We made it to the bus station n Manchester on time to see a long haired, mustached smiley man waiting for us. I had no idea what to expect but Mac did not look at all liked what I had imagined him to be. He had some trouble getting his parking slip for us to the leave the parking lot but managed. Rossendale is 20 minutes northwest of Manchester. Mac showed us where he had grown up and where his father used to live on our way out of the city. When it came to talking about what we would be doing for our month with him and Joy, he couldn’t really answer. He said “My wife’s the farmer. I’m an engineer”. He was just as curious as we were. He told us a little bit about a physics trail that Joy wanted to develop and a wind turbine that they wanted reconstructed.
We rolled up the long driveway of Cronkshaw Fold to a beautiful farm house and a wonderful view of the valley. There sheep dog Pip was pretty excited to see some new company. The place was gorgeous. They had a veggie plot at the bottom of the hill with a few poly-tunnels full of fresh herbs and vegetables. We would be spending a lot of time down there. There were also two calfs, chickens, many sheep, ducks, geese, rabbits, chinchillas, a horse named Bonnie, and goats. It was a fully functioning farm. Their property was beautiful. They even had a pond out back with trout and giant perch in it.
Joy was a treat right from the start. She greeted us with open arms and a warm dinner. She had so much energy and a very strong presence. She was definitely the boss of the house (sorry Mac). She had been running educational visits for children at her farm for many years. Mac was a computer engineer who developed computer chips on silicon wafers.
They had a daughter named Dorothy that was doing a workaway as well. That is the reason why Joy got involved with workaway. Dorothy convinced her to take in some weary travelers while she was away in Croatia working. Joy put us in Dorothy’s room which was the best accommodations we had had the entire workaway experience. There were solid walls, a leak-proof roof, a shower, three beds, and electricity! Ireland was good but this seemed like the Ritz to us. We felt at home right away.
Joy explained to us that we would be doing several jobs during our stay at Cronkshaw which mainly included rock wall fixing, wind turbine construction, and development on a physics trail. We were excited. We were going to be able to exercise our engineering skills. Something we probably haven’t done since college (no offense Cessna). We were excited. I put myself on fishing duty to rid the McCarthy pond of the pesty perch that were taking over.
There was Mike and Anne, who were two of the nicest people we had met during our entire trip. They were in charge of the garden at Cronkshaw and were so much fun to talk with and work with. Mike and Anne had lived all over including Saudi Arabia and India. Mike was in technical sales and a chemist which gave him opportunities to travel all over the world for work. They even invited us over to their house for Indian food one night which was so good. The front yard was the nicest on the block as well. Their company will be one of my most favorite memories of this trip.
One night Joy suggested we go to the pub with the neighbor girls. Ramsey decided to sport the mustache that night which left an impression they would never forget. They had two rinds with them as well. Amy was fresh out of college with a bachelor’s in Architecture and Hannah was in med school. We had great time with them although it was a little annoying that the boyfriend of one of the other girls wanted to talk about wars all night long.
During our days off with Mac and Joy they took us to a few different locations to see some of the sights in northwestern England. We made trips to Skipton, Black Pool, and Settle. We went to an art show one day in Skipton where I was able to get some unique gifts for the family. This is also where the movie “Calendar Girls” is based in. I love the field trips that we took. We always had fun with our walks and educational visits. The best was when we went to check out a sheep exhibit in Settle that Joy was excited about but were presented with a history of the local football team when we arrived. It was a bit of a letdown but it was funny. Black Pool was a pretty tacky but fun little town. It was like Coney Island but had double decker trolleys and a small Eiffel tower looking structure.
