Written to Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, Jimmy & Wes: The Dynamic Duo
The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894)
Our furniture finally arrived from the Port of Santos on Friday, so we are temporarily in the midst of boxes, but the Organizator will soon put an end to the clutter. As a result of the move, and the upcoming holidays, this week's blog entry will be truncated. Therefore, until the next proper blog entry in early January 2009, from all of us at Alfheim to all of you: may your Christmas be as merry as these ladies, may your holidays include plenty of horizontal yoga, may your load be lightened by the company of others and may the New Year bring you plenty of whatever riches you wish to lie at your rainbow's end.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
December 8 - 14, 2008
Written to Counting Crows, New Amsterdam Live at Heineken Music Hall February 6, 2003
"It is hard to have patience with people who say 'There is no death' or 'Death doesn't matter.'' There is death. And whatever is matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and it and they are irrevocable and irreversible. You might as well say that birth doesn't matter."
- C.S. Lewis
The life-death balance on a farm takes more than a little getting used to. On Thursday morning, Clair informed me that Negona had killed, but not eaten, four ducks the day before. Oddly, Clair had placed all four of the dead ducks inside the hen house...completely out character...he is always so tidy. When Lone inquired, Rosana informed her that they did not want us to think that they had killed the ducks and eaten them in our absence. Rosana added that some workers did this, so they decided to leave the dead animals in the hen house to remove any doubt. Wow!
Negona has always shown too much interest in the poultry; Lone, Clair, Chico and I have all caught her in various stages of poultry consumption. After conferring with a veterinarian, who confirmed my suspicion that this tendency was unlikely to abate, Lone and I made the decision to put her down, which I did on Sunday. Very sad, but the idea of chaining Negona up for the rest of her life, the veterinarian's best suggestion after she informed us that she would not assist us in putting her to sleep, just did not seem like any life for a dog -or any animal for that matter. A most difficult decision, but in this case the good of the many outweighed the good of the one.
On Wednesday, on our twice-weekly 16:00 call, Clair informed me that one of the gilts was infected with bicheira (not for the faint of heart), the common name, or miíase, the technical name, an infestation of parasitic larvae. I quickly contacted Dra. Leslie Almeida, a homeopathic veterinarian, and she informed me how to treat this parasite in an manner consistent with the organic certification process guidelines:
Aside from the two cases of miíase, the hogs have otherwise made a complete recovery from their recent malaise. As such I owe a huge shout-out to my very good friend and the world's most curious orthopedic surgeon, and now wannabe veterinarian's apprentice, Tony Matan, who correctly diagnosed the hogs as suffering from sunburn. Impressive, particularly considering his only diagnostic input was my blog entry. Undoubtedly, there were many factors that affected the hogs condition, but exposure to the sun was the drop that caused their cup to run over...and not in the my cup runneth over sense. The gilts are again extremely active -even motoring around the pen at Usain Bolt-like speeds. They have also become more brazen in their search for contact. Yesterday one of the gilts not named Miss Massey actually let me rub her back and belly. In sum, while duck land suffered four tragic casualties this week, the mojo has returned to hog land.
On Thursday, December 18th, we hope to move the gilts to a permanent pen, where they will begin living caipira or free range -after a week or so of acclimatization. Their new pen is approx. 625 m2, almost twice as large as Lone's garden-to-be, and opens onto a beautiful pasture and a recently harvested field of mandioca...aka cassava, yuca, manioc or mogo. I cannot wait to set them loose. To this end Chico and Martins dug down 51 fence posts for the pig pen on Thursday! It should be added that Thursday's total of 51 fence posts for the pig pen came on top of approx. 160 pasture fence posts, each with four-strands of Belgo Motto® Farpa Vermelha barbed-wire, that they installed from Monday to Wednesday! When I said they were craftsman, I was not exagerating. Take a look at these examples (1, 2) of their fence lines! S * T * R * A * I G * H * T!
A few more details on the older of the dynamic duo. It turns out that Martins is 74, has a son who is nine years old, sadly his first wife died, and his father lived to be 116 years old! Yes, 116 years old! Legend...wait for it...
Lone finished painting the interior of our house...two coats...and it looks spectacular! If all goes well, we hope to receive our furniture from UK, which is actually in the Port of Santos, on Thursday, December 18th (7-9-13!).
On Saturday we decided to thin out the brood of dwarf chickens. We slaughtered five in all. The lucky survivors: the casal, our first farm animals -not counting the ill-fated, cachorro-do-mato chicks- and the loony rooster who has accompanied the two mother hens and their broods ever since they arrived. No reason to risk upsetting the latter life balance. Clair and I performed the neck snapping and feather plucking, while Lone and Rosana butchered the birds. Feather-plucking was surprisingly easy. On Saturday, Lone and I ate one dwarf chicken each for dinner...they are pretty lean creatures, but very, very tasty. Anyway, it was time to make room for the next batch...seven of Elle's chicks, three of whom appear to be cockrels based on their recent aggressiveness, and the 22 surviving chicks from the two mother hens.
On Sunday I had my hair cut by Janni in Vargem Grande. R$5.00 (€1.56 or $2.02) in all!
On Monday, we received a visit from Paulo Basetto Agro, a veterinarian who works with Fazenda Brazil, where we purchased the gilts. As always, each expert visit adds a layer to our nascent farming knowledge as well as a couple of additional contacts.
Finally, my apologies for the lateness of this post. Paulo's visit lasted most of Monday, and Picasa demanded a storage upgrade that took several hours to activate. No blog without photos.
"It is hard to have patience with people who say 'There is no death' or 'Death doesn't matter.'' There is death. And whatever is matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and it and they are irrevocable and irreversible. You might as well say that birth doesn't matter."
- C.S. Lewis
The life-death balance on a farm takes more than a little getting used to. On Thursday morning, Clair informed me that Negona had killed, but not eaten, four ducks the day before. Oddly, Clair had placed all four of the dead ducks inside the hen house...completely out character...he is always so tidy. When Lone inquired, Rosana informed her that they did not want us to think that they had killed the ducks and eaten them in our absence. Rosana added that some workers did this, so they decided to leave the dead animals in the hen house to remove any doubt. Wow!
Negona has always shown too much interest in the poultry; Lone, Clair, Chico and I have all caught her in various stages of poultry consumption. After conferring with a veterinarian, who confirmed my suspicion that this tendency was unlikely to abate, Lone and I made the decision to put her down, which I did on Sunday. Very sad, but the idea of chaining Negona up for the rest of her life, the veterinarian's best suggestion after she informed us that she would not assist us in putting her to sleep, just did not seem like any life for a dog -or any animal for that matter. A most difficult decision, but in this case the good of the many outweighed the good of the one.
On Wednesday, on our twice-weekly 16:00 call, Clair informed me that one of the gilts was infected with bicheira (not for the faint of heart), the common name, or miíase, the technical name, an infestation of parasitic larvae. I quickly contacted Dra. Leslie Almeida, a homeopathic veterinarian, and she informed me how to treat this parasite in an manner consistent with the organic certification process guidelines:
- Apply Creolina, a coal tar derivative, to the wound;
- This chokes off the larva's oxygen supply, forcing them to surface from inside the open wound;
- Using tweezers, remove the larvae, which can number in the tens, hundreds or even thousands (approx. 70 in two wounds in our first case);
- Clean the wound with cocoa soap;
- Apply Calendula to help reduce inflammation, control bleeding and soothe irritated tissue.
Aside from the two cases of miíase, the hogs have otherwise made a complete recovery from their recent malaise. As such I owe a huge shout-out to my very good friend and the world's most curious orthopedic surgeon, and now wannabe veterinarian's apprentice, Tony Matan, who correctly diagnosed the hogs as suffering from sunburn. Impressive, particularly considering his only diagnostic input was my blog entry. Undoubtedly, there were many factors that affected the hogs condition, but exposure to the sun was the drop that caused their cup to run over...and not in the my cup runneth over sense. The gilts are again extremely active -even motoring around the pen at Usain Bolt-like speeds. They have also become more brazen in their search for contact. Yesterday one of the gilts not named Miss Massey actually let me rub her back and belly. In sum, while duck land suffered four tragic casualties this week, the mojo has returned to hog land.
On Thursday, December 18th, we hope to move the gilts to a permanent pen, where they will begin living caipira or free range -after a week or so of acclimatization. Their new pen is approx. 625 m2, almost twice as large as Lone's garden-to-be, and opens onto a beautiful pasture and a recently harvested field of mandioca...aka cassava, yuca, manioc or mogo. I cannot wait to set them loose. To this end Chico and Martins dug down 51 fence posts for the pig pen on Thursday! It should be added that Thursday's total of 51 fence posts for the pig pen came on top of approx. 160 pasture fence posts, each with four-strands of Belgo Motto® Farpa Vermelha barbed-wire, that they installed from Monday to Wednesday! When I said they were craftsman, I was not exagerating. Take a look at these examples (1, 2) of their fence lines! S * T * R * A * I G * H * T!
A few more details on the older of the dynamic duo. It turns out that Martins is 74, has a son who is nine years old, sadly his first wife died, and his father lived to be 116 years old! Yes, 116 years old! Legend...wait for it...
Lone finished painting the interior of our house...two coats...and it looks spectacular! If all goes well, we hope to receive our furniture from UK, which is actually in the Port of Santos, on Thursday, December 18th (7-9-13!).
On Saturday we decided to thin out the brood of dwarf chickens. We slaughtered five in all. The lucky survivors: the casal, our first farm animals -not counting the ill-fated, cachorro-do-mato chicks- and the loony rooster who has accompanied the two mother hens and their broods ever since they arrived. No reason to risk upsetting the latter life balance. Clair and I performed the neck snapping and feather plucking, while Lone and Rosana butchered the birds. Feather-plucking was surprisingly easy. On Saturday, Lone and I ate one dwarf chicken each for dinner...they are pretty lean creatures, but very, very tasty. Anyway, it was time to make room for the next batch...seven of Elle's chicks, three of whom appear to be cockrels based on their recent aggressiveness, and the 22 surviving chicks from the two mother hens.
On Sunday I had my hair cut by Janni in Vargem Grande. R$5.00 (€1.56 or $2.02) in all!
On Monday, we received a visit from Paulo Basetto Agro, a veterinarian who works with Fazenda Brazil, where we purchased the gilts. As always, each expert visit adds a layer to our nascent farming knowledge as well as a couple of additional contacts.
Finally, my apologies for the lateness of this post. Paulo's visit lasted most of Monday, and Picasa demanded a storage upgrade that took several hours to activate. No blog without photos.
Monday, December 8, 2008
December 1 - 7, 2008
Written to Ali Farka Toure, The Source
Quote of the Day - Marie Curie - "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
The King is dead...long live the King! On Thursday morning we discovered that Kong had become late sometime on Wednesday night. Clair initially proposed various theories, all of which revolved around Kong not liking his feed etc. After a bit of back and forth, and my pointing out both that the chicken feed is scientifically balanced and that Kong seemed to have a hardy appetite, Rosana blurted out that Kong was old...very old, apparently. It seems that this blogging rube had been duped into buying a geriatric rooster. Once Rosana broke the story, Clair added that it was true, after which Rosana added that Clair, in fact, had pointed this out to her when he first saw Kong. This information explained a number of things, Kong's surprisingly gentle nature, his careful gait. Well...Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. In the end, better an old rooster than an old bull or boar.
As sad as I was about old Kong, my mood picked up when I went to inspect the fencing. Chico and Martins, his compadre, had indeed been busy. The managed to complete 146 fence posts in only three and one-half days! Clair helped immeasurably by espalhando or distributing most of the fence posts approx. two meters apart along the fence line, but any way you slice it or dice this is an impressive feat. Chico is, as mentioned earlier, 61 years old and Martins is 73! Chico continues to mention how slow Martins is, but also how reliable. And they are not just productive, they are also craftsmen. After lunch on Thursday, I drove them back to São Luiz do Paraitinga as Chico had some bills to pay. They seemed pleased with the job and genuinely enjoyed Rosana's food. I took advantage of the trip to drop off Negona at the vet to be castrated.
Friday was a tough day for two reasons. First, the gilts seemed to be struggling...were generally out of sorts and having trouble walking, something we first noticed on Thursday, though then it was not nearly as pronounced. I spoke with a number of knowledgeable people who suggested everything from a lack of conditioning -prior to their arrival at Alfheim, they have lived their entire existence in a one and one-half meter by one and one-half meter pen- to stress caused by the change in environment and diet to heat. Most worrying! Second, I was having trouble securing organic hog feed -and we were running out of what little we had! As a result, I spent almost the entire day trying to lock down deliveries from two suppliers, Premix and Fruto do Sol. While it may seem like a somewhat disorganized, last-ditch effort, I first contacted both on or around November 18th! One of the struggles for an organic (or wanna-be organic) farmer is the difficulty of acquiring certified feed. While I can buy animal feed in pretty much any bairro of 600 inhabitants or more, organic feed is indeed a rare commodity. After many, many hours on the phone, I succeeded in securing a Sunday delivery of 60, 60 kg sacks of biodynamic corn from Fruto do Sol, which arrived, though I was alone to unload it...3,600 kg of hurt, and a Tuesday delivery from Premix of 40, 30 kg sacks of hog feed (7-9-13!).
