Holiday.

Coming from Alaska, I'm used to long drives to get, well, just about anywhere. When looking at Ireland on a map it seems quite large; but once you start looking at distances, it's really rather small. I read somewhere that Ireland is about the size of Indiana -so definitely smaller than Alaska- which made our drive over to the west coast short by my estimation. Three hours saw us to the city (and County) of Galway where we got out to stretch our legs, eat lunch and wander some street shops before loading back into the van to meander our way south to our holiday home.

Fanore, Co. Clare

The western countryside is definitely different from here in Meath. Though all of Ireland is picturesque, I loved Western Ireland with its hills, stone walls, rock beds, green fields and of course, the coast. We stayed in a little village called Fanore in County Clare, right on the coast. We could see the Atlantic just outside our front door. However, that also meant we got the coastal weather, including and some incredible wind! I still loved it though. I love salt sea air and will breathe it any chance I get.

Our little holiday home with the red door.  

Coastline.

Many of the roads around Drewstown are narrow and closed to larger vehicles (though not tractors) because of lack of passing room between hedges and rock walls. I had not thought "two lane" roads could get much smaller until we drove in Western Ireland. Most people in Ireland have small little cars or there is the rare tiny truck. We were often the larger on the road in our Volkswagon van (called a mini-bus here), so the narrow coastal roads became rather nerve-wracking. I was amazed when we came upon tour busses, most of which required us -or anyone- to either try and pull over or receive a new paint job up the side of your vehicle. I was glad it was the "off season" for vacationers and we didn't have to play chicken too many times.

Following the family.

Friday we went to the Cliffs of Moher, quite the sight and a favorite from my trip thus far. They are very imposing and I can understand why the walking trail has been moved and fenced off farther from the edge in some places. However, we did not get blown off, though the wind was definitely a force to be reckoned with. 

That afternoon we took advantage of a break in the rain to head down to the beach in Fanore for some shell hunting. I stood at the edge of the water gazing as far out into the Atlantic as I could; strange to think that beyond that horizon was America... well, I suppose technically the direction I was looking was Canada, but still. Standing at the edge of the ocean makes you feel small. And then the rainbow showed up. What an incredible Creator we have, and He definitely spoiled me on that day. 

The Cliffs of Moher and O'Brien's Tower

The two other main events of our little holiday were a trip to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park and a stop over at the Aillwee Caves and Birds of Prey Centre. Though maybe geared more for the younger tourists, we all enjoyed the history of Bunratty and the fact that we could see the castle without a tour guide -meaning the kids were free to explore. Halloween is quite popular over here, so the folk park had the beginnings of some bizarre decorations, but that was completely overshadowed by the animals we met. If you know the Scherrer kids, you know they love animals, especially dogs. Bunratty happened to have two Irish Wolfhounds in residence among other farm critters. If they weren't so big, I might have just taken one home as my Irish souvenir. They were very friendly and very mellow, however, they were also very large, definitely not your average lap dog. Here's a look at some of the new friends we met. 

Loving the attention.

This is Gráinne the Wolfhound.

Mini horses.

Friendly billy. 

 I did not take very many pictures on our tour of Aillwee Cave, those that I attempted did not turn out well, it being a cave and all. At the Birds of Prey Centre we got to wander and see the birds and then we stayed for demonstrations of a bateleur eagle, barn owl and falcon. Clint got to "hold" the bateleur eagle (aptly named Batty) and Tessa the owl.

Tessa holding Jess.

This is Ted. Ted was loud.

 So we had a good holiday. We got in some sights, some relaxing and spent four whole days internet free. It was marvelous. The Scherrer kids kept talking about finding a "99 on a cone," which I assumed had something to do with ice cream but was unsure as to what exactly we were looking for. We did end up finding it and when I had it in hand I was told that my Irish experience was complete. I have a few more things I'd like to see before I'd consider my time here complete, but the treat was a good end to our holiday. Now we're back to work at Drewstown with paintbrushes in hand -for a little while at least. We're already plotting our next adventure. So stay tuned...

99 on a cone. 

Castles.

After reading the last post, you may think all we're doing is work. Quite the contrary, really. We've been having plenty of fun around Drewstown as well as some sightseeing around Ireland.

