A sort of homecoming

Written to Kanye West: Late Registration

A girl phoned me the other day and said... Come on over, there's nobody home. I went over. Nobody was home.
Rodney Dangerfield

Before leaving São Paulo, we added two new members to Alfheim's ever-growing menagerie, Huginn and Muninn. Huginn (~2 months old), is a bit high-strung, still very much a puppy, but quite sweet. Muninn (~3 months old) is fearless, very well-behaved, a quick study and as gentle as a deer. Fortunately, Huginn and Muninn get along very well, and Huginn can say no when she has to; she is tougher than she looks. Muninn is not only a big dog, he is a big Rottweiler. According to Cassio, who sold Muninn to us, he was one of only four puppies in his litter. Despite the reduced attention she is receiving, Layla is pretty happy with the new recruits...she has found herself a new play pal; Muninn loves to throw down. For his part, Negão finds the infusion of youth a little more pain than gain. Every time Huginn hops on his head, I hear in my inner ear Danny Glover's Sergeant Murtaugh telling Mel Gibson's Sergeant Riggs 'I'm too old for this shit'. Our plan is to breed Huginn and Muninn: Doberman + Rottweiler = Beauceron. We will probably keep two of the puppies and sell or give away the rest. Six dogs certainly sounds like critical mass.

Thursday started slowly...neither Lone nor I was feeling overly dynamic after so many days on the road -away from Alfheim. Fortunately, it was raining, and Clair had earned a day off, so we all played hooky for the day. Lone helped me set up my new Concept 2 ergometer, the world's best piece of exercise equipment, in the guest bathroom. Not exactly a Reebok Sports Club, but it does the job.

As it turned out, taking time off on Thursday was prescient. On Friday, Lone and Rosana left Alfheim and headed first to Taubaté and then to Jacareí to participate in the kick-off meeting of the group of small producers of organic herbs in Vale do Paraíba which I wrote about in If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then...

While the ladies were away, the men played...sort of...played at moving more than 100 fence posts from the recently delivered pile of 500 (delivered by two trucks with Brazilian 'snow' tires, i.e. chains to provide traction on the very muddy dirt roads), up one of the steepest hillsides at Alfheim. After we completed our Sisyphean task, I gave myself the rest of the day off. Lone arrived later that evening, energized and with the car trunk full of 3,500 lemon grass seedlings.


On Saturday Lone, Clair and Rosana -with help from the chickens, Negão, Layla, Huginn and Muninn- worked until lunch planting two-thirds of the lemon grass seedlings. I can't remember precisely what I was doing, but I am certain it was crucial. When not working on crucial stuff, I took a few minutes to bounce a chicken from the smaller of Lone's vegetable gardens. We will harvest