On Saturday morning Lone and I added a water trough and three lean-tos, for extra shade, to the hog pen. We also pampered them as much as possible, feeding them some surplus corn that had sprouted from the scatterings of last year's harvest as well as some local grass that Clair and Rosana had showed us the day before (and told us that hogs liked). The corn was a big hit, the grass, too. The combination of the lean-tos and the water trough seems to have helped the gilts a great deal (note to self: while hogs may be able to drink from a hose, they seem to fare better with a water trough). In the end, then, all of the work seems to have paid off, and the gilts are looking more stable and active. While we believe the worst has passed, we have nonetheless scheduled a visit next week with a veterinarian who works at Fazenda Brasil, where we purchased the gilts.
This week we also inherited two kittens from our very good friends, John Tomizuka and Paula Zandomeni. More accurately, a woman at their apartment complex, Eugenia, takes in strays, has them csatrated and feeds them. They are extremely cute, and in time we hope that they will develop into effective mouse traps...certainly more effective than Esben's three-week experiment this summer with mechanical mouse traps. His endeavor produced a number of fine meals of bread and cheese for the mice, but nothing in the way of dead rodents. In short, mice 3, Esben 0!
Finally, this week Lone learned to catch hens, the ducks at last became waterborne and, like clockwork, Negão returned on Saturday. We all hope he will stay this time, especially Layla.
Quote of the Day - Marie Curie - "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
The King is dead...long live the King! On Thursday morning we discovered that Kong had become late sometime on Wednesday night. Clair initially proposed various theories, all of which revolved around Kong not liking his feed etc. After a bit of back and forth, and my pointing out both that the chicken feed is scientifically balanced and that Kong seemed to have a hardy appetite, Rosana blurted out that Kong was old...very old, apparently. It seems that this blogging rube had been duped into buying a geriatric rooster. Once Rosana broke the story, Clair added that it was true, after which Rosana added that Clair, in fact, had pointed this out to her when he first saw Kong. This information explained a number of things, Kong's surprisingly gentle nature, his careful gait. Well...Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. In the end, better an old rooster than an old bull or boar.
As sad as I was about old Kong, my mood picked up when I went to inspect the fencing. Chico and Martins, his compadre, had indeed been busy. The managed to complete 146 fence posts in only three and one-half days! Clair helped immeasurably by espalhando or distributing most of the fence posts approx. two meters apart along the fence line, but any way you slice it or dice this is an impressive feat. Chico is, as mentioned earlier, 61 years old and Martins is 73! Chico continues to mention how slow Martins is, but also how reliable. And they are not just productive, they are also craftsmen. After lunch on Thursday, I drove them back to São Luiz do Paraitinga as Chico had some bills to pay. They seemed pleased with the job and genuinely enjoyed Rosana's food. I took advantage of the trip to drop off Negona at the vet to be castrated.
Friday was a tough day for two reasons. First, the gilts seemed to be struggling...were generally out of sorts and having trouble walking, something we first noticed on Thursday, though then it was not nearly as pronounced. I spoke with a number of knowledgeable people who suggested everything from a lack of conditioning -prior to their arrival at Alfheim, they have lived their entire existence in a one and one-half meter by one and one-half meter pen- to stress caused by the change in environment and diet to heat. Most worrying! Second, I was having trouble securing organic hog feed -and we were running out of what little we had! As a result, I spent almost the entire day trying to lock down deliveries from two suppliers, Premix and Fruto do Sol. While it may seem like a somewhat disorganized, last-ditch effort, I first contacted both on or around November 18th! One of the struggles for an organic (or wanna-be organic) farmer is the difficulty of acquiring certified feed. While I can buy animal feed in pretty much any bairro of 600 inhabitants or more, organic feed is indeed a rare commodity. After many, many hours on the phone, I succeeded in securing a Sunday delivery of 60, 60 kg sacks of biodynamic corn from Fruto do Sol, which arrived, though I was alone to unload it...3,600 kg of hurt, and a Tuesday delivery from Premix of 40, 30 kg sacks of hog feed (7-9-13!).
On Saturday morning Lone and I added a water trough and three lean-tos, for extra shade, to the hog pen. We also pampered them as much as possible, feeding them some surplus corn that had sprouted from the scatterings of last year's harvest as well as some local grass that Clair and Rosana had showed us the day before (and told us that hogs liked). The corn was a big hit, the grass, too. The combination of the lean-tos and the water trough seems to have helped the gilts a great deal (note to self: while hogs may be able to drink from a hose, they seem to fare better with a water trough). In the end, then, all of the work seems to have paid off, and the gilts are looking more stable and active. While we believe the worst has passed, we have nonetheless scheduled a visit next week with a veterinarian who works at Fazenda Brasil, where we purchased the gilts.
This week we also inherited two kittens from our very good friends, John Tomizuka and Paula Zandomeni. More accurately, a woman at their apartment complex, Eugenia, takes in strays, has them csatrated and feeds them. They are extremely cute, and in time we hope that they will develop into effective mouse traps...certainly more effective than Esben's three-week experiment this summer with mechanical mouse traps. His endeavor produced a number of fine meals of bread and cheese for the mice, but nothing in the way of dead rodents. In short, mice 3, Esben 0!
Finally, this week Lone learned to catch hens, the ducks at last became waterborne and, like clockwork, Negão returned on Saturday. We all hope he will stay this time, especially Layla.
Monday, December 1, 2008
November 24 - 30, 2008
Written to Derek and the Dominos, Live at the Fillmore [Disk 2]
Funny Quote of the Day - Lily Tomlin - "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."
Apologies for the delay in publishing this week's blog entry. I had to pick up Chico and his crew of one this morning and deliver them to Alfheim to begin fencing. As a result, Lone and I had to delay our weekly trip to São Paulo by 24 hours.
While on the subject of arrivals, our return to Alfheim on Tuesday evening brought another surprise...this time of the positive variety: Casas Bahia had at last delivered our two guest beds (Lone commented that she would have made up our bed before taking a picture, but when the only covers one has is a sleeping bag, I am not sure it makes a huge difference). Finally, an end to the dual-occupancy single bed after nine weeks! And my first taste of a sleeping unit larger than a single bed since July! Now that's progress!
Despite the upgrade, I nonetheless awoke on Wednesday morning very tired and unable to gain traction on much of anything. Thankfully the hog truck arrived in the afternoon, hardening my focus. What a sight! The first order of business was constructing a ramp on which to guide the gilts down into Lone's garden-to-be. No way were any of us going to attempt to carry 20 gilts (young females, usually under 12 months of age, that have not reproduced) weighing an average of 90 kg each. A couple of scrap doors later, and we were ready for descent. Step 1: push/pull gilt onto ramp. Step 2: guide gilt into center of ramp. Step 3: slide gilt down ramp. Step 4: repeat 19 times. Step 5: close the gate. Step 6: enjoy the moment.
Following successful delivery, I went in to examine the animals and ended up administering a cooling hand-bath to one of the gilts that seemed to be suffering from overheating (a true All Creatures Great and Small moment). She recovered quickly and was soon on her feet and enjoying her new surroundings with the rest of her crew. The breed we purchased has been described as uma salada or a salad, a mix of many breeds: Duroc, Large Whites, Nilos, Piau. The result: lean, beautiful animals. Most amazing of all has been how quickly these closed-production hogs have adapted to their enhanced indpenedence in Lone's garden-to-be. Almost as soon as they de-ramped, they began to root. They are quickly transforming Lone's garden-to-be, rooting and preparing the soil for planting. They are also extremely social animals, rarely passing one another without what I have dubbed the snout shake, a quick, ever-so-subtle bump of their snouts along with a quick sniff. They also enjoy sleeping in large groups, in some cases very large groups. And if any of you ever doubted whether a hog could drink from a hose, you can now rest easy knowing that they can.
On Thursday I had to travel to Natividade da Serra, my first visit, to give testimony in a fatal car accident that I only barely avoided becoming a part of some months back on Rodovia dos Tamoios. Lone was kind enough to accompany me. Natividade da Serra is well-organized, clean and quiet, an altogether lovely small town. While waiting for me, Lone managed to pick up a stray dog, Negona, from the local padaria or bakery. After running a few other errands, we put Negona into the back of our car and traveled back to Alfheim. She is still a bit too much of a puppy, but within 24 hours her tail moved from its then-permanent position between her hind legs to its natural position of high and wagging. It is obvious that she had been badly mistreated, so the speed of her transformation was remarkable.
Somewhat ironic that within a period of less than two weeks we lost Negão and gained Negona. As if to underscore the irony, on Saturday who should show up as though he had barely been away but the Rambling Man himself, Negão...nothing more than a jaunt of nine km separating us. Layla was, of course, ecstatic, even working through her briefly injured paw to limp along on three and one-half paws whenever we went for a walk. The three knuckleheads seem to enjoy each others company. Now we will just have to see for how long the prodigal son stays put.
Thursday and Friday were also used to construct the Burj Al Arab of hen houses, complete with walk-in door (Lone's engineering contribution) and three bamboo roosting pins. The 20 mm plywood is buried 50 cm into the ground, so if something does happen to any of the chickens, it won't be from a subterranean assault. The ducks were moved in first, followed by Kong, Elle, the two mother hens and their respective broods and finally Rosanna's slightly larger chicks, which are, in fact, Elles, though she no longer recognizes them as such, having been separated from them very early on. The dwarf chickens joined the brood the following evening.
We feed the gilts every day at 16:00, approx. 3% of their body weight or 2.7 kg of feed per animal. We have begun training them to come to the sound of a bell, a trick that took all of two days. This will be important when they begin living free range in the forest. The advantage of the bell is that it has the same sound regardless of who is feeding them on any given day. As you will see from the sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 photos, they respond very well to this trick. My hope is that we can also use this trick to transfer them from Lone's garden-to-be to their next pig pen, a way station before their final stop in the forest, a part of the farm that we refer to as Lothlórien.
While Clair and I were building the hen house, Lone and Rosana readied the apartment for the arrival of Chico and the man (on Monday, December 1st).
On Saturday, our king-sized mattress arrived...almost. The truck that delivered it had gotten stuck in the mud on Friday somewhere en route. That morning one of the two delivery men arrived on foot as close to our front door as the dogs would allow and informed us that their truck was outside the entrance to the fazenda and was unable to enter because of the poor condition of the dirt road. I took the dogs and went to investigate. After a little back and forth, I convinced them that the three of us could carry the mattress on foot to the house, 1.8 km of one of my less brilliant ideas, but we succeeded.
Finally, we spent Sunday marking pastures with the markers from the orange graveyard. Already excited to return to Alfheim and see the progress on the fencing.
Funny Quote of the Day - Lily Tomlin - "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."
Apologies for the delay in publishing this week's blog entry. I had to pick up Chico and his crew of one this morning and deliver them to Alfheim to begin fencing. As a result, Lone and I had to delay our weekly trip to São Paulo by 24 hours.
While on the subject of arrivals, our return to Alfheim on Tuesday evening brought another surprise...this time of the positive variety: Casas Bahia had at last delivered our two guest beds (Lone commented that she would have made up our bed before taking a picture, but when the only covers one has is a sleeping bag, I am not sure it makes a huge difference). Finally, an end to the dual-occupancy single bed after nine weeks! And my first taste of a sleeping unit larger than a single bed since July! Now that's progress!
Despite the upgrade, I nonetheless awoke on Wednesday morning very tired and unable to gain traction on much of anything. Thankfully the hog truck arrived in the afternoon, hardening my focus. What a sight! The first order of business was constructing a ramp on which to guide the gilts down into Lone's garden-to-be. No way were any of us going to attempt to carry 20 gilts (young females, usually under 12 months of age, that have not reproduced) weighing an average of 90 kg each. A couple of scrap doors later, and we were ready for descent. Step 1: push/pull gilt onto ramp. Step 2: guide gilt into center of ramp. Step 3: slide gilt down ramp. Step 4: repeat 19 times. Step 5: close the gate. Step 6: enjoy the moment.
Following successful delivery, I went in to examine the animals and ended up administering a cooling hand-bath to one of the gilts that seemed to be suffering from overheating (a true All Creatures Great and Small moment). She recovered quickly and was soon on her feet and enjoying her new surroundings with the rest of her crew. The breed we purchased has been described as uma salada or a salad, a mix of many breeds: Duroc, Large Whites, Nilos, Piau. The result: lean, beautiful animals. Most amazing of all has been how quickly these closed-production hogs have adapted to their enhanced indpenedence in Lone's garden-to-be. Almost as soon as they de-ramped, they began to root. They are quickly transforming Lone's garden-to-be, rooting and preparing the soil for planting. They are also extremely social animals, rarely passing one another without what I have dubbed the snout shake, a quick, ever-so-subtle bump of their snouts along with a quick sniff. They also enjoy sleeping in large groups, in some cases very large groups. And if any of you ever doubted whether a hog could drink from a hose, you can now rest easy knowing that they can.