We also made a fieldtrip to Manchester one morning so Lindsey and I could get our injections for India and meet up with John, one of Lindsey old flight instructors. We took the bus from Helmshore to Manchester early in the morning. It was raining out but Joy was nice enough to lend me Mac’s bi green raincoat. The shot I had to get was a combination Hep B/ Typhoid fever injection. I had no problems at all but Lindsey freaked out at the sight of the needle. She started screaming and crying when the nurse was going to poke her. I didn’t know what to do. She eventually settled enough to get it over with. We met John at the doctor’s office and then went to breakfast with him. He is a pilot for Delta and was on a yearlong furlough travelling the world catching nearly free flights anywhere he could. We went to the textile, air and space museum with him and stopped in the courthouse to see if we could sit in on a case. We did and Lindsey began laughing uncontrollably. The defendant’s support got very mad at this outbreak which started right as the judge was delivering the sentence. Lindsey left and we followed as soon as court was adjourned. The defendant’s brother said “I’ll remember your face to John” and then we left. We took refuge inside the library after we left which was a pretty amazing top. There cathedral-like hallways and rooms containing texts that were hundreds of years old. It even had one of the oldest pieces of the Old Testament in a glass case.
I got to check out one of the local trains with Mac one day when we went to the Tesco grocery store to get some things for joy and beer for myself. Fresh Strongbow! Another bonus of being in England. The Strongbow was delicious along with many other ales and lagers. I will never forget the trips we took to the White Horse for a couple pints. There was a beer festival there that Mac went to one night and drank way too much. He was so hung-over the next day and Joy knew it. She put him to work too; making him saw wood in the barn. The bonus was that Joy took us down to the White Horse the next day to half some beer ourselves. When we arrived we were greeted by free beer. All of the left over kegs from the beerfest were being pumped away for free so it was not put to waste. There was many strange brews including cod ale that was not all that good but there were some tasty delights thrown in the mix. It was amazing how many free pints we got. It was great stop as well because I got to meet some friends of Joy’s who offered a free Jujitsu lesson if I ever inclined on learning a few moves. They taught a couple times a week at a local school.
By the time we were nearing the end of our visit we had put up most of a new stone wall for the plot, put new gravel entries into their goat field and chicken coop, developed a pulley system and potential/ kinetic energy system for the physics trail, and constructed the wind turbine. I managed to pull well over 40 perch out of the pond for Joy, helped Ross spray the sheep for fly strike, move wire bails, and performed several other farm jobs.
The M.V.P.’s of Cronkshaw were Ross, Matt, Cia, Jill, Ralph, and Phil. Cia and Phil were the ones who operated the children’s day visits to the farm. They performed all sorts of activities with the kids from building teepees, to playing games with them. Jill came on Mondays and mornings that children were attending to make fresh scones and cupcakes. She was an amazing baker. It was always a treat to get the leftovers from the day. Ralph was a jack of all trades. He came only a couple of times but directed us in how we could make the stone wall better and taught us how to build a gravel entryway on a field with a slope. He was a very smart man and very good fun to work with. He also has a son who had travelled the world at a very young age and is now a photographer. We had the opportunity of seeing a book that e had made with pictures around Helmshore. I was impressed. Ross was the Cronkshaw shepherd. He had a heart of gold when the sheep were behaving. He was always in a good mood until the day I had to help him mark and spray sheep in the pouring rain .I never heard so many profanities thrown into a single sentence before. It was hard to hold back my laughter while we were trying to contain a dozen sheep in a collapsing sheep pin. We eventually got it done though. Matt was helping out a couple days a week to earn some pocket money. He was 15 but very active. He played the drums as well which I thought was pretty cool. He was very well mannered and a little shy. Other faces around the farm included Bob the bee keeper who was having problems with queen bees dying and hostile takeovers by wasps. There was also the milk man who brought the best milk I had ever had. I got to try milk straight from the cow, so thick but oh so good.
Leaving the farm was difficult for us but we had to keep our volunteer stays to one month minimums. We had a wonderful last evening which was intended for only a farewell drinks and turned into a small going away party. Sensei was there who I was able to thank for the Jujitsu lesson. He taught me a few defensive moves that will help in any given “misunderstanding”. We’ll see if he’s right. After we were all much too tuned up for our own good we drove back and made a noisy return home. Lindsey managed to knock over an entire rack of clothes and Ramsey got to projectile vomit for the first and “last time”. We were in pretty rough condition when we woke up the next morning but managed to be ready to go to the airport for our evening flight to Germany on Ryanair. Thank you Joy and Mac for everything! Farewell England… hello Germany… sleep… hello CAIRO!
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