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.