Ireland Fun-times Mar 20 – 25

We have had lots of interesting times over the last few days here in Ireland. We have met many new friends and enjoyed our time with them. Last Tuesday I was able to go around the countryside and visit some farms in the area. Rodney (out host) is a vet and we went out to do testing on some of the herds in the area. Every year they need to test for TB so we went out and did that. The biggest herd we did was 40 head. The farms here are not very big at all and the only way they make a go of it is because they are subsidized.

Moving the cows into the squeeze chute.

They get a shot and then see if they react. This is Rodney giving them a shot.

A pile of turf chunks used for fuel.

A typical farmyard.

Cow

This farm was in a very beautiful valley area.

After we were done the testing we went for a drive up a small mountain to visit a site where the Catholic Church used to meet when they were persecuted several hundred years ago. They would sneak up to this mountain location and worship.

Typical stone fence.

On Wednesday there  was a meeting at the Monastery of several church leaders from all around the province of Connaught. They came together to build relationship among the leaders in this area.

Enjoying a song at the end of the time together.

The next day was off to do more vet things. This time it was horses. I think we should call Rodney “Dances with horses”.

On Friday and Saturday we had another leaders meeting with some of the church leaders in the area. It was a great time of building relationships and getting to know some new friends. There were men there from Brazil, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Canada, and even Ireland. They have all moved here and have made Ireland their home.

On Sunday it was a nice day and we decided to take a walk to some church ruins nearby. It is a very beautiful area and it was nice to get out and walk in the Irish countryside.