Last week we took a trip down to Dublin to visit Drimnagh Castle, the only one in Ireland to still have a working moat. It was actually a rather small castle, we almost missed tucked between two elementary schools. The castle and grounds are a renovation project that is still very much ongoing. When we arrived, the only people on the grounds were the gardeners/landscapers. So we were given an impromptu tour by Anne, which was fun since she knew so much about the plants and projects going on at the castle. It was, however, rather a whirlwind tour since she talked so fast and flew through the grounds and rooms at such a pace that I couldn't keep up and take pictures of all we were seeing. I opted for pictures so I confess I missed many of her explanations of the castle itself. Luckily she had given us handouts, which I read later in the car to fill in the blanks. Several movies had been filmed in portions of the castle/grounds like Excalibur and Ella Enchanted. You are also able to rent out the castle for parties and events. Anne told us a man had rented it for his granddaughter's birthday party and decorated it in a Harry Potter theme, complete with Professor Trelawney's Divination classroom. As we wandered through, I could definitely imagine it decorated as Hogwarts. Here's a few snapshots of Drimnagh.

The Moat.

Anne explaining some of the plant life.

Ground floor - kitchens.

Main Hall (clearly I'm already lagging behind).

Main hall looking down.

View of the garden from the top floor.

After Drimnagh, we made an unscheduled detour up to Malahide Castle. Most of the castles and abbeys we'd seen thus far in Ireland have either been ruins or working renovations (like Drimnagh). However, Malahide is a restored castle, grounds and garden, in which the heirs of the family Talbot were in residence up until 1975. That year, Rose Talbot (who inherited the castle upon the death of her brother) sold it to the Irish State and went to "retire" in Tasmania. Our tour guide informed us they'd kept a room in the castle for Rose's occasional visits to Ireland up until her death in 2009. I didn't take too many pictures inside the castle since most were spoiled by fellow tourists. After our tour of the castle, we wandered out into the gardens which, when in full bloom, must be a sight! Even now into the Fall season they were beautiful by my estimation. I love macro shots, so I was a happy camper with so many different and unfamiliar flowers. However, the faithful Irish rain drove us back to the cars so we headed back to Drewstown.

Small Drawing Room.

Dining Room.

Restored bedrooms on display.

Child's room with toys.

Wandering the gardens. 

So many new plants.

Today the last of the Glacier View team flew out, so it's just the Scherrer family and myself now. Tomorrow we're heading over to Western Ireland for a little holiday, doing some touring of Galway and County Clare. I'm sure I'll have pictures to post and memories to share upon our return.
So to you, dear reader, I bid Oíche mhaith.
Good night.

Renovation.

Sorry about the blog-lapse into silence; it's not like we've been too terribly busy, I've been working up the motivation to write this post.  I wanted to share a little bit more about the work we've been accomplishing at Drewstown House as well as the work that has yet to be done.

I don't think I need to say that Drewstown is a very old building. I shared an extremely brief explanation in my first blog post, but I will try to give you a better understanding of Drewstown's history.

Originally built as a family home, Drewstown has served multiple purposes over the years. Here's an excerpt from their website:
"In 1952 an American mission agency named World Missions to Children.. purchased the 200-year-old Georgian house and 68 acres of land, to start an orphanage. 
In 1964 the mission decided to establish a Christian secondary school, primarily for the orphans but also for Christian families who preferred an education more Biblically based than what was then available. The orphanage and school ran in tandem until the last of the orphans finished their schooling in the early 1980’s...
The orphanage provided homes for up to forty children at a time. All the workers were missionaries from the United States or Britain."

In 1988-89, Drewstown made the transition into a camping/conference center, later becoming formally operated by the Drewstown House Trust in 2002. The Trust is a "not-for-profit registered guarantee company without share capital and is a registered Irish Charity.
(To read more about Drewstown, check out their website: drewstown.com)

As you can imagine, a 200+ year-old house has its share of maintenance needs and upkeep, especially when put to hard use by students and campers. A few years ago, the roof of the house sustained severe water damage. In 2013, there was extensive repair put in to the roof/gutter system to prevent future harm to the structure (To see pictures and read about the roof repair, click here: Roof Repair 2013). However, the top floor of the house also sustained much damage, putting it out of commission for the past few years. There has also been wormwood contamination in the wood framing of portions of the house. Here's a few pictures of some of the worst damage/disrepair:

There have been various work teams coming to work on the house, most recently a team from Glacier View Bible Church (my old stomping grounds) at the end of September. The last set of pictures (above) is the progress thus far in one of the rooms on the top floor in which the Glacier View team worked. Much of the wood in the house, especially the floors, are in desperate need of attention. Renovations at Drewstown, however, are a little more complicated than your average project. Since Drewstown House is considered an historic building, Ireland has regulations about the repairs/improvements being done authentically, meaning as little disparity from original appearance -and supplies- as possible. That also means more expense and in many cases more skill than the average willing hands (like mine) have.

