Well, for the last few days we've been working on building a stone wall covering the face of a patio for musicians to play on during the summer. It's right outside of a pub. I guess Mary liked our stone work in the garden so much that she put us to this task too. This time it's not dry stone work, that is, we're using mortar between the the stones. With the terraces, many of the stones are just so huge that there's really no danger of them getting knocked down, despite having no cement between them. They are also well-fitted, so that helps too.

We work four hours per day for our food and lodging. It's been really sunny and warm here (except yesterday), so I have a bit of a tan from working with my shirt off outside for hours. It started as a burn, of course.

There are people from about six countries here. There are Rose and Arnika from Holland, a couple from Russia, Stephanie from Germany (just left), Shauna from New Zealand, Edel from Ireland, and Lauren from Australia. The two Dutch girls and Stephanie are the other "Woofers" (workers of the World Wide Organization of Organic Farms) beside us. It's not at all a farm, strangely. Just a pub and a Bed-&-Breakfast. But I guess we got lucky as the other Woofers had to just work in the bar or kitchen. We've really enjoyed being almost totally on our own while working. That is, without supervision. The minute Mary saw that we liked being creative, and that we worked fast and hard, she just left us to it, and didn't give us any more instruction. She is always happily surprised at what we weed or build, although she definitely gives me too much credit, forgetting that Tait was just as much a part of it all. It's probably because she saw me building the first little stairs into the garden by myself, and also because I'm usually the one who talks to her.

Tait and I have got into sudoku a bit, as they are printed next to the crossword puzzle in random newspapers we find laying around. It seems to be the new craze over here among puzzle lovers. It's the kind of thing that, although it can be a challenge, you know you can complete it if you spend some time on it. So Tait and I usually have a casual race to see who can finish them first. He's usually a bit quicker at it than I, but I never get worse than second place!:)

I've sang songs in the pub on three occasion now. I used Mary's guitar. Our first couple of days here I couldn't play for very long because my left hand's fingertips were no longer tough. But now I can play all I want again. Our room is right above the bar in the pub, and often they'll party til 3am and blast the music, so it's quite loud, since Tait's and my bedtimes tend to center around midnight. Ireland's pubs actually have a much earlier closing time, but since we're on Cape Clear Island there are really no patrols to shut it down. People come on the ferry from the mainland just to party in the pubs here because they won't get sent home early!

Ramona is here! She was in England for a conference, but she's just come this afternoon to visit me, and she'll be going with us tomorrow to the next farm, in Feakle. It's great to see her, but I'm afraid she's a bit warn down from all the trouble she had getting here, what with missed buses and hauling her bags around town, and the handles inconveniently braking.

Ransom