On Thursday I had to travel to Natividade da Serra, my first visit, to give testimony in a fatal car accident that I only barely avoided becoming a part of some months back on Rodovia dos Tamoios. Lone was kind enough to accompany me. Natividade da Serra is well-organized, clean and quiet, an altogether lovely small town. While waiting for me, Lone managed to pick up a stray dog, Negona, from the local padaria or bakery. After running a few other errands, we put Negona into the back of our car and traveled back to Alfheim. She is still a bit too much of a puppy, but within 24 hours her tail moved from its then-permanent position between her hind legs to its natural position of high and wagging. It is obvious that she had been badly mistreated, so the speed of her transformation was remarkable.
Somewhat ironic that within a period of less than two weeks we lost Negão and gained Negona. As if to underscore the irony, on Saturday who should show up as though he had barely been away but the Rambling Man himself, Negão...nothing more than a jaunt of nine km separating us. Layla was, of course, ecstatic, even working through her briefly injured paw to limp along on three and one-half paws whenever we went for a walk. The three knuckleheads seem to enjoy each others company. Now we will just have to see for how long the prodigal son stays put.
Thursday and Friday were also used to construct the Burj Al Arab of hen houses, complete with walk-in door (Lone's engineering contribution) and three bamboo roosting pins. The 20 mm plywood is buried 50 cm into the ground, so if something does happen to any of the chickens, it won't be from a subterranean assault. The ducks were moved in first, followed by Kong, Elle, the two mother hens and their respective broods and finally Rosanna's slightly larger chicks, which are, in fact, Elles, though she no longer recognizes them as such, having been separated from them very early on. The dwarf chickens joined the brood the following evening.
We feed the gilts every day at 16:00, approx. 3% of their body weight or 2.7 kg of feed per animal. We have begun training them to come to the sound of a bell, a trick that took all of two days. This will be important when they begin living free range in the forest. The advantage of the bell is that it has the same sound regardless of who is feeding them on any given day. As you will see from the sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 photos, they respond very well to this trick. My hope is that we can also use this trick to transfer them from Lone's garden-to-be to their next pig pen, a way station before their final stop in the forest, a part of the farm that we refer to as Lothlórien.
While Clair and I were building the hen house, Lone and Rosana readied the apartment for the arrival of Chico and the man (on Monday, December 1st).
On Saturday, our king-sized mattress arrived...almost. The truck that delivered it had gotten stuck in the mud on Friday somewhere en route. That morning one of the two delivery men arrived on foot as close to our front door as the dogs would allow and informed us that their truck was outside the entrance to the fazenda and was unable to enter because of the poor condition of the dirt road. I took the dogs and went to investigate. After a little back and forth, I convinced them that the three of us could carry the mattress on foot to the house, 1.8 km of one of my less brilliant ideas, but we succeeded.
Finally, we spent Sunday marking pastures with the markers from the orange graveyard. Already excited to return to Alfheim and see the progress on the fencing.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
November 17 - 23, 2008
We returned to Alfheim late Tuesday evening, around 23:00. For no apparent reason, though fortuitously as it turned out, we decided to take the Paraibuna route home, via Posso Alto and Bairo Alto. It had rained almost non-stop while we were away, and about halfway home the car's ABS braking system gave out...nothing like a little extra excitement on a very muddy road home. As it turned out, this was merely an interlude to what would greet us at the stone bridge on the entrance road to the main house. In short, there was no bridge, or rather we could not see it because the river had overflowed and the bridge was completely submerged! Unable to see anything other than rushing water in front of me, I stopped the car, put on my Wellington boots, fished out our trusty One Earth Emergency Wind Up Light and waded across the bridge to test the depth. The rapidly moving water reached about three-quarters of the way up my Wellington boots, approx. 40 cm. Probably against better judgment, we decided to risk the crossing. Given the fact that you are reading this blog entry, you have probably ascertained that we made it back to our house without a major incident. The next morning, I rushed down to take a photo of the scene. Unfortunately for reader's of the blog, for it was a truly spectacular sight, but fortunately for us, the water had already subsided and was again running through the enormous pipe under the bridge.
After this dramatic homecoming, Lone spent the entire week painting the house's interior, which is almost finished and looks terrific. I have taken a number of lovely photos of Lone this week, a seemingly simple task, though not without its own risks. Very early on Lone had complained about the dearth of photos of her in the blog. Only too pleased to oblige my loving wife of 22 years, I immediately took a handful of what I thought were beautiful photos, almost all of which were summarily rejected as unfit for publication. Thereafter, she issued me the following guideline: 'take lots of photos of me, but as I think I should look'. Talk about a Far Side moment (see: ... knowing exactly what to do, ...).
While we were in São Paulo, Lone's squashes began sprouting...in just over a week! The development of her squashes and seedlings once again demonstrated the breathless growth of pretty much everything at Alfheim, a fact that was brought home to me ever more powerfully on Wednesday morning, when I went out to feed the animals and found all of the chicks outside the hen house pecking and scratching with the two mother hens. Apparently, they had ventured outside for the first time already on Tuesday. Utterly amazing: barely four days removed from their arrival, which itself was only a matter of days post hatch. The chicks are fearless, and wander surprisingly far from the hen house, though always under the watchful eyes of one of the two mother hens. Unfortunately, three of the chicks have become "late" (Botswanan vernacular for having passed away), but the remaining 25 seem very strong and healthy -though there table manners are still somewhat unrefined. They are irresistibly cute.
Not to be forgotten in any discussion of rapid growth, the ducklings have quite nearly outgrown their makeshift, inverted concrete sink for a house. Both Lone and I tried, unbeknown to one other, to take a duckling out for a test paddle in a still part of one of the streams close to the house. Not a big success. Apparently, these ducklings do not yet take to water like...well, a duck.
Weather permitting, I will build a new hen house on Wednesday for our growing brood. As if in anticipation, the chickens undertook an early inspection of the building materials.
My entire week was focused on readying the farm for December's influx of large farm animals. On Wednesday, I secured the use of a tractor to help us distribute fence posts around the farm's pastures...and checked in with Chico to make sure that we were still on for December 1st. We are. I also closed the deal to purchase 20 sows from Fazenda Brasil. Delivery: Wednesday, November 26th.
The tractor made possible an absolutely brutal day of work on Thursday, when Clair and I, together with Dirlei, the tratorista, moved 600 fence posts to the various pastureland, where they will be readily accessible to Chico and his team. We loaded 50 fence posts into the tractor's trailer at a time, and then, according to Chico's instructions, we distributed them in piles of 25. Between loading and unloading, we lifted the equivalent of 1,200 fence posts. By the end of the day, I could barely use my left arm due to cramping. In spite of the physical torment, the end of the day brought a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment: an entire pile of 600 fence posts had almost entirely disappeared; however, as with all things in farming, the remaining 200 fence posts are already mercilessly awaiting their distribution next Thursday!
It is probably worth noting that Negão was nowhere to be found when we returned to Alfheim on Tuesday. Apparently, he and Layla moseyed on down to Clair's sitio near Vargem Grande, approx. nine km from Alfheim, shortly after our departure on Sunday. Clair brought Layla back on his motorcycle...don't ask me how. Negão we learned, was born a ramblin’ man; he once found his way back to the sitio from Ubatuba, through the Mata Atlântica, a journey of not less than 25 km! Not surprisingly, Negão's departure left Layla crestfallen; she barely ate for two days and generally had a severe case of the mopes. So, like any warm-blooded dog owner, I drove down and fetched Negão on Friday afternoon, once the roads had dried out sufficiently for me to reach the sitio. Layla, who refused to let me leave without her, camping out emphatically on the backseat while I was loading the car, was so happy to see Negão that she quite literally jumped from the backseat out through the driver's side window in one motion to greet him (the car was stopped). Upon returning to Alfheim, they played like long-lost amigos miraculously reunited. Unfortunately, Negão and Layla disappeared again on Saturday, though thankfully Layla returned on Sunday morning, completely mugged but with her usual healthy appetite fully restored -though still clearly missing her playmate. We will prioritize finding her a more steadfast play pal this week.
On Sunday we visited a biodynamic farm near Jarinu run by Cassiopeia, a company founded in 1981 that produces aloe vera, natural phyto-cosmetics and the BioWash line of natural, biodegradable cleaning products, all of which became certified natural by IBD (Biodynamic Institute) in 2007. As consumers of the BioWash product line, it was doubly interesting for us to visit the farm and meet both the owners and staff. For our Brazilian readers, if you haven't already tried the BioWash product line, you should...an effective alternative to traditional cleaning products based on petrochemical derivatives.
We were given a wonderful tour and made to feel entirely welcome by the administrador of Sítio Veraloe, Carlos, a more diminutive incarnation of Tom Bombadil, a walking, talking lexicon of flora, fauna and all things organic/biodynamic, and hosted by his captivating wife, Sylvia. A most inspiring day!
Finally, the Fazenda Alfheim blog continues to gain momentum and has now attracted 485 absolute unique visitors from 19 countries, namely Brazil, United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Germany, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Sweden, India, China, Romania, Belize, Belgium, Togo, France and Australia. We truly enjoy reading your comments (in any language), so please keep them coming!
After this dramatic homecoming, Lone spent the entire week painting the house's interior, which is almost finished and looks terrific. I have taken a number of lovely photos of Lone this week, a seemingly simple task, though not without its own risks. Very early on Lone had complained about the dearth of photos of her in the blog. Only too pleased to oblige my loving wife of 22 years, I immediately took a handful of what I thought were beautiful photos, almost all of which were summarily rejected as unfit for publication. Thereafter, she issued me the following guideline: 'take lots of photos of me, but as I think I should look'. Talk about a Far Side moment (see: ... knowing exactly what to do, ...).
While we were in São Paulo, Lone's squashes began sprouting...in just over a week! The development of her squashes and seedlings once again demonstrated the breathless growth of pretty much everything at Alfheim, a fact that was brought home to me ever more powerfully on Wednesday morning, when I went out to feed the animals and found all of the chicks outside the hen house pecking and scratching with the two mother hens. Apparently, they had ventured outside for the first time already on Tuesday. Utterly amazing: barely four days removed from their arrival, which itself was only a matter of days post hatch. The chicks are fearless, and wander surprisingly far from the hen house, though always under the watchful eyes of one of the two mother hens. Unfortunately, three of the chicks have become "late" (Botswanan vernacular for having passed away), but the remaining 25 seem very strong and healthy -though there table manners are still somewhat unrefined. They are irresistibly cute.
Not to be forgotten in any discussion of rapid growth, the ducklings have quite nearly outgrown their makeshift, inverted concrete sink for a house. Both Lone and I tried, unbeknown to one other, to take a duckling out for a test paddle in a still part of one of the streams close to the house. Not a big success. Apparently, these ducklings do not yet take to water like...well, a duck.
Weather permitting, I will build a new hen house on Wednesday for our growing brood. As if in anticipation, the chickens undertook an early inspection of the building materials.
My entire week was focused on readying the farm for December's influx of large farm animals. On Wednesday, I secured the use of a tractor to help us distribute fence posts around the farm's pastures...and checked in with Chico to make sure that we were still on for December 1st. We are. I also closed the deal to purchase 20 sows from Fazenda Brasil. Delivery: Wednesday, November 26th.
The tractor made possible an absolutely brutal day of work on Thursday, when Clair and I, together with Dirlei, the tratorista, moved 600 fence posts to the various pastureland, where they will be readily accessible to Chico and his team. We loaded 50 fence posts into the tractor's trailer at a time, and then, according to Chico's instructions, we distributed them in piles of 25. Between loading and unloading, we lifted the equivalent of 1,200 fence posts. By the end of the day, I could barely use my left arm due to cramping. In spite of the physical torment, the end of the day brought a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment: an entire pile of 600 fence posts had almost entirely disappeared; however, as with all things in farming, the remaining 200 fence posts are already mercilessly awaiting their distribution next Thursday!
It is probably worth noting that Negão was nowhere to be found when we returned to Alfheim on Tuesday. Apparently, he and Layla moseyed on down to Clair's sitio near Vargem Grande, approx. nine km from Alfheim, shortly after our departure on Sunday. Clair brought Layla back on his motorcycle...don't ask me how. Negão we learned, was born a ramblin’ man; he once found his way back to the sitio from Ubatuba, through the Mata Atlântica, a journey of not less than 25 km! Not surprisingly, Negão's departure left Layla crestfallen; she barely ate for two days and generally had a severe case of the mopes. So, like any warm-blooded dog owner, I drove down and fetched Negão on Friday afternoon, once the roads had dried out sufficiently for me to reach the sitio. Layla, who refused to let me leave without her, camping out emphatically on the backseat while I was loading the car, was so happy to see Negão that she quite literally jumped from the backseat out through the driver's side window in one motion to greet him (the car was stopped). Upon returning to Alfheim, they played like long-lost amigos miraculously reunited. Unfortunately, Negão and Layla disappeared again on Saturday, though thankfully Layla returned on Sunday morning, completely mugged but with her usual healthy appetite fully restored -though still clearly missing her playmate. We will prioritize finding her a more steadfast play pal this week.