Since most of the big projects require greater skill and funding than currently available, the remainder of our little team has been focusing chiefly on redoing walls in many of the rooms. As my previous post included, that involves chipping/scraping, plastering, sealing and painting. There is a pallet of "historic colors" that we have been working from; here's a look at the three main colors thus far:

 "Breakfast Room Yellow"

"Scullery Green"

And my favorite thus far, "Merion Blue" 

We have also been trying to repair ceilings, taking care of mold along the worst of the water damage and moldings (no pun intended). This past week we were able to get some wood for repairing a set of stairs that would open one of the unusable rooms as well as replacing baseboards that had to be torn out because of damage. I foresee more painting in my future once those are installed.














For as much as I feel we've done already, there is still so much to do here at Drewstown. Sit down with the manager John Bailie and he'll share his ideas for what this place could be. Besides the manor house, there are a few flats to house guests (currently myself and the Scherrer family), an indoor gymnasium, outdoor football pitch (soccer, for all you Americans), high ropes course, a lake with kayaks, beautiful walking trails and access to a bog walk. Locals (and some not so locals) are constantly walking through the grounds or down the lane. There is an obvious opening for outreach into the community and you can't but help catch the Bailie's vision for further ministry opportunities.

I am thoroughly enjoying my time here and falling in love with Ireland -at least what I've seen of Ireland thus far. I appreciate the Bailies allowing us to come and serve and adjusting plans a little to keep us busy. Also to the Scherrer family for including me in their stay in Ireland (I'll be sure to introduce you to them in a later post, they are worth knowing).

As for me, I would covet your prayers for our time here. I want so much to be helpful in seeing renovations done well, but as I said, there is only so much we can do with our time, skills and funding -and there is so much to do! Pray the Lord would be able to use what we offer for the betterment of His work here. For He is at work here.

Tired.

Tired pretty much sums up today. I woke up exhausted despite having slept through the night -surprising, considering I have a roommate, or rather a wall-mate since my mouse friend can't actually get into the room (I've checked). He is rather noisy though, usually requiring me to bang on the wall a couple times a night to get him to cut down on his rabble rousing. Kids these days...

But there's no rest for the weary when there's work to be done! Today's to-do list for the manor house involved some painting, plaster touch ups and a lot of cleaning while waiting for things to dry. I spent my whole day up on the top floor in the "blue room" (we mostly refer to the current rooms we're working in by color) cleaning up the walls and floor prepping for primer and eventually more blue paint. Here's a couple shots of my handiwork, as you can tell, I'm pretty proud. (Ignore the unwashed-because-I'm-only-going-to-get-dirty-again hair and face, but I figured I should make some appearance on this blog, in case you've forgotten what I look like...)

It was really pretty fun, not that I'm thinking career change or anything -you'd actually have to have a career for that. But I enjoyed the challenge, especially that bit above the fireplace, I was super meticulous with that. Now please take notice of the carpet, it is suppose to be a navy blue. Therefore, today after washing above walls and cleaning plaster off the baseboards, I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on that floor with a vacuum, scraping (literally) mud, dust and whatever else decided to imbed itself into the carpet. It was good monotonous work for my tired mind, so I stuck in my earbuds and vacuumed away. Sadly to the detriment of my lower back. Oh well. 

This evening, between a much needed shower and dinner, we were blessed with a little sun shower and one of the most beautiful rainbows I've ever seen! Pictures just can't do it justice, but I tried. Every color was super vibrant and I even noticed another shade below the violet. At one point Clint pointed out that it was almost a triple rainbow at one end. Here's the view from the house looking over towards the pond:

Tonight I was further blessed by Face Timing with my parents for a while. Sometimes technology is a wonderful thing. I love old fashioned letters, but I also enjoy being able to see the faces of loved ones half a world away. I do miss my mountains too, so before I drop my tired mind onto the pillow, here's a shot for all you Alaskans. Though they may be a "fashion item" in our great state, I find them practical, comfortable and earning their keep well here in Ireland. So goodnight from this Alaskan heart and her Xtratufs...

