Conall saw a frog, grabbed through nettles to get him and started to cry.  So E, being the good dad that he is, reached into the nettles to grab that little sucker.  Both were tingly for most of the day.

E's mother was also over while we were there.  She was visiting a friend, Rose in Ballyliffin.  We drove over to pick her up.  While there, we swung by Rose's family home where she grew up.  There were chickens running all over the place.  The kids & I were in heaven.

Honestly, how beautiful is this.  Chickens, flowers, & the ocean.

Rose's home was located on the same site as the castle in Ballyliffin, Carrickabraghy Castle and also on Lagg Beach.  Both of which, the photos just don't do justice.

This horse was in his pasture next to the castle and was absolutely gorgeous.

The Great 2018 Irish Adventure -- Part I

As I mentioned in my previous post, the kids missed the first week of school due to a trip that we took to Ireland.  The last time we were in Ireland as a family was five years ago.  Finorah was about 18 months and I was three months pregnant with Conall.  E has wanted to make the trip over for the past four years.  E wanted to name Conall after his Uncle Con and he really wanted Uncle Con to meet his namesake.  After finding a new airport with super cheap flights, we were on our way!

We flew into Dublin and E's family is in Donegal.  For those not in the know, Dublin is on the southeast side of Ireland and Donegal is on the northwest side.  The drive up was 3.5 hours.  We rented a car and we were off.  Unfortunately, the car we rented combined with the fact that we were on the wrong side of the road and it took E a bit to get used to shifting with his left hand, poor Conall who is prone to get car sick, got car sick three times on the way up.  We stopped in Cavan after he got sick the first time to walk around and get the kids some lunch.

While in Cavan, we went to a restaurant where Finorah proceeded to break her soda glass all over the floor.  The place was so silent after it fell, that it took a bit of reassurance to Finorah that she wasn't in trouble.  There we also found goujons (goo-johns), which were the kids' food staple and were simply tenders made from real chicken, not processed chicken and chips, which were a fancy name for french fries.  The kids loved the fact that it was the same food, but had different names.

We saw the most vibrant rainbow I have ever seen on the way up to Donegal, while in Northern Ireland.

While getting our pints and sodas, Conall was able to flirt with a lady to get a couple of lollipops for him and his sister.

We continued on after lunch and arrived in Donegal around 7:00pm.  We stopped for a pint and a soda and a "99", which also became a staple for the kids.  A "99" is simply a soft serve ice cream cone with a little chocolate bar stuck in the side.  We also had Irish sprinkles, which at some point in the trip, we took a photo of the bag, so we could buy them at home. The best sprinkles we have ever had!

Uncle Con lives about 15-20 minutes outside of Donegal near a small town called Frosses.  So after the "99" outside of Donegal Castle, we headed up to Uncle Con's which is where we were staying for the week.

Uncle Con's is absolutely beautiful.  It is set deep in sheep country.  The road that leads to his house is a single lane with grass growing in the middle.  If you meet a car on the two mile drive out to his place, you have to pull off into the ditch to let the other car pass.  Uncle Con lives at the end of that road, so we saw no other cars pass his house unless they were arriving to visit.

Uncle Con has over a thousand of acres and hundreds of sheep.  He also has a quad, which Conall fondly named the "gator" bc my parents have a John Deere gator that he loves to ride on while in Iowa. We had taken the quad out multiple times during the week to visit far reaches of Uncle Con's property (which I'll get into more later).

Uncle Con also has a border collie named Jess.  Jess was there the last time we were in Ireland.  She had a companion named Spot who has since passed (God bless his soul).  While we were there, Spot was the kind one and Jess was aloof.  She liked to get into Uncle Con's truck and sit to get away from all the kids that were around then.

This time, Jess was kind and patient, especially with Conall.  She is such a sweet, sweet soul.  The only time she growled at him was when Conall tried to lay on her (twice).  She isn't used to such affection -- I mean, she is a working dog afterall.  When I tried to kiss her on the forehead for the first time, she got scared and ducked her head.  But she warmed up to me quickly when I started slipping her food from my plate.