On Sunday we visited a biodynamic farm near Jarinu run by Cassiopeia, a company founded in 1981 that produces aloe vera, natural phyto-cosmetics and the BioWash line of natural, biodegradable cleaning products, all of which became certified natural by IBD (Biodynamic Institute) in 2007. As consumers of the BioWash product line, it was doubly interesting for us to visit the farm and meet both the owners and staff. For our Brazilian readers, if you haven't already tried the BioWash product line, you should...an effective alternative to traditional cleaning products based on petrochemical derivatives.
We were given a wonderful tour and made to feel entirely welcome by the administrador of Sítio Veraloe, Carlos, a more diminutive incarnation of Tom Bombadil, a walking, talking lexicon of flora, fauna and all things organic/biodynamic, and hosted by his captivating wife, Sylvia. A most inspiring day!
Finally, the Fazenda Alfheim blog continues to gain momentum and has now attracted 485 absolute unique visitors from 19 countries, namely Brazil, United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Germany, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Sweden, India, China, Romania, Belize, Belgium, Togo, France and Australia. We truly enjoy reading your comments (in any language), so please keep them coming!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
November 10 - 16, 2008
Lone spent Wednesday and Thursday planting various members of the genus Cucurbita, aka squashes, in the field nearest our house, where we had earlier planted soja perene, and seeding her vegetable garden. She decided to plant squashes in the part of the field where the soja perene has not yet sprouted. Clair planted this area on his own, while Lone and I were in São Paulo, and he either planted the seeds too deeply or he was too conservative with the number of seeds he sowed. Regardless, the principle of intelligent fast failure dictated that we should acknowledge our mistake and move on: the area itself is only a fraction of the entire field and the investment negligible.
This example brings to mind two of the three (rule #1 of consulting: always present the client with three options) guiding principles that I have always tried to apply in business -and now find highly applicable to farming. First, hire good people, something I am confident we have done thus far at Alfheim. Second, apply the principle of intelligent fast failure, i.e. move as quickly as possible from new ideas to new knowledge by making small and manageable mistakes — intelligent failures. Few errors are truly insurmountable, unless, of course, one fails to recognize them as such. For any number of reasons, George W. Bush comes to mind, but then as the old adage goes - people get the democracy they deserve.
For my part, I spent Wednesday and Thursday clearing more pasture. On Wednesday I got an early start and bogarted Clair's heavier scythe...very nice! On Thursday Clair got the jump on me, and I was again relegated to my Minnie Me scythe...what a bogart!
On Friday I went to Paraibuna to visit Fazenda Brasil to negotiate the purchase of 20 sows. Beto Camargo, a good friend and well-known fixture in Paraibuna, accompanied me. Fazenda Brasil is a closed production facility, i.e. one cannot visit or even view the pigs one purchases; Fazenda Brasil sells 700 pigs per day!
At present pigs are selling for approx. R$63 (€22 or $28) per arroba (approx. 15 kg), so assuming a sow weighs on average 90 kg, we will pay R$378 per sow (€133 or $168). For 20 sows, then, our total investment will be R$7,560 (€2,660 or $3,353) plus transport. We are counting on an average of 12 piglets per litter (the genetics of these particular sows should be top notch), meaning that sometime in the late first half of 2009, we should be the proud (and likely more than a little overwhelmed) owners of approx. 240 piglets, half boars and half sows. The boars will be fattened and sold, while the sows will form the basis for our production of piglets, which by 2010 should reach approx. 2,880 per year. This assumes two litters (12 piglets each) per sow per year. At today's current market price of approx. R$65 per (non-organic) piglet, this would yield approx. R$187,200 (€65,871 or $83,034) per year, more than enough to cover our monthly expenses and begin paying back our initial investments in the property (estimated payback: less than five years).
Due to heavy the rains this week, our weekend visit to Fazenda Zacarias (see Provence), an herb farm not too far from Rio de Janeiro, was canceled. Instead Lone and I spent the better part of Saturday, together with Dumb and Dumber, who we loaded into our Ford Ecosport 4WD 2.0 16V, in São Luiz do Paraitinga, where we purchased tools and materials at Deposit Cursino, our preferred DIY, to construct a bigger hen house. Why a bigger hen house? Because I purchased two hens and 28 chicks on Thursday evening from Rosana's father. In all I spent R$86.00, R$15.00 (€5.28 or $6.65) per hen and R$2.00 (€0.70 or $0.89) per chick. And he threw in a rooster for free! This brings me to the third guiding principle of business and farming, nicely summed up by George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall fame: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.” In short, when opportunity knocks, open the door.
And knock it did again on Friday, when on my way back from hog shopping in Paraibuna, as I was driving through Pouso Alto, which takes a fraction of the time it takes Muddy Waters to make love to a woman in Mannish Boy (hint: less than five minutes), I saw him...Kong. Kong is, quite simply, the most imposing rooster I have ever seen, more than three times the size of any of the other roosters at Alfheim. As the 28 chicks are the same breed as Kong, and the ducklings continue to grow like agricultural crops after the accident at the Chernobyl NPP in 1986, construction of a new hen house has quickly risen to near the top of our short-term priority list.
In addition to getting "...a deal...a steal...the sale of the f*&%ing century!" from Rosana's father, I also learned that back when Alfheim was still known as Estância Maneco, it supported 300 head of cattle (at present Alfheim would support approx. 50). As it turns out, Rosana's father worked at Estância Maneco in a capacity similar to Clair today, and he has a wealth of information about our fazenda that will prove invaluable in connection with both the organic certification process and any topographical survey we carry out to determine the true borders of the property. Had I chosen not to purchase the chickens that evening, I likely would not have encountered her father for some time, if at all. Knowing that the property has supported a much larger number of cattle allows us to consider a range of additional business scenarios.
After purchasing all of the requisite tools and materials for the hen house, Lone and I lunched at Bar e Restaurante Familiar Comida Caseiro, our favorite restaurant in the center of São Luiz do Paraitinga, which incidentally allows dogs entry. At a total of R$14.00 (€4.93 or $6.21) for two, people not dogs, including two soft drinks and a coffee, the latter on the house, one can hardly argue with the price.
Finally, our fantastic fixed-mobile home telephone is working again and thanks to the help of a good friend, Jefferson Zanetti, we may well have cracked the code for Internet connectivity on the farm. The proposed solution involves a dual-band cell antenna, two repeaters and my Claro 3G modem. If successful, the payback will be approx. six months when compared to Embratel's more conventional satellite solution. Syv-ni-tretten.
This example brings to mind two of the three (rule #1 of consulting: always present the client with three options) guiding principles that I have always tried to apply in business -and now find highly applicable to farming. First, hire good people, something I am confident we have done thus far at Alfheim. Second, apply the principle of intelligent fast failure, i.e. move as quickly as possible from new ideas to new knowledge by making small and manageable mistakes — intelligent failures. Few errors are truly insurmountable, unless, of course, one fails to recognize them as such. For any number of reasons, George W. Bush comes to mind, but then as the old adage goes - people get the democracy they deserve.
For my part, I spent Wednesday and Thursday clearing more pasture. On Wednesday I got an early start and bogarted Clair's heavier scythe...very nice! On Thursday Clair got the jump on me, and I was again relegated to my Minnie Me scythe...what a bogart!
On Friday I went to Paraibuna to visit Fazenda Brasil to negotiate the purchase of 20 sows. Beto Camargo, a good friend and well-known fixture in Paraibuna, accompanied me. Fazenda Brasil is a closed production facility, i.e. one cannot visit or even view the pigs one purchases; Fazenda Brasil sells 700 pigs per day!
At present pigs are selling for approx. R$63 (€22 or $28) per arroba (approx. 15 kg), so assuming a sow weighs on average 90 kg, we will pay R$378 per sow (€133 or $168). For 20 sows, then, our total investment will be R$7,560 (€2,660 or $3,353) plus transport. We are counting on an average of 12 piglets per litter (the genetics of these particular sows should be top notch), meaning that sometime in the late first half of 2009, we should be the proud (and likely more than a little overwhelmed) owners of approx. 240 piglets, half boars and half sows. The boars will be fattened and sold, while the sows will form the basis for our production of piglets, which by 2010 should reach approx. 2,880 per year. This assumes two litters (12 piglets each) per sow per year. At today's current market price of approx. R$65 per (non-organic) piglet, this would yield approx. R$187,200 (€65,871 or $83,034) per year, more than enough to cover our monthly expenses and begin paying back our initial investments in the property (estimated payback: less than five years).
Due to heavy the rains this week, our weekend visit to Fazenda Zacarias (see Provence), an herb farm not too far from Rio de Janeiro, was canceled. Instead Lone and I spent the better part of Saturday, together with Dumb and Dumber, who we loaded into our Ford Ecosport 4WD 2.0 16V, in São Luiz do Paraitinga, where we purchased tools and materials at Deposit Cursino, our preferred DIY, to construct a bigger hen house. Why a bigger hen house? Because I purchased two hens and 28 chicks on Thursday evening from Rosana's father. In all I spent R$86.00, R$15.00 (€5.28 or $6.65) per hen and R$2.00 (€0.70 or $0.89) per chick. And he threw in a rooster for free! This brings me to the third guiding principle of business and farming, nicely summed up by George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall fame: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.” In short, when opportunity knocks, open the door.
And knock it did again on Friday, when on my way back from hog shopping in Paraibuna, as I was driving through Pouso Alto, which takes a fraction of the time it takes Muddy Waters to make love to a woman in Mannish Boy (hint: less than five minutes), I saw him...Kong. Kong is, quite simply, the most imposing rooster I have ever seen, more than three times the size of any of the other roosters at Alfheim. As the 28 chicks are the same breed as Kong, and the ducklings continue to grow like agricultural crops after the accident at the Chernobyl NPP in 1986, construction of a new hen house has quickly risen to near the top of our short-term priority list.
In addition to getting "...a deal...a steal...the sale of the f*&%ing century!" from Rosana's father, I also learned that back when Alfheim was still known as Estância Maneco, it supported 300 head of cattle (at present Alfheim would support approx. 50). As it turns out, Rosana's father worked at Estância Maneco in a capacity similar to Clair today, and he has a wealth of information about our fazenda that will prove invaluable in connection with both the organic certification process and any topographical survey we carry out to determine the true borders of the property. Had I chosen not to purchase the chickens that evening, I likely would not have encountered her father for some time, if at all. Knowing that the property has supported a much larger number of cattle allows us to consider a range of additional business scenarios.
After purchasing all of the requisite tools and materials for the hen house, Lone and I lunched at Bar e Restaurante Familiar Comida Caseiro, our favorite restaurant in the center of São Luiz do Paraitinga, which incidentally allows dogs entry. At a total of R$14.00 (€4.93 or $6.21) for two, people not dogs, including two soft drinks and a coffee, the latter on the house, one can hardly argue with the price.
Finally, our fantastic fixed-mobile home telephone is working again and thanks to the help of a good friend, Jefferson Zanetti, we may well have cracked the code for Internet connectivity on the farm. The proposed solution involves a dual-band cell antenna, two repeaters and my Claro 3G modem. If successful, the payback will be approx. six months when compared to Embratel's more conventional satellite solution. Syv-ni-tretten.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
November 3 - 9, 2008
Saturday arrived and our sense of accomplishment was noticeably diminished. To be sure we were again busy all week, but mainly with facilitating tasks or mid- to long-term projects. For example, I spent all day Thursday chasing up and locking down, figuratively not literally, Chico the fencer. I picked up Chico at the BR Petrobras gas station in São Luiz do Paraitinga at 08:00 (his suggestion), drove him to Alfheim, walked him around the fazenda, agreed to terms and conditions and drove him home in the early afternoon.
Chico is one of those larger-than-life rural characters who defies description, though that will not stop me from trying: He is 61 years old, has been retired for 11 years and has worked as a fencer extraordinaire for equally as long. He is built like a dwarf, the Tolkien variety rather than the kind Ricky Gervais has a go at in his latest, hysterically funny, stand-up routine entitled Fame. Chico barely reaches my belly-button, but he is as wide as he is tall, barrel-chested, has a back that the Governator would envy and, much like Matthew McConaughey, has trouble keeping his shirt on. And to be honest, there is no reason he should...he is pure Geritol® beefcake. By choice Chico only works with other retirees, one of whom is 73 years old and, according to Chico, a bit slow -but consistent. In Chico's view, the majority, though not all he was quick to point out, of today's generation não quer trabalhar (do not want to work).