  

Plaster.

After a foggy morning, we enjoyed another beautiful sunny day here in County Meath. We even had a picnic lunch outside, though if the sun went behind a cloud we were definitely reminded it is still Fall. 

Yesterday and today we were back at the work in the manor house. We're almost to the painting stage for a couple of the rooms, but in the mean time I've learned how to apply plaster to walls. It's been challenging but I've enjoyed it. If you think about it like art and suppress any perfectionist tendency, it can be quite relaxing in its own way once you hit a rhythm. We have half a room left on the top floor as well as some touch up to do in a couple other rooms. Here's proof I made myself useful:

There have been other side projects going on besides the main focus on patching walls. Mark has been busy on the main floor trying to fix up a ceiling. The older kids have been stacking lots of firewood in between their schoolwork. When not helping with the renovation work (as seen above) Carole has been doing a wonderful job at keeping us fed; I try to help in the kitchen, but if you know me you know cooking is not my strong point. With the colder weather the mice have decided to take up residency in the main house, so engineering and setting up live traps has been keeping Clint busy. And Matt and John have been busy keeping all of us busy. 

We know how to work hard but we certainly take breaks to play hard. Tomorrow we're heading to "the Mall" (titles as such because we can't actually remember the name of it) for some wandering, shopping and picking up groceries, because all this work and play requires eating, which is also something we do well as a group. And let's be honest, the food in Europe is better. Hands down. 

I'll be working on getting pictures edited and posted soon, but in the meantime here's a pictures of some of our neighbors I snapped on a morning walk last week. They stared at me, quite literally, the whole time I was visiting. A bit unnerving, but I thanked them for letting me snap their photo anyhow. And just between you and me, I think they're rather cute... in a homely way. 

Catch-up.

So I figured I catch most of you up on my time in Ireland thus far. But so as to not completely exhaust myself (selfish, I know), I decided to just take excerpts from the emails that I've been sending my family, perhaps adding some additional information or embellishments. I apologize in advance for the length of this post... 

"So I'm here in Ireland! Finally had this nasty cold settle in my head/chest last night. Please pray for that. I hate colds. Today was spent figuring out the layout of the complicated manor house and trying to stay awake.

[Hurray for jet lag]  

Here's a little reference info: The backside of the manor house, a couple flats [apartments] and the former carriage house form a square with a big courtyard in the middle (think carriages and servant chore areas) I'll try to get some pictures up to give you reference [see Facebook] ...

[Removed whiney paragraph about a sleepless night and the nasty cold the man on the plane shared with me. You're welcome.]

"Tomorrow we're getting up at 5am to head to The Ploughing (kind of a fair) minus the Scherrer family. Apparently there's only one van, so John (Drewstown House director) is driving the van and Robin (his wife) is being gracious enough to drive her own vehicle to bring the rest of us. Scherrers will stay behind to finish up some work since a couple of the rooms need to be done in time to be used on Friday. 

On that note, I'm off to shower and head to what I hope will be a nice full night of sleep -at least until 4:30am."

[The Ploughing was interesting. The Irish love their agriculture, which is what the majority of booths/events/attractions were. We did get to see some sheep dog demonstrations, which were fascinating if somewhat redundant. We had samples of some Irish grown foods, chatted with a little old Irish rope maker, and let's not forget the parade of tractors. Did I mention the Irish love their agriculture?]

"Another beautiful day in Ireland! 

Just wanted to send a quick hello and thank everyone for the prayers. My cold is MUCH better, enough that I got to help with the work on the manor house today. Spent the morning sealing cracks and holes in the walls of a room that we will be painting after the weekend. I was working solo, so I spent my time listening to one of my new favorite Christian groups who happen to be Irish. Check out The Rend Collective if you get the chance, they're good. 

This afternoon was spend cleaning up in prep for the boy scout group coming to stay tomorrow night. I spend my time high on a ladder vacuuming up spiders and cobwebs. Definitely feels nice to have the place looking cleaner, even if the creepy crawlies will just move back in once we're done... 

