This is an account of a South African family's four years living in rural Ireland and the hardships they faced rebuilding their dream stone cottage from scratch while trying to deal with meddling locals and their very strange antics. From drunken wakes, mistaken corpses and salmon poaching at midnight by the light of a torch while hiding from the police, to strong-man competitions involving straddling a mountain goat, it is a rare, honest and funny story.