The result of Thursday's effort: Chico will finish up his current jobs, has promised not to take on any additional work in November and will begin fencing at Alfheim, with a crew of two or three, on Monday, December 1st. Lone or I will pick him and his crew up on Mondays and drive them back to São Luiz do Paraitinga on Thursdays. They will live in our apartment, which Marcos and the construction crew finished this week along with the other outstanding construction items, including a beautiful, retrofit brick staircase for the front entrance of our hosue. Rosana, Clair's wife, will prepare their meals, as she did for Marcos and his crew this week, and Chico and the boys will install approx. 300 fence posts, each with four-strands of Belgo Motto® Farpa Vermelha barbed wire, per week. In total, they will install almost two and one-half kilometers of high-quality fence per month...and probably spend between six and eight weeks working at Alfheim. In addition to the fencing, one of Chico's compadres performs arado de boi or plowing with oxen, eight oxen in all, four of which plow for a day and then rest for a day while the second foursome takes over. We have chosen to pursue this option in order to limit the likelihood of erosion on the steepest mountain pastures.
As promised, Negão, the mutt, arrived at Alfheim this week, and he and Layla became instant amigos. The only downside to their friendship is that Layla's IQ has plummeted by at least a third. I have nicknamed them Dumb and Dumber. Negão is shorter than Layla, but faster and has better endurance...and he does not chase any of the other farm animals. On the whole, both dogs are extremely well-behaved, with the exception of when they take our clothes down off of the clothesline.
Negão joined Alfheim together with Elle, Rosana's supermodel hen...long-legged, paparazzi-shy and skittish -and always stylishly dressed in black.
The ducks are growing by leaps and bounds; I would swear the three male ducklings have doubled in size in a week. Lone has gone completely bonkers for the ducks, her new brood (sorry, Johannes, Esben and Pelle!). The other day Marcos and I found her sitting inside the tiny duck pen talking to the ducklings. Needless to say, the image left us both speechless. Only when Lone realized we were standing next to her, and where she was and what she was doing, did it occur to her how funny it must look (unfortunately, no photo).
In addition to looking after the ducklings, Lone has been busy painting the interior of our house, still a work in progress, and seeding her vegetable garden.
Miss Massey, Clair's pig, gave us a scare the other day. Encouraged by my prodding, she let me give her a neck rub. After a few moments of rapture, Miss Massey collapsed without warning onto her side with her eyes closed...motionless. After the initial fear that I had killed Miss Massey had subsided, I realized that she was merely making herself available for further neck and belly rubbing. Further tests confirmed that her 'flop' is indeed a sign of contentment.
Clair and I continued clearing the pastures, and the results are very encouraging.
This coming week's biggest challenge will be distributing the 800 fence posts, in groups of 25, in each of the proposed seven pastures so that Chico and his crew can work efficiently. As he made repeatedly clear, he could also carry the fence posts from source to destination on his back, mais não por R$2.00 por mourão (not for R$2.00 (€0.73 or $0.95) per post). Fortunately, we have access to a tractor on Mondays and Tuesdays, so I hope to be able to limit the scope of manually moving fence posts, each of which is 220 cm tall and 10-13 cm in diameter, up the mountain pastures to no more than 200 fence posts.
Lone and I spent most of Friday in Ubatuba purchasing mattresses and pillows for our guest beds at Casas Bahia, where interest rates on store credit exceed 50% per annum! Fortunately, we paid a vista or in cash. While Lone paid for the bedding, I went to Banco Itaú and withdrew Marcos' final payment and bonus. Afterward, I went for a run on the beach while Lone napped, and then Lone and I took turns swimming in the ocean...nothing like salt water to mend scrapes, cuts and insect bites. We had the entire beach pretty much to ourselves.
On Saturday, Lone and I spent the entire morning completing the Associação de Certificação Instituto Biodinâmico - IBD form, which is a prerequisite for organic certification.
Finally, our fixed-mobile home telephone went on the fritz this week, so we have been incommunicado...apologies to any and all who tried to contact us. We have, of course, contacted Eugenio, Telefônica's third-party service provider, and hope to have it working again soon. Also, my mobile has changed to +55 11 9206-6927.
Chico is one of those larger-than-life rural characters who defies description, though that will not stop me from trying: He is 61 years old, has been retired for 11 years and has worked as a fencer extraordinaire for equally as long. He is built like a dwarf, the Tolkien variety rather than the kind Ricky Gervais has a go at in his latest, hysterically funny, stand-up routine entitled Fame. Chico barely reaches my belly-button, but he is as wide as he is tall, barrel-chested, has a back that the Governator would envy and, much like Matthew McConaughey, has trouble keeping his shirt on. And to be honest, there is no reason he should...he is pure Geritol® beefcake. By choice Chico only works with other retirees, one of whom is 73 years old and, according to Chico, a bit slow -but consistent. In Chico's view, the majority, though not all he was quick to point out, of today's generation não quer trabalhar (do not want to work).
The result of Thursday's effort: Chico will finish up his current jobs, has promised not to take on any additional work in November and will begin fencing at Alfheim, with a crew of two or three, on Monday, December 1st. Lone or I will pick him and his crew up on Mondays and drive them back to São Luiz do Paraitinga on Thursdays. They will live in our apartment, which Marcos and the construction crew finished this week along with the other outstanding construction items, including a beautiful, retrofit brick staircase for the front entrance of our hosue. Rosana, Clair's wife, will prepare their meals, as she did for Marcos and his crew this week, and Chico and the boys will install approx. 300 fence posts, each with four-strands of Belgo Motto® Farpa Vermelha barbed wire, per week. In total, they will install almost two and one-half kilometers of high-quality fence per month...and probably spend between six and eight weeks working at Alfheim. In addition to the fencing, one of Chico's compadres performs arado de boi or plowing with oxen, eight oxen in all, four of which plow for a day and then rest for a day while the second foursome takes over. We have chosen to pursue this option in order to limit the likelihood of erosion on the steepest mountain pastures.
As promised, Negão, the mutt, arrived at Alfheim this week, and he and Layla became instant amigos. The only downside to their friendship is that Layla's IQ has plummeted by at least a third. I have nicknamed them Dumb and Dumber. Negão is shorter than Layla, but faster and has better endurance...and he does not chase any of the other farm animals. On the whole, both dogs are extremely well-behaved, with the exception of when they take our clothes down off of the clothesline.
Negão joined Alfheim together with Elle, Rosana's supermodel hen...long-legged, paparazzi-shy and skittish -and always stylishly dressed in black.
The ducks are growing by leaps and bounds; I would swear the three male ducklings have doubled in size in a week. Lone has gone completely bonkers for the ducks, her new brood (sorry, Johannes, Esben and Pelle!). The other day Marcos and I found her sitting inside the tiny duck pen talking to the ducklings. Needless to say, the image left us both speechless. Only when Lone realized we were standing next to her, and where she was and what she was doing, did it occur to her how funny it must look (unfortunately, no photo).
In addition to looking after the ducklings, Lone has been busy painting the interior of our house, still a work in progress, and seeding her vegetable garden.
Miss Massey, Clair's pig, gave us a scare the other day. Encouraged by my prodding, she let me give her a neck rub. After a few moments of rapture, Miss Massey collapsed without warning onto her side with her eyes closed...motionless. After the initial fear that I had killed Miss Massey had subsided, I realized that she was merely making herself available for further neck and belly rubbing. Further tests confirmed that her 'flop' is indeed a sign of contentment.
Clair and I continued clearing the pastures, and the results are very encouraging.
This coming week's biggest challenge will be distributing the 800 fence posts, in groups of 25, in each of the proposed seven pastures so that Chico and his crew can work efficiently. As he made repeatedly clear, he could also carry the fence posts from source to destination on his back, mais não por R$2.00 por mourão (not for R$2.00 (€0.73 or $0.95) per post). Fortunately, we have access to a tractor on Mondays and Tuesdays, so I hope to be able to limit the scope of manually moving fence posts, each of which is 220 cm tall and 10-13 cm in diameter, up the mountain pastures to no more than 200 fence posts.
Lone and I spent most of Friday in Ubatuba purchasing mattresses and pillows for our guest beds at Casas Bahia, where interest rates on store credit exceed 50% per annum! Fortunately, we paid a vista or in cash. While Lone paid for the bedding, I went to Banco Itaú and withdrew Marcos' final payment and bonus. Afterward, I went for a run on the beach while Lone napped, and then Lone and I took turns swimming in the ocean...nothing like salt water to mend scrapes, cuts and insect bites. We had the entire beach pretty much to ourselves.
On Saturday, Lone and I spent the entire morning completing the Associação de Certificação Instituto Biodinâmico - IBD form, which is a prerequisite for organic certification.
The main purpose of IBD is to participate in the development of organic, biodynamic and socially correct agriculture, processing, trading and its markets, through certification.Thus far, we have been well-served by both Tom Vidal, whom we originally met online and later in person at BioFach, and Maria Carolina Wilmers Manço, with whom I had an hour-long conference call on Wednesday afternoon to lay the groundwork for our application. Unfortunately, no amount of technical support could help us to circumvent the 34-page form required to initiate the organic certification process, but between the two of us we managed to put together what we hope is a qualified draft document.
Finally, our fixed-mobile home telephone went on the fritz this week, so we have been incommunicado...apologies to any and all who tried to contact us. We have, of course, contacted Eugenio, Telefônica's third-party service provider, and hope to have it working again soon. Also, my mobile has changed to +55 11 9206-6927.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
October 27 - November 2, 2008
One dog, six ducklings and a pig. In brief, this week was defined by the three aforementioned additions to our growing menagerie. On Tuesday, before picking me up in Chácara Santo Antônio, Lone stopped and picked up Layla, a black Labrador, from our good friend Melissa. We then drove back to Alfheim, stopping twice, once for gas and once to change another flat tire, this time on rodovia Ayrton Senna (note to self: begin shopping for options to Pirelli). Layla is well-behaved, gentle, playful, a quick study, energetic and a serviceable watch dog. Her only downside was her initial fondness for playing with the chickens, particularly the roosters. Not surprisingly, the chickens did not reciprocate her youthful exuberance; fortunately we were able to quickly cure her of her joie de poulet.
Next week Layla should be joined by Negão, a semi-abandoned dog that lives near Clair's sitio just outside of Vargem Grande. Negão and Layla seemed to hit it off when they met earlier this week. We will, therefore, ensure that Negão receives all of the appropriate vaccinations, and Layla will gain a play pal more her size.
The timing of Layla's disciplinary rehabilitation could not have been better because on Thursday I bought six ducklings. The ducklings spent their first night inside, and the next day Clair and I fashioned a makeshift duck pen, replete with pond. Owing to their youth, Lone and I decided it best to continue to bring them in at night, where they sleep safely in a cardboard box (note to self #2: acquire a bigger box while in São Paulo this week). The ducklings will aid Lone immeasurably in keeping her garden slug-free as they 'devour slugs like mad'.
This week's final animal addition occurred on Saturday, when Clair brought his pig to Alfheim. He had earlier told us that he would not be bringing her to Alfheim because he intended to slaughter her. However, when we visited his sitio on Thursday on the way back from São Luiz do Paraitinga, where among other things we purchased 200 citronella and 400 lemon eucalyptus saplings (to produce organic, insect-repellent oils) and dropped Clair off at the bus stop so that he could take the bus to Taubaté to sort out some paperwork, we saw that his pig was very much alive. It was during this visit that his wife, Rosana, informed Lone that she did not believe that he would have the heart to slaughter his pig, a fact that he himself, somewhat sheepishly, has since confirmed. Seizing this opening, Lone and I encouraged him to bring his pig to Alfheim to root in Lone's vegetable garden. And so it was on Saturday, when Lone and I were returning from a long walk with Layla to some of the more distant corners of the fazenda, where among other discoveries we chanced upon a previously-overlooked pasture, that a truck arrived with Clair, Dener, Kaoê and a driver to drop off Clair's pig, since renamed Miss Massey (think Massey Ferguson) and collect all of the scrap iron and metal tins for recycling. Miss Massey, who is fed thrice daily, seems to have adapted quickly to her new environs, but is quite indifferent to Layla, who initially wanted to play, but who since seems to have acknowledged that in this game she neither defines the rules nor sets the pace.
In addition to all of the animal fun, Wednesday was spent helping Clair clear another pasture -very physical work, but less difficult than hoeing. In the farming equivalent to rock-paper-scissors, hoe still tops scythe on the degree of difficulty scale. Note to self #3: buy a heavier scythe. Clair's scythe weighs almost twice as much as mine, a fact that I jokingly used to justify his clearing twice as much pasture as me.
Lone, Clair and I spent Friday painting and liming (aka whitewashing) the main house. More specifically, Lone spent all day painting our bedroom while Clair and I limed the exterior. Lone's task is by far the more time-consuming. This truism led me to question why we don't lime houses more often. Lime costs approx. 10% of what paint does and is infinitely more user-friendly, i.e. it applies more easily, dries more quickly and cleans up effortlessly. On top of everything else, it is more environmentally-friendly.
Friday was punctuated by a late-afternoon visit from a new friend, Emmanuel Rengade, a Frenchman who owns a pousada in Picinguaba. Emmanuel is a friend of the brother of Karen, with whom Lone attended the London Waldorf Teacher Training Seminar. Emmanuel was joined by his Portuguese wife, Filipa, their French-Portuguese son, Felix, their Brazilian babá or nanny, Flávia, and a French friend, Lois Jammes, a bush pilot who lives in Bolivia.
In between liming the exterior and negotiating the delivery of 14 rolls of Belgo Motto® Farpa Vermelha barbed-wire, I cooked my favorite Austin chili for our guests (note to chili-interested readers: drop the flour and add carrots). For her part, Lone baked another flat loaf of her corn and oat bread. All modesty aside, both were delicious. If anyone is interested in a wheat-free alternative to bread, Lone is generously offering up her recipe below free of charge:
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (2.4 dl) cornmeal
1 cup oatmeal (2.4 dl) oatmeal
1/2 tsp (0.05 dl) baking soda
1 tsp (0.025 dl) salt
1/2 cup (1.2 dl) buttermilk (or equal parts yogurt and milk)
2 eggs
0.9 stick (100 gr) melted butter
DIRECTIONS
Bake in a preheated oven (200 degrees C or 400 F) until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Today, Sunday, Marcos returned to Alfheim to review the relatively short list of pending construction items. He and his crew of two or three will spend this coming week completing these tasks and, on Friday, phase I construction will officially come to a close.
Next week Layla should be joined by Negão, a semi-abandoned dog that lives near Clair's sitio just outside of Vargem Grande. Negão and Layla seemed to hit it off when they met earlier this week. We will, therefore, ensure that Negão receives all of the appropriate vaccinations, and Layla will gain a play pal more her size.
The timing of Layla's disciplinary rehabilitation could not have been better because on Thursday I bought six ducklings. The ducklings spent their first night inside, and the next day Clair and I fashioned a makeshift duck pen, replete with pond. Owing to their youth, Lone and I decided it best to continue to bring them in at night, where they sleep safely in a cardboard box (note to self #2: acquire a bigger box while in São Paulo this week). The ducklings will aid Lone immeasurably in keeping her garden slug-free as they 'devour slugs like mad'.
This week's final animal addition occurred on Saturday, when Clair brought his pig to Alfheim. He had earlier told us that he would not be bringing her to Alfheim because he intended to slaughter her. However, when we visited his sitio on Thursday on the way back from São Luiz do Paraitinga, where among other things we purchased 200 citronella and 400 lemon eucalyptus saplings (to produce organic, insect-repellent oils) and dropped Clair off at the bus stop so that he could take the bus to Taubaté to sort out some paperwork, we saw that his pig was very much alive. It was during this visit that his wife, Rosana, informed Lone that she did not believe that he would have the heart to slaughter his pig, a fact that he himself, somewhat sheepishly, has since confirmed. Seizing this opening, Lone and I encouraged him to bring his pig to Alfheim to root in Lone's vegetable garden. And so it was on Saturday, when Lone and I were returning from a long walk with Layla to some of the more distant corners of the fazenda, where among other discoveries we chanced upon a previously-overlooked pasture, that a truck arrived with Clair, Dener, Kaoê and a driver to drop off Clair's pig, since renamed Miss Massey (think Massey Ferguson) and collect all of the scrap iron and metal tins for recycling. Miss Massey, who is fed thrice daily, seems to have adapted quickly to her new environs, but is quite indifferent to Layla, who initially wanted to play, but who since seems to have acknowledged that in this game she neither defines the rules nor sets the pace.
In addition to all of the animal fun, Wednesday was spent helping Clair clear another pasture -very physical work, but less difficult than hoeing. In the farming equivalent to rock-paper-scissors, hoe still tops scythe on the degree of difficulty scale. Note to self #3: buy a heavier scythe. Clair's scythe weighs almost twice as much as mine, a fact that I jokingly used to justify his clearing twice as much pasture as me.
Lone, Clair and I spent Friday painting and liming (aka whitewashing) the main house. More specifically, Lone spent all day painting our bedroom while Clair and I limed the exterior. Lone's task is by far the more time-consuming. This truism led me to question why we don't lime houses more often. Lime costs approx. 10% of what paint does and is infinitely more user-friendly, i.e. it applies more easily, dries more quickly and cleans up effortlessly. On top of everything else, it is more environmentally-friendly.
Friday was punctuated by a late-afternoon visit from a new friend, Emmanuel Rengade, a Frenchman who owns a pousada in Picinguaba. Emmanuel is a friend of the brother of Karen, with whom Lone attended the London Waldorf Teacher Training Seminar. Emmanuel was joined by his Portuguese wife, Filipa, their French-Portuguese son, Felix, their Brazilian babá or nanny, Flávia, and a French friend, Lois Jammes, a bush pilot who lives in Bolivia.
In between liming the exterior and negotiating the delivery of 14 rolls of Belgo Motto® Farpa Vermelha barbed-wire, I cooked my favorite Austin chili for our guests (note to chili-interested readers: drop the flour and add carrots). For her part, Lone baked another flat loaf of her corn and oat bread. All modesty aside, both were delicious. If anyone is interested in a wheat-free alternative to bread, Lone is generously offering up her recipe below free of charge:
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (2.4 dl) cornmeal
1 cup oatmeal (2.4 dl) oatmeal
1/2 tsp (0.05 dl) baking soda
1 tsp (0.025 dl) salt
1/2 cup (1.2 dl) buttermilk (or equal parts yogurt and milk)
2 eggs
0.9 stick (100 gr) melted butter
DIRECTIONS
Bake in a preheated oven (200 degrees C or 400 F) until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Today, Sunday, Marcos returned to Alfheim to review the relatively short list of pending construction items. He and his crew of two or three will spend this coming week completing these tasks and, on Friday, phase I construction will officially come to a close.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
October 20 - 26, 2008
We spent six days in São Paulo this week, from Saturday to Thursday. In two words: too many. By Tuesday, Lone was beginning to exhibit all of the classic, early indicators of megalopolis-itis, aka urban-itis. By Thursday her symptoms were undeniable, and we decided to return home after BioFach and dinner at our good friend Leonardo's house in Jundiaí.
That we traveled to São Paulo on Saturday in the first place was, in fact, my doing. I was convinced that I had badly sprained or more likely broken my left foot and wanted to visit an emergency room. I was convinced of this because I was experiencing increasing pain with each step, and the foot itself had swollen significantly. Long story short: after a lengthy visit to Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, one of the country's leading hospitals, both my x-rays and ultra-sound were pronounced negative. Instead the doctors diagnosed me as having 'some kind of infection', possibly caused by the anklet I received a week earlier courtesy of my old nemeses, the leafcutter ant minors.
BioFach on Thursday was remarkable. Lone and I had attended an earlier BioFach in Rio de Janeiro in 2003, and the difference was quantitatively and qualitatively marked across every parameter. I spent the entire day visiting as many of the exhibitors as possible. I came away with three principle observations:
All in all, a most fruitful day.
When we returned to Alfheim after a four-hour drive from Leonardo's house in Jundiaí (note to self: in the future, accept Leonardo's gracious invitation to spend the night), we arrived to find that our key did open the lock on the front gate. It was at that moment I recalled that Manoel, from Mano's Moveis (Mano's Furniture) in São Luiz do Paraitinga, had mentioned something in an e-mail about his 'tomei a liberdade de abrir' (took the liberty of opening) our gate when he arrived unannounced on Saturday to deliver some furniture. But Manoel also assured me in a subsequent e-mail that he 'deixei em ordem' (left everything in order). Needless to say he did not. So at 02:30 or thereabouts, Lone put on her Wellington boots, I grabbed our trusty One Earth Emergency Wind Up Light and we climbed over the gate and walked the 0.8 km to our house, where we quickly fell fast asleep. On the plus side, Manoel did deliver a beautifully crafted king-sized bed (not that I mind sharing a single bed with my lovely wife, but she responds to my daily query about her previous night's sleep with the phrase 'I woke up a lot last night'), a kitchen table and a vitrine of sorts.
On Friday we awoke to find that in our absence Clair had carefully packed all of the surplus building material into the exterior, bamboo storage shed, cleared most of pasture #3 and was busy liming the exterior of his house, which either turned out very nicely or very blue, depending on whether you side with Clair, Roasana and me or Lone. Granted before leaving for São Paulo I had asked Clair to focus on these three tasks, but not in my wildest fantasies had I imagined that he would be able to clear such a large area of pasture in only three days! The before and after comparison of the cleared vs yet-to-be cleared pasture is very, very promising. In fact, the regrowth of the grass on all of the pastures, in particular the lower pastures -after we removed the 34 head of cattle that were squatting at Alfheim when Esben and I first arrived in early July- has been nothing short of stunning. Once fenced, and after we remove all of the Samambaia, which causes bloody urine and recurrent bladder infection in cattle, we will be able to implement a proper grazing rotation, with easy access to our very own Ent-draught, brewed from the waters of the mountain springs, allowing us, we hope, to produce approx. 20 organic vacas de corte or beef cattle and 20 bulls every 12-15 months. Annual revenue: approx. R$80,000 - 120,000 (€28,000-41,000 or $35,000 - 52,000).
BIG news: our very own soja perene has begun to sprout...after only two weeks!
On Saturday, breakfast began as it does most days with Lone's magical papaya (Carica papaya) and maracuja (Passiflora edulis or passion fruit) special, a trifecta of pleasure for the eyes, the nose and the palate...a spectacular way to start the day. This was followed by bacon and eggs. What made these particular eggs extra special was the fact that they were the very first from our own hens. Yes, at last our hens have s . l . o . w . l . y begun to lay eggs. All this while group harmony continues more or less unabated.
And finally, for those of you already planning a trek to Alfheim for your first (or second) visit, we have established the road marker to end all road markers. Whether you are coming from Rodoviário - Osvaldo Cruz through Vargem Grande (20 km of estrada de terra or dirt road) or Rodovia dos Tamoios through Posso Alto and Bairro Alto (41 km of estrada de terra or dirt road), you will now be able to find the entrance to our little patch of paradise with ease.
That we traveled to São Paulo on Saturday in the first place was, in fact, my doing. I was convinced that I had badly sprained or more likely broken my left foot and wanted to visit an emergency room. I was convinced of this because I was experiencing increasing pain with each step, and the foot itself had swollen significantly. Long story short: after a lengthy visit to Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, one of the country's leading hospitals, both my x-rays and ultra-sound were pronounced negative. Instead the doctors diagnosed me as having 'some kind of infection', possibly caused by the anklet I received a week earlier courtesy of my old nemeses, the leafcutter ant minors.
BioFach on Thursday was remarkable. Lone and I had attended an earlier BioFach in Rio de Janeiro in 2003, and the difference was quantitatively and qualitatively marked across every parameter. I spent the entire day visiting as many of the exhibitors as possible. I came away with three principle observations:
- The sheer number of exhibitors was tremendously encouraging and underscored the fact that organics is the fastest growing segment of international food and beverage markets (Brazil's annual growth rate is 30%).
- The level of organization and professionalism among the exhibitors was very high.
- The breadth of products was remarkable and, again, indicative of a robust segment. From coffee to clothing, jams and jellies, from fruit to fertilizers, from acaí to art to Amazonian products. Also, all levels of government, local, state and national, were active and seemed to be providing well-considered support.
All in all, a most fruitful day.
When we returned to Alfheim after a four-hour drive from Leonardo's house in Jundiaí (note to self: in the future, accept Leonardo's gracious invitation to spend the night), we arrived to find that our key did open the lock on the front gate. It was at that moment I recalled that Manoel, from Mano's Moveis (Mano's Furniture) in São Luiz do Paraitinga, had mentioned something in an e-mail about his 'tomei a liberdade de abrir' (took the liberty of opening) our gate when he arrived unannounced on Saturday to deliver some furniture. But Manoel also assured me in a subsequent e-mail that he 'deixei em ordem' (left everything in order). Needless to say he did not. So at 02:30 or thereabouts, Lone put on her Wellington boots, I grabbed our trusty One Earth Emergency Wind Up Light and we climbed over the gate and walked the 0.8 km to our house, where we quickly fell fast asleep. On the plus side, Manoel did deliver a beautifully crafted king-sized bed (not that I mind sharing a single bed with my lovely wife, but she responds to my daily query about her previous night's sleep with the phrase 'I woke up a lot last night'), a kitchen table and a vitrine of sorts.
On Friday we awoke to find that in our absence Clair had carefully packed all of the surplus building material into the exterior, bamboo storage shed, cleared most of pasture #3 and was busy liming the exterior of his house, which either turned out very nicely or very blue, depending on whether you side with Clair, Roasana and me or Lone. Granted before leaving for São Paulo I had asked Clair to focus on these three tasks, but not in my wildest fantasies had I imagined that he would be able to clear such a large area of pasture in only three days! The before and after comparison of the cleared vs yet-to-be cleared pasture is very, very promising. In fact, the regrowth of the grass on all of the pastures, in particular the lower pastures -after we removed the 34 head of cattle that were squatting at Alfheim when Esben and I first arrived in early July- has been nothing short of stunning. Once fenced, and after we remove all of the Samambaia, which causes bloody urine and recurrent bladder infection in cattle, we will be able to implement a proper grazing rotation, with easy access to our very own Ent-draught, brewed from the waters of the mountain springs, allowing us, we hope, to produce approx. 20 organic vacas de corte or beef cattle and 20 bulls every 12-15 months. Annual revenue: approx. R$80,000 - 120,000 (€28,000-41,000 or $35,000 - 52,000).
