Autumn Arrives

The slowing down of the summer courses brings a welcome calm to the IPNA land. It has been a hectic summer with the Residential students as well as the other courses. Anna and myself have had little time to work on the land and get to the long list of chores to do before winter sets in.

We are still waiting for the summer weather. The past two months have shown record rainfall. The land is soaked like a sponge. The pig area was widened to allow them more room to wallow without causing huge mud pits.

The media has shown an interest this summer. We have had articles in the Outsider magazine, Kerry's Eye weekly, and an interview on the Newstalk radio programme.

Currently I am focusing on putting 12 volt battery feed electrical lights in the classroom. It is getting dark enough at night that the students are forced to use head torches. We are using LED lights that are equal to a 60 watt bulb. They use less than .1 amp per hour. We are using 10 AA batteries to power them and will get at least 50 hours of use before we need to recharge them.

The Vision Quest is up on the website and Kristy and John are excited to offer that again this fall. Last summer we had ten people show up for it. They hope to offer it in North Kerry this time at a place that is a memorial for John O'Donoghue.