Some infrequent internet use has caused some infrequent posting.  I'm hoping to change that soon.  We're staying with a really great family now on a dairy farm.  Irish parents Gerard, Claire, and their three daughters adopted from Vietnam (ages 9, 5, and 1).  These children are adorable.
Chad and I can now say that we have milked fifty cows by ourselves in less than two hours.  Usually the WWOOFers staying with this family work mainly in their gardens and around the house and don't really interact with the cows, but because  Claire and Gerard went away this weekend, he had to show us how to milk the cows so we could do it while they were gone.  Even though it is all by machine, this is an INTENSE process.  I have a list of notes front and back detailing what we have to do each time.  First we suit up in some Dharma Initiative Jumpsuits so that we can stay relatively clean throughout the process (this is often not that successful), then go through a pretty extensive procedure of pushing buttons, lifting levers, unscrewing nozzles to get everything in order and make sure the milk is being cooled properly.  We round up the cows from one of the fields by shouting and clapping at them and they eventually all file into the milking barn, where we let ten in at a time into these narrow platforms.  From below, we disinfect the utters, then attach suction machines.  The whole thing is definitely an experience far unlike anything I've ever done before.  While I don't know I would want to milk cows everyday, I am glad to say I have done it.
We're trying to put together a meal for the family tomorrow night when they come back to give Claire a break from cooking, and we finally decided Mexican food would be a good idea because it would certainly be different for them than the standard meat and potatoes. We are finding, however, that the groceries sold at the stores here are not the same as what are sold at home.  This meal for tomorrow has already involved some emailing to my mom, listing the ingredients I have and asking how in the world I can turn that into a meal.  She figured it out; I knew she would. :)    
There is much more of beautiful Ireland that is worth telling about, but as I have to be up in six hours to milk the cows, those will have to wait until sometime in what will hopefully be the not so very distant future. 
We're sending our love to everyone back home.