BIG news: our very own soja perene has begun to sprout...after only two weeks!
On Saturday, breakfast began as it does most days with Lone's magical papaya (Carica papaya) and maracuja (Passiflora edulis or passion fruit) special, a trifecta of pleasure for the eyes, the nose and the palate...a spectacular way to start the day. This was followed by bacon and eggs. What made these particular eggs extra special was the fact that they were the very first from our own hens. Yes, at last our hens have s . l . o . w . l . y begun to lay eggs. All this while group harmony continues more or less unabated.
And finally, for those of you already planning a trek to Alfheim for your first (or second) visit, we have established the road marker to end all road markers. Whether you are coming from Rodoviário - Osvaldo Cruz through Vargem Grande (20 km of estrada de terra or dirt road) or Rodovia dos Tamoios through Posso Alto and Bairro Alto (41 km of estrada de terra or dirt road), you will now be able to find the entrance to our little patch of paradise with ease.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
October 13 - 19, 2008
As per routine, we returned to Alfheim from São Paulo on Tuesday evening, in good time, or so we thought, for an early dinner. Unfortunately, somewhere just before or after Fazenda Hotel Santa Rita our rear left tire punctured (hint: never leave home without one of these). After driving slowly to flatter terrain, I changed the tire, much to the surprise of my loving wife of 22 years, who I sincerely believe was more than a little surprised that I actually knew how to change a tire. After a good 30 minutes, or, as Lone estimated, as long as it takes for the moon to rise and two cars and a motorcycle to pass us and offer us help, we were again heading home.
We had hoped to arrive home early enough to welcome Clair and his family to their new home, which they had moved into that same day. However, by the time we arrived at Alfheim, all of the the lights were out and they had gone to sleep. Fortunately, we had left a box of Green & Black's in their new refrigerator before leaving on Sunday.
When we awoke the next morning, we were somewhat tired and disoriented and could not quite understand how we had managed to sleep in for so long; Clair was already busy in the field planting soja perene, so we figured it must be well past 07:00...even though our mobile phone clocks indicated the time as being only slightly past 06:00. After throwing on some work clothes, I went and spoke with Clair, who informed me that he had decided to start early that morning because of the heat. It did not take me long before I understood what he was talking about; by 07:30 it was already 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit). As a result, we stopped for lunch at noon and only returned to work at approx. 14:00. Despite the heat, we managed to sow the entire front-of-house field with soja perene by week's end.
For her part, Lone finished clearing the remaining debris from her garden, which is now ready for the pigs and the hens to prepare the soil.
We spent all day Wednesday in São Luiz do Paraitinga buying supplies, including blue and green lime samples for Clair's house. Rosana, Clair's wife, was not entirely sold on red as an exterior house color, so I decided to leave the final decision to her. Despite much encouragement from their two sons, Dener and Kaoê, to select green, Rosana quickly settled on blue. When we return to Alfheim on Friday, I am certain that the exterior of their house will have been limed light blue.
While in São Luiz, I received a phone call from Eugenio, one of Telefônica's third-party service providers, with whom I have been playing phone and e-mail tag for a couple of weeks in order to schedule the final visit during which he would complete the installation of our fixed-wireless Linha Ruralcel. He jokingly asked me if I wanted to buy a phone, and I retorted that I was rather hoping he would install the one I had paid for, after which he laughed and told me that he was calling from our new home phone (+55 12 3677-8420)! Throughout this long process, Eugenio has consistently exceeded expectations...a real pleasure to experience firsthand that it is still possible to provide first-class, (outsourced) customer service. Lone and I celebrated our digital inclusion with lunch at my favorite local restaurant, where R$7.00 (€2.46 or $3.30) still buys you a fresh, green salad, rice and beans, grilled chicken and vegetables -three plates in all.
On the way home from São Luiz do Paraitinga, we stopped for a visit at a cattle and dairy farm run by Fernando, the son of our biodynamic consultant. There is simply no substitute for the real thing. In just over an hour, we learned more and garnered more useful contacts than we could have in a month on our own. Among other helpful hints, Fernando gave us the telephone numbers to a fence post factory in Cunha and to Chico the fencer. Chico and his partner are both more than 60 years old, but still capable of installing 200 meters of four-strand barbed-wire boundary fence per day. By calling the factory directly (from our new home phone, of course) I saved 23%, enough to pay for Chico to install all of the 600 fence posts I purchased from the factory. After securing the fence posts, I called Chico and he informed me that he has commitments for the next 15 days, but that he could come and have a look at the job on or around November 5th. It has been said that a good fence is 'Horse high, bull strong, and pig tight'...and it has also been said that such a fence is dearer than diamonds. In total, I estimate that it will cost us R$9,553 (€3,358 or $4,503) to fence seven pastures totaling approx. 20 hectares (49.4 acres).
Other big events this week included the addition of Clair's two chickens to our existing brood. As one of the two additions is a rooster, we were expecting the worst. Clair even prepared us by telling us that Rosana could slaughter the 'loser' of the rooster wars. Sure enough, the next morning William H. Macey sought out Redd Foxx in a classic dustup worthy of the 30-second shootout at the OK Corral in the movie Tombstone, with William, surprisingly, taking the fight to Redd just as the Earps did with the Cowboys. After a lot of posturing, leaping, dancing and a couple of lost feathers; however, William backed off...Redd's spurs are just too long. Ironically, though, William continues to manage his harem of four hens while Redd sticks to his monogamous lifestyle. The two machos now seem capable of co-existing -and even roost on the same bamboo stalk in the hen house at night. Once again order seems to have been restored among our growing menagerie.
Also, Lone product developed the most amazing Jabuticaba cordial. In all, Lone produced more than five liters of concentrate from a single bucket (3.3 liters) of Jabuticaba, which I picked last week.
Finally, we will be in São Paulo this entire week participating in BioFach América Latina, the 6th International Organic Trade Show and Conference.
We had hoped to arrive home early enough to welcome Clair and his family to their new home, which they had moved into that same day. However, by the time we arrived at Alfheim, all of the the lights were out and they had gone to sleep. Fortunately, we had left a box of Green & Black's in their new refrigerator before leaving on Sunday.
When we awoke the next morning, we were somewhat tired and disoriented and could not quite understand how we had managed to sleep in for so long; Clair was already busy in the field planting soja perene, so we figured it must be well past 07:00...even though our mobile phone clocks indicated the time as being only slightly past 06:00. After throwing on some work clothes, I went and spoke with Clair, who informed me that he had decided to start early that morning because of the heat. It did not take me long before I understood what he was talking about; by 07:30 it was already 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit). As a result, we stopped for lunch at noon and only returned to work at approx. 14:00. Despite the heat, we managed to sow the entire front-of-house field with soja perene by week's end.
For her part, Lone finished clearing the remaining debris from her garden, which is now ready for the pigs and the hens to prepare the soil.
We spent all day Wednesday in São Luiz do Paraitinga buying supplies, including blue and green lime samples for Clair's house. Rosana, Clair's wife, was not entirely sold on red as an exterior house color, so I decided to leave the final decision to her. Despite much encouragement from their two sons, Dener and Kaoê, to select green, Rosana quickly settled on blue. When we return to Alfheim on Friday, I am certain that the exterior of their house will have been limed light blue.
While in São Luiz, I received a phone call from Eugenio, one of Telefônica's third-party service providers, with whom I have been playing phone and e-mail tag for a couple of weeks in order to schedule the final visit during which he would complete the installation of our fixed-wireless Linha Ruralcel. He jokingly asked me if I wanted to buy a phone, and I retorted that I was rather hoping he would install the one I had paid for, after which he laughed and told me that he was calling from our new home phone (+55 12 3677-8420)! Throughout this long process, Eugenio has consistently exceeded expectations...a real pleasure to experience firsthand that it is still possible to provide first-class, (outsourced) customer service. Lone and I celebrated our digital inclusion with lunch at my favorite local restaurant, where R$7.00 (€2.46 or $3.30) still buys you a fresh, green salad, rice and beans, grilled chicken and vegetables -three plates in all.
On the way home from São Luiz do Paraitinga, we stopped for a visit at a cattle and dairy farm run by Fernando, the son of our biodynamic consultant. There is simply no substitute for the real thing. In just over an hour, we learned more and garnered more useful contacts than we could have in a month on our own. Among other helpful hints, Fernando gave us the telephone numbers to a fence post factory in Cunha and to Chico the fencer. Chico and his partner are both more than 60 years old, but still capable of installing 200 meters of four-strand barbed-wire boundary fence per day. By calling the factory directly (from our new home phone, of course) I saved 23%, enough to pay for Chico to install all of the 600 fence posts I purchased from the factory. After securing the fence posts, I called Chico and he informed me that he has commitments for the next 15 days, but that he could come and have a look at the job on or around November 5th. It has been said that a good fence is 'Horse high, bull strong, and pig tight'...and it has also been said that such a fence is dearer than diamonds. In total, I estimate that it will cost us R$9,553 (€3,358 or $4,503) to fence seven pastures totaling approx. 20 hectares (49.4 acres).
Other big events this week included the addition of Clair's two chickens to our existing brood. As one of the two additions is a rooster, we were expecting the worst. Clair even prepared us by telling us that Rosana could slaughter the 'loser' of the rooster wars. Sure enough, the next morning William H. Macey sought out Redd Foxx in a classic dustup worthy of the 30-second shootout at the OK Corral in the movie Tombstone, with William, surprisingly, taking the fight to Redd just as the Earps did with the Cowboys. After a lot of posturing, leaping, dancing and a couple of lost feathers; however, William backed off...Redd's spurs are just too long. Ironically, though, William continues to manage his harem of four hens while Redd sticks to his monogamous lifestyle. The two machos now seem capable of co-existing -and even roost on the same bamboo stalk in the hen house at night. Once again order seems to have been restored among our growing menagerie.
Also, Lone product developed the most amazing Jabuticaba cordial. In all, Lone produced more than five liters of concentrate from a single bucket (3.3 liters) of Jabuticaba, which I picked last week.
Finally, we will be in São Paulo this entire week participating in BioFach América Latina, the 6th International Organic Trade Show and Conference.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
October 6 - 12, 2008
We spent Monday and Tuesday in São Paulo, where the weather was rainy and, by Brazilian standards, genuinely cold. The rain followed us back to Alfheim late Tuesday night...and it continued to rain/drizzle almost non-stop through Friday, when at last the sun broke free from behind the thick blanket of dark-gray clouds and heavy mist to provide us with a respite and allow us to work outdoors. Prior to this we had spent all day Wednesday and Thursday liming the interior of the casa do caseiro white and painting the doorframes and windows a dark blue.
Having completed painting the interior of the casa do caseiro, it is now ready for Clair and his family to move into, which they will do on Tuesday. This is a significant milestone because it means that we can now move forward with the farm animals. Not surprisingly, until we were able to provide 24-7-365 cover, we could not begin the process of populating Alfheim with larger farm animals. In addition to 24-7-365 cover, these animals also require dogs to help herd and look after them. Fortunately, we have secured our first dog from our good friend Melissa, a lovely 16-month old black labrador named Layla, who will soon be joined by two Beauceron and two Rhodesian Ridgeback pups, all of whom will (eventually) watch over the pigs...hopefully keeping them out of harm's -and the onca's- way. While I am on the subject of pigs, I want to address a comment to last week's blog from the world's most curious orthopedic surgeon, and my very good friend, Tony Matan. Free-range pigs will not 'run away'. Provided you feed them every day at the same time you can quite literally whistle and they will come from wherever they have gotten off to and race back for chow -not unlike certain bipedal primates also known as teenage homosapiens, particular the males of the species. In sum, pigs are intelligent, social animals that form close bonds with their offspring and other pigs among their herd and seldom wander far from the group.
As to Tony's other question about isolation, thus far it has not been a problem. We typically spend two days a week in São Paulo, and farm life does not otherwise afford much time for idleness; a typical day has us up at 06:00, at work from 07:00 until approx. 17:00, with only a short coffee break at 10:30 and lunch at 12:30. After dinner and a little reading, we are typically in bed by 21:00. In the absence of TV (I am a self-admitted couch potato), I have managed to plow my way through a number of excellent books: Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, by John Grisham, Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart, by Ian Ayres, and Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 7), by Alexander McCall Smith -as well as numerous Storey's Guides, of course. While these five books share little in common either stylistically or in terms of subject matter, they all deserve a read (IMHO).