Tomorrow the team will head down to Trim to see the castle there. I've seen it, but haven't taken the tour. Since there's only one mini-bus (a van) and not room for everyone, I'll hang back at the house with Carole and the kiddos. I'm sure we'll find more cleaning to do."

...

"Another couple days of work done. Boy (and girl) scouts left Sunday morning while we were at church. After the service in Navan (in which our team doubled the size of their congregation) John and Robin took us out for lunch with their friends Martin and Jill who also live in a flat at Drewstown...

Sunday afternoon four of us wandered down to Girley Bog for a walk, which, after one wrong turn and several stops to eat blackberries, got us back to Drewstown in just over two hours... 

Monday we were back working in the house. A couple of us began painting one of the rooms 'Scullery Green.' Apparently they're repainting all of the rooms in historically accurate colors, which means some interestingly named yet somewhat dull colors. But at least the walls are looking fresh again and mostly free of cracks/chips..."

...

"It is most decidedly fall here in Ireland. I'm seeing pictures of snow falling in Alaska and parts of Minnesota, so it seems cold weather has settled over more than just my little part of the world. However, ours comes in the form of rain. I'll have to wait until Thanksgiving to have my share of the snow.

We worked on the house for a bit this morning, but since we had an unexpected sunny day, we caravanned with John and Robin and headed for the Hill of Tara. Also called Tara of the Kings, the most straight forward way to explain it is tombs upon tombs. The sign said Tara was the "chief pagan sanctuary of early Ireland" dating back to "the late fourth millennium BC." It also served as the seats of the Gaelic kings. So quite a bit of history for a lot of grass. :)

...after Tara we made a stop over at the ruins of Bective Abbey, a smaller structure that at one time I guess was converted into a mansion, but now is just a shell of stone. Apparently a scene from the movie Braveheart was filmed in the little courtyard there... It was just good to take a break from scraping, painting and breathing dust and let the kids run around for a while. Don't think we'll get many more nice days like today, so we'll take advantage of them when they come."

And that's a good summary of the first full week of my adventure thus far. Lots of cleaning and working on the manor house with some fun mixed in. I'm sure there's more fun coming, so stay tuned...

Beginning.

I have always enjoyed seeing new places and finding beauty in the world around us. The Lord has provided opportunity for me to expand my circle of travel this year, turning me into what I've begun to call a "sometimes vagabond." I have a home base and I've held various jobs, but have always found myself on the move in one form or another. Wanderlust some would call it. 

At this time, I find myself in Ireland. 

Why Ireland? 

Why not. 

But for those of you needing more of an explanation, here is how I found my way to Drewstown House in County Meath...

This past summer I was not involved in camping ministry at all for the first time in... my life. Literally. However, I can give that history some other time. I did have the opportunity to take a two week trip with a couple of friends and travel to Germany, Scotland, England and Denmark. Ireland has always been on my list of places to see, but we had too much on our agenda to squeeze it in. But I loved our trip. I loved Europe. Now hold on to that thought...

When my family worked at Victory Bible Camp, we had the privilege of working alongside and getting to know the Scherrer family, Matt and Carole and their 6 children. Matt had grown up in Ireland at an orphanage turned boarding school turned camp/retreat center called Drewstown House. Their family came over to Ireland a couple years ago to visit and tour a bit. This Fall they had made plans to come specifically to serve at Drewstown House for a three month period, bringing with them a work team from Glacier View Bible Church for a couple weeks at the beginning of their time.

So as the summer was coming to an end, I began to feel a push to move on from my job at the credit union. After no camp this summer, I was missing that kind of ministry service -after all, it's what I grew up with and went to college for. So when I heard about the team coming over to Ireland I inquired as to whether or not I could be of help, and whether or not I could stay for 2 months. 

To make a long story short, I quit my job and here I am, listening to the predictable Irish rain on the roof, enjoying a fire in the stove and wearing homemade wool socks (made by my uncle, mind you, pretty fantastic family I've got). 

I am blessed. 

I shall try my best to keep you all updated and let you know what kind of things we're up to over here. I'll leave you with a map of where we're located. If you'd like to see a larger map of Ireland, I'm sure Google can help you out. Here's a smaller map of Meath just to bring things down to a smaller scale. We're about an hour from the Dublin airport; our nearest town is Athboy, just south of Kells as you see on the map: