Causey Farms

The sheep's wool was exceptionally soft

Karen, a professor at Saint Mary's who is in charge of the Ireland program and who is currently on sabbatical in Ireland with us, took us to Causey Farms. I won't deny that I think of myself as a city girl, so going to Causey definitely put me out of my element. It was fun though. I am not comfortable around animals, so petting the sheep, catching a chicken (which I did on the first try, thank you very much), and feeding the horses really challenged me to be open minded and to try to interact with the creatures. My favorite part of Causey farms was baking our own soda bread. It's surprisingly easy to Irish soda bread and the recipes vary from family to family. The one we used was perfect to dip into soup. Vegetable soup is very popular in Ireland, and you'll never have the same vegetable soup twice, I'm certain of it! The major highlight of the trip was visiting the bog, which is a pool of mud that lacks oxygen. There are these crazy stories of finding perfectly preserved corpses in the bogs, as the lack of oxygen preserves the body. There are some great specimen at the Natural History Museum in Dublin. I didn't participate in jumping in the bog because I did not have a change of clothes and I am still not comfortable getting all muddy and then driving two hours home. We learned how to play the Irish drums and learned an Irish reel while at the farm too! It made me wish I took up Irish Step dancing as a kid! Overall, the farm life isn't that bad. I could get used to it.

Vegetable soup and our homemade bread

Playing in the bog