Let Me Spin You a BARN

Today, being Friday, was my last day doing work on the Hillmans’ smallholding. I somewhat guiltily managed to make my last two days Saturday and Sunday, meaning I won’t be doing any work. But it’s a lifesaver, because I don’t need to pay €58 for a Saturday night hostel. Thanks, guys!

Also: wow, only one more week ‘til I come home.

This morning, I woke up, ate breakfast, and in less than an hour put the final touches on the longest-running job I’ve been doing here. The job in question was the clearing of roughly an acre of field that had become overgrown with blackthorn trees. Yes, trees – ranging from 1’ to 7’ in height, and up to maybe 4” in diameter. Needless to say, I had to break this up over several days’ work, but when I finished it was sooo satisfying. Now there are four or five significantly-taller-than-me piles of wood and leaves and such that will be burned as soon as the wind is blowing the right way. Sadly, I may miss that event.

Two baby rabbits, one day after birth. Don't worry, these ones are alive. I'm not callous enough to take/show a picture of dead bunnies.

Speaking of sad things, I also discovered that there had been a bit of a bunny catastrophe over the night. Two babies had died, as did two adolescents, and one more adolescent is currently looking unhappy and barely responsive. We’re not sure why it’s happening, but we thoroughly cleaned all the hutches and we’re hoping for the best.

The barn. For scale, the little red awning on the left side of the building, by the electric pole, is about 7' high.

The other big job of today was clearing out the barn. This is a huge corrugated-steel enclosure that was largely filled with decaying unused furniture and boxes of junk left over by the previous occupants of the land. Our plan was to make a bonfire with the wooden furniture and put everything else into a pile to be driven to the garbage dump sometime in the near future. It was actually a super awesome job, due to my love of fires and my love of useless old crap. Going through the junk boxes was like a goddamn treasure hunt! I asked Dan if I could keep any stuff I found that he didn’t want for the house, and he said “Go for it.” So, here are some of my new souvenirs, which I hope will all fit in my luggage safely:

- Old-fashioned scale, the kind where it’s a spring inside a metal thing with measurements and a hook on the bottom that pulls the spring down to the correct level.

- Several old-fashioned syringes (unused and with no needles, don’t worry).

- Bicycle tire lever.

- Awesome-looking but apparently barely effective corkscrew based on the same principle as scissor lifts ( http://www.industrialequipmentsales.co.uk/images/scissor-lift.jpg ).

- A padlock that closes with a skeleton key.

- A couple of clothing brushes in a leather case.

- Some totally classy (read: not at all classy) wooden signs with Irish proverbs on.

- A mysterious contraption including a small slotted spoon, a square porcelain bowl, and a metal stand that holds both of them. Theorized to be a jam- or chutney-serving implement.

- Mini physician’s encyclopedia.

I kind of wanted the mint-condition white porcelain chamber pot, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to transport it, so Dan kept it. I like the ambience it added to the lavatory.

Poor Muireann has gotten some kind of severe systemic skin infection – possibly cellulitis? – and had to go in to the hospital last night at 3 AM. Poor kid. It’s doubtful that she’ll be home before I leave, which is a bummer. She also missed the coup de grace of the meals I’ve been occasionally preparing for the family: Chinese-style roast pork belly. Here’s a picture of someone else’s version: http://yeinjee.com/food/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/chinese-roast-pork-01.jpg

I used some skin-on pork belly from the Hillmans’ own hand-raised pigs, applied a spice paste (fennel, clove, cinnamon, pepper, sugar, salt, minced garlic, miso), let it sit for a day while I painted it with salt and vodka (supposedly makes the skin turn into good cracklings), roasted it, broiled it, and served it with a home-grown veggie stir-fry and some basmati rice. GOD was it tasty. The cut was…about 55% fat, though. Not exaggerating at all. Good, but sinful.

Bunnies: adorable, but eventually food. It is the great circle of life.

Also on the subject of food, last week we ate one of the older rabbits in a paella. Delicious! It had been years since I had ever tasted rabbit, and even then I’d only had a bite of chili given to me by a fellow Boy Scout on a campout. It’s a surprisingly mild meat, very similar to a chicken’s white meat. The butchering was a bit less disturbing than with the ducks, because the rabbit is killed with a blow to the neck rather than by decapitation, and he also did not have a desire to flail around postmortem.

Er...on that note, I'll talk to you all soon!