Tree Houses, Bike Riding, Dog Houses, Gardening.....and Running

Well I've spent my entire time here in Ireland not writing in the blog and barely writing in my journal, but I guess that's a good thing and means I was enjoying my last couple weeks in Europe quite a bit. Today is my last day here in Castletownshend and tonight I start on my way to Cork to go to Scotland on Saturday. I've had quite a bit of fun here and I can honestly say that life here is quite a bit like living at home, except the scenery is way better out here.

For the most part daily life around here is pretty relaxed. I wake up about 8 or 8:30 and make myself some breakfast of whatever, usually eggs since the chickens seem to shoot out quite a few. Barbara's up then too and Reuben is up a little bit later and goes to school around 9:30. So we don't really start working until 9:30 or 10. I'll work about two hours, have some lunch, and work about 2 hours more after eating until 2 or so. Most of the work has been in the garden making boxes for vegetables and such and also preparing the land and making it level. Also weeding, I'm really good at weeding now. Also mowing the lawn and getting the cottages ready for guests and such. That's pretty much about it for work around here.

Most of the other time is spend just somewhat exploring on my own and playing with Reuben. I help him with his homework when he comes back from school and then either go to work on his tree house or whatever he feels like doing at the time. On Monday I actually taught him how to ride his bike! He was pretty proud of that (as was I) and now he's riding around like a madman! We're also in the middle of building a doghouse that probably needs to be finished today or else it never will be...

On my own I've done some exploring, but mostly just hung out since we didn't have a bike pump until early this week. The other day I went up to a place called Lough Hyne. It's a reservoir connected with the ocean that has strange tidefalls and gets different marine life because of it. There's also a huge hill you can walk up (takes about 30-45 min) and get great views from the top! I took a few pics to try and make a panorama so we will see how it turns out. Most of my time exploring though has been while I'm running and didn't have a camera, which was quite a shame. I've run between 60-70 miles while I've been here in Ireland and have had some of the most amazing views at different places, especially on the coastline. It's just too bad I didn't have my camera!

I've had quite a good time here though and can honestly say I'd come back in a few years or really recommend it to anyone who's looking for a place to stay in Ireland. Barbara does a fantastic job with her cottages and I told her that if every hotel/B&B kept their places as clean as she does I'd stay in hotels much more often!

I'm heading off tonight though to Cork, and to Dublin to explore there a little bit tomorrow. Sleeping in the Dublin airport on Friday night for an early flight to Edinburgh on Saturday morning. Train up to Inverness takes me to Loch Ness and the Loch Ness Marathon on Sunday morning!!! Very excited for this race because it's actually the first race of any kind that I've had since my surgery last year on October 10th. It's taken a year but I'm definitely ready again! The forecast is for a low up in Scotland of below 30 degrees though, so it'll be quite interesting.

Monday morning I take the train back down to Edinburgh to explore there for the day/night and on Tuesday I come home! I'm excited and sad at the same time I guess you could say. It's been a fun 4.5 months here, but I miss not having to live out of a bag the size of carry-on luggage and also miss biking and Mexican food! The first thing I think I'm going to do when I get back is go for a bike ride and then head to Chipotle....Or maybe take a bike ride TO Chipotle!

Hope everyone is doing well at home...might get another chance to post but I might not. Take care and see ya soon!
Monday morining I'm