Le Duck Dainty

I feel as though I have so much to catch up on. My goal with the blog/journal was to write at least once every other day, but that proves to be a lot harder when you are jumping around from location to location. Anyway we left Kells and finished our amazing drive around the Ring of Kerry. I was really heart set on milking a cow or doing some other farm chores while being in Ireland. Mainly due to the fact that there are farms all around you and well I figured I would embrace every situation. So for one night my cousin and I reserved a room at a B&B that is a working dairy farm. I was way more excited about this that she was, but my patient cousin was happy to go along.

We found the farm and settled in around 6pm and I let our host know that I was excited to milk the cows and she looked at me with a panicked look and said that I better hurry because they are milking them now. I rushed for a change of clothes, having no clue what to expect and ran to the farm house. May I remind you that I was still in no attire to milk cows, but the picture I had in my mind was me sitting on a cute stool milking a pretty clean cow. The reality was, me pinching my nose, in a room full of cow crap and about 20 cows around me. There was no stool, not a single clean cow and there were machines that milk the cows for you. All this being said I was still not going to let this change my mind, so I put on some gloves and got my hands dirty. First, David the farmer, showed me how to milk a cow by hand and then we did it the 2010 way using the machines. It was quite an experience and I got to milk the #1 cow in Ireland, Le Duck Dainty! She was HUGE and I have to say cows are a lot bonnier than I thought. Anyway after milking the cows we went into another farm house where all the calves were and I got to bottle feed a two week old. This was much cleaner and cuter. The baby calves have to drink special milk from their mother which contains all the nutrients that they need.

After our smelly experience we went to town for some food but you know, I just couldn’t get that smell out of my nose! Anyway, we also met some great folks from the farm and they were kind enough to let us in their home for us to use the Internet. People here are so friendly and trustworthy. I was joking with my cousin and said that if this situation was in Atlanta you would have called the police before letting strangers in your home or you would question why these folks are so nice to let you in. We had a great time chatting and they were so kind to give us tons of places to go and what to do. In exchange we offered a free tour if they ever visit our home towns!