John Deere Green (or Ford Blue..)

I rode in my first tractor (that I can remember at least) last night! Gillian's dad took us each for a ride. I was really surprised by what a smooth ride it was. It's also completely enclosed, so watertight and heated. It was like riding in a Lexus (or not) but it was much different than I expected. It was also Katie's first tractor ride. I think Eoghan was a little upset that she got to go- in the past, it's been a boys thing.

Gillian told me something the other day that I found funny. All Irish towns have two things- a church and a pub. I've found that to be very true- particularly with Killavullen. There isn't a post office or grocery store, but there are three pubs and one church.

She was also telling me about these things called "Fairy Rings". They are circles of trees that no one is allowed to cut down because legend has it that fairies live in those rings. I've grown up learning about all these Irish fairytales (trolls, leprachauns, fairies, etc.) but never knew they followed some of them!

Tonight Marian (Gill's cousin) and her daughter Lauren came by to visit after dinner. Marian is into horseback riding so when the kids went for their bath, she took me up to see her horse Harry. She's hoping to get me riding him by the end of my time here. We then ran into her brother Paddy who owns the farm next door. She passed me off to him and he drove me around showing me different parts of our area that I hadn't seen (including two of their other farms). I then went back and hung out with him and his brother William for awhile. We watched a movie about Bruce Lee (karate champion) on TV. They started asking me about American politics and I was amazed at how much they knew about everything that was going on in the US. It was somewhat embarrassing because certain things they knew more details about than I did (!) Regardless it was fun to get some time out of the house and to be with people closer to my age.