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.