Humping stones!

Everyone thought we were mad! And the thought certainly crossed my mind many times over the following few months.

We arrived in Ireland on one of the wettest, darkest days in December of 2006. There'd been so much rain in the preceding weeks we couldn't even drive along the 800m track so spent the night in a local hotel and the next morning started to wheelbarrow our belongings along in, yes, you guessed it, the incessant Irish rain.

At this stage I was 6 months pregnant and the job began to try and find a home birth midwife, easier said than done. Finally towards the end of January I came in to contact with Sinnead Murphy. Although based near Killarney, Co. Kerry, a mere 2+ hours drive away she agreed to be my midwife.

Meanwhile, Neil was doing his best to improve our living conditions and I was helping as best I could having no knowledge of building(demolishing). So at 6 months pregnant I found myself moving stone(not too big), rubble, chipping off old render etc. all the kinds of jobs my conditioning was telling me not to do, never mind all the people around me(except Neil).