Clair and I spent the rest of Friday planting 13 rows of soja perene or perennial soybean, our first crop (more accurately the pigs' first crop) in the field in front of our house; Clair dug the rows, which are approx. 100 meters long, while I sowed and covered them. This work requires the enchadão or hoe. On any given day over the past three months I could be found pushing as many as 40 75-kg wheelbarrows full of rubble a half a kilometer up the entry road to pave it, or carrying 50 25-liter tins full of concrete up to the top of the water tower to lay the base, or unloading 20 50-kg bags of cement from the delivery truck, all exhausting tasks to be sure...but 15 minutes of digging with the enchadão reduces me to a teary-eyed, babbling cripple. In my entire life I cannot recall any task as physically demanding. Merely covering as opposed to digging 13 rows of soja perene left me feeling like someone had taken a meat mallet to my back. How Clair manages to work with this tool all day long leaves me constantly gobsmacked. If all goes well, and my back holds up, we will finish planting the soja perene next week -and should see the first fruits of our labor in another two.
On Saturday the number of entries in Alfheim's official guestbook increased by 100% when we received a visit from our very good friends Márcio and Heather Cabral Magano. More than any other person, Márcio, who owns and manages Fazenda Caetê (when he is not running his law firm in São Paulo), a magnificent ranch near Santa Branca, has provided us with constant support in preparation for this endeavor: showing us countless properties, teaching us about horse riding (with moderate success) and cattle roping (thus far with far less success) and patiently answering my innumerable questions about everything from cattle, pigs and horses to property and commodity prices. Heather for her part has always been the consummate hostess, and, not surprisingly, arrived at Alfheim with a leg of lamb and a jar of homemade Jabuticaba jam.
Speaking of Jabuticaba (the name is derived from the Tupi word Jabuti (tortoise) + Caba (place), meaning the place where you find tortoises), also called the the Brazilian Grape Tree, the Jabuticaba in front of our house is now overladen with ripening fruit -a truly spectacular site and most delicious snack.
Finally, a number of you have expressed some level of surprise regarding our decision to pack up our Old World lives and move to Alfheim. In truth, we have been working toward this goal for more than six years...the past two alone on the closing (there goes the last vestiges of my reputation as an effective negotiator). There are, of course, a myriad of considerations that go into a decision of this magnitude, but Lone stumbled across the following passage from Small-scale livestock Farming, by Carol Ekarius, that sums up most of them more eloquently than I ever could:
Having completed painting the interior of the casa do caseiro, it is now ready for Clair and his family to move into, which they will do on Tuesday. This is a significant milestone because it means that we can now move forward with the farm animals. Not surprisingly, until we were able to provide 24-7-365 cover, we could not begin the process of populating Alfheim with larger farm animals. In addition to 24-7-365 cover, these animals also require dogs to help herd and look after them. Fortunately, we have secured our first dog from our good friend Melissa, a lovely 16-month old black labrador named Layla, who will soon be joined by two Beauceron and two Rhodesian Ridgeback pups, all of whom will (eventually) watch over the pigs...hopefully keeping them out of harm's -and the onca's- way. While I am on the subject of pigs, I want to address a comment to last week's blog from the world's most curious orthopedic surgeon, and my very good friend, Tony Matan. Free-range pigs will not 'run away'. Provided you feed them every day at the same time you can quite literally whistle and they will come from wherever they have gotten off to and race back for chow -not unlike certain bipedal primates also known as teenage homosapiens, particular the males of the species. In sum, pigs are intelligent, social animals that form close bonds with their offspring and other pigs among their herd and seldom wander far from the group.
As to Tony's other question about isolation, thus far it has not been a problem. We typically spend two days a week in São Paulo, and farm life does not otherwise afford much time for idleness; a typical day has us up at 06:00, at work from 07:00 until approx. 17:00, with only a short coffee break at 10:30 and lunch at 12:30. After dinner and a little reading, we are typically in bed by 21:00. In the absence of TV (I am a self-admitted couch potato), I have managed to plow my way through a number of excellent books: Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, by John Grisham, Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart, by Ian Ayres, and Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Book 7), by Alexander McCall Smith -as well as numerous Storey's Guides, of course. While these five books share little in common either stylistically or in terms of subject matter, they all deserve a read (IMHO).
Clair and I spent the rest of Friday planting 13 rows of soja perene or perennial soybean, our first crop (more accurately the pigs' first crop) in the field in front of our house; Clair dug the rows, which are approx. 100 meters long, while I sowed and covered them. This work requires the enchadão or hoe. On any given day over the past three months I could be found pushing as many as 40 75-kg wheelbarrows full of rubble a half a kilometer up the entry road to pave it, or carrying 50 25-liter tins full of concrete up to the top of the water tower to lay the base, or unloading 20 50-kg bags of cement from the delivery truck, all exhausting tasks to be sure...but 15 minutes of digging with the enchadão reduces me to a teary-eyed, babbling cripple. In my entire life I cannot recall any task as physically demanding. Merely covering as opposed to digging 13 rows of soja perene left me feeling like someone had taken a meat mallet to my back. How Clair manages to work with this tool all day long leaves me constantly gobsmacked. If all goes well, and my back holds up, we will finish planting the soja perene next week -and should see the first fruits of our labor in another two.
On Saturday the number of entries in Alfheim's official guestbook increased by 100% when we received a visit from our very good friends Márcio and Heather Cabral Magano. More than any other person, Márcio, who owns and manages Fazenda Caetê (when he is not running his law firm in São Paulo), a magnificent ranch near Santa Branca, has provided us with constant support in preparation for this endeavor: showing us countless properties, teaching us about horse riding (with moderate success) and cattle roping (thus far with far less success) and patiently answering my innumerable questions about everything from cattle, pigs and horses to property and commodity prices. Heather for her part has always been the consummate hostess, and, not surprisingly, arrived at Alfheim with a leg of lamb and a jar of homemade Jabuticaba jam.
Speaking of Jabuticaba (the name is derived from the Tupi word Jabuti (tortoise) + Caba (place), meaning the place where you find tortoises), also called the the Brazilian Grape Tree, the Jabuticaba in front of our house is now overladen with ripening fruit -a truly spectacular site and most delicious snack.
Finally, a number of you have expressed some level of surprise regarding our decision to pack up our Old World lives and move to Alfheim. In truth, we have been working toward this goal for more than six years...the past two alone on the closing (there goes the last vestiges of my reputation as an effective negotiator). There are, of course, a myriad of considerations that go into a decision of this magnitude, but Lone stumbled across the following passage from Small-scale livestock Farming, by Carol Ekarius, that sums up most of them more eloquently than I ever could:
First, we want to live in places off the beaten track. We want to feast our eyes on spectacular views of rugged mountain vistas. We want a place with lots of sun, abundant wildlife, and minimal light pollution. We want to sit out at night lost in a sea of stars, listening for the serenade of song dogs (coyotes). Beauty is, in itself, worthy of effort.
Second, we want to be as independent as is feasible in this modern age. We want a significant portion of our energy to come from renewable sources, and much of our food to come from the work of our own hands, whether hunting, gathering, or growing. We want the bulk of our living to come from our endeavors, not jobs.
Third, we want to be honorable and honest in our dealings with each other and with other people. We want to be compassionate and respectful in our treatment of other living creatures. We want our actions on the land to be beneficial to the ecosystem; we want to understand and work with ecosystem processes. We want to be contributors, not just takers, from society and the Earth. And we want the world to be a better place for our having passed through.
Fourth, we want to do meaningful work, both physically and mentally. Our work needs to keep us in the outdoors, and to keep us surrounded by animals. We enjoy work, and take pride in it, and believe that work keeps us healthy and happy.
Finally, we have little interest in material possessions, but financial security with little or no debt is important to us. We want a small but comfortable home. More important to us than money is time: We want to make time for reading, writing, art, music, travel, and a loving relationship. We want to keep our minds open and expanding; our hearts full and content.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
September 26 - October 5, 2008
Three significant events occurred this past week (listed chronologically):
First, on Wednesday, I bid farewell to the final two members of the construction crew, Marcos and Orlando, who spent an extra day making sure we were able to tick off all but the least significant of the then-still-pending phase I construction tasks. Marcos (think Andy Capp for the cigarette but autodidactic and industrious) will return in a few weeks, after we have lived in the houses and had a chance to kick the tires, to tidy up any loose ends. His final payment and bonus will be settled at that time.
Second, Lone arrived on Thursday evening from London via Paris.
Third, a former colleague and good friend, Leonardo da Cunha Pinheiro, spent Saturday with us as Alfheim's first guest. As such Leonardo was the inaugural signatory of Alfheim's guestbook. This is a Blichert-Hansen family tradition that dates back to the 1940's when Lone's grandfather, Charles Adolph (that name died out) Denis de Neergaard purchased a summerhouse in Rørvig, Denmark. For 60 years, guests added all manner of notations and salutations, which grew to become a part of her family's history. We hope to receive as many guests at Alfheim -and years to enjoy their company- as did Lone's grandfather, who lived to the ripe old age of 92 and was still bathing au naturel in the Kattegat well into the upper half of his 80s.
Lone's arrival marks a beginning, of course, but also the end of many things. Among those I will not miss can be counted canned tuna, canned corn and cashews for lunch everyday. On a more serious note, her arrival marks the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth. Before setting off for Brazil, I wrote down the following five objectives for my first three months at Alfheim:
First, on Wednesday, I bid farewell to the final two members of the construction crew, Marcos and Orlando, who spent an extra day making sure we were able to tick off all but the least significant of the then-still-pending phase I construction tasks. Marcos (think Andy Capp for the cigarette but autodidactic and industrious) will return in a few weeks, after we have lived in the houses and had a chance to kick the tires, to tidy up any loose ends. His final payment and bonus will be settled at that time.
Second, Lone arrived on Thursday evening from London via Paris.
Third, a former colleague and good friend, Leonardo da Cunha Pinheiro, spent Saturday with us as Alfheim's first guest. As such Leonardo was the inaugural signatory of Alfheim's guestbook. This is a Blichert-Hansen family tradition that dates back to the 1940's when Lone's grandfather, Charles Adolph (that name died out) Denis de Neergaard purchased a summerhouse in Rørvig, Denmark. For 60 years, guests added all manner of notations and salutations, which grew to become a part of her family's history. We hope to receive as many guests at Alfheim -and years to enjoy their company- as did Lone's grandfather, who lived to the ripe old age of 92 and was still bathing au naturel in the Kattegat well into the upper half of his 80s.
Lone's arrival marks a beginning, of course, but also the end of many things. Among those I will not miss can be counted canned tuna, canned corn and cashews for lunch everyday. On a more serious note, her arrival marks the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth. Before setting off for Brazil, I wrote down the following five objectives for my first three months at Alfheim:
- Map farm resources, e.g. farm perimeter, natural resources, fields
- Prepare soil, e.g. soil samples, biodynamic field preparations
- Renovate houses
- Construct basic infrastructure: source-of-water study, water analysis, road work, fences, gate, renewable energy options, septic tanks, corral, storerooms, hen house
- Trees and bees, e.g. fruit orchard, beehives
- Establish a hog operation comprising 20 sows and one-two boars. The sows will be Piau, which, according to 'Culinária suína no Brasil', by Arthur Bosísio Júnior, et al., is the best and most important Brazilian breed, gains weight easily (by six months it weighs around 70 kg) and is the best meat producer of all the domestic breeds, while the boars will either be Poland China, widely known as one of the most durable of all of the swine breeds, or Duroc. At this point, we intend to raise approx. 315 piglets per year (8-12 piglets per litter, two litters per sow per year) to start. If all goes according to plan, we hope to end with a hog production of approx. 50-75 sows and 5-6 boars. This will generate between 788 and 1,181 piglets per year.
- Establish a cow-calve production starting with 20 Tabapuã, a variant of the Nelore, heifers and one Santa Gertrudis bull.
- Raise 10 Dorper, a South African mutton breed, for the family table and barter.
- Grow all of our own vegetables. Lone certainly has her hands full planting enough vegetables to fill her garden, but guided by the conflicting wisdom of the phrase the more the merrier, she has ordered the following non-hybrid seeds: Abóbora de Tronco Caserta, Alface Baba de Verão, Alface Carla, Alface Crespa, Alface 4 Estação, Alface Regina, Beterraba Itapuã, Cebola Juporanga, Cebola Madrugada, Cebola Petroline, Cebola Primavera, Cenoura Alvorada, Cenoura Brasília, Couve Chinesa, Ervilha Axé, Ervilha Crioula, Ervilha Samba, Feijão de Vagem Manteiga Baixo, Feijão Vagem Macarrão Rasteiro, Feijão Vagem Trepador, Melancia Crimson Sweet, Melão Carvalho, Melão Gaúcho Caipira, Melão Gaúcho Redendo, Moranga Pataka, Mostarda Crespa, Rúcula Cultivada, Salsa Lisa Comum, Tomate Cereja, Pepino Conserva and Pepino Caipira.
- Complete our few pending objectives from Q3.
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