Where I live in Vermont, there are still some rock walls. These are old and falling down in places, but back in the day, they were what fenced in much of the livestock kept around here. I always wondered if they were very good at keeping the animals in. For one thing, they are not particularly tall and for another, it seems like a determined cow and a less determined sheep or goat could just clamber right over it.
Well, as I was cruising the archives over at Sweet Juniper, a blog well worth your time, I found a series of posts about the author's time on an Irish farm in the late 90's. (I too worked on an Irish farm for a while but it was not nearly so amusing as this account. Maybe sometime I will tell you about watering a secret stash of my boss' pot plants while the members of Sinn Fein were knocking at the door, though.) Along with many other hilarious memories, he gives you the lowdown on the joys and sorrows of fencing with rocks. Also, if you get to the part about pulling the calf and wonder "is it like that?" The answer is, "yes, it's exactly like that."
part 1
part 2: "In which Dutch conquers the Irish countryside riding on the shoulders of a gentleman who has just consumed 23 pints of Guinness"
part 3: in which Saint Patrick causes Dutch to betray his own countryman for twenty quid
part 4: In which Dutch finds himself elbow deep in bovine vagina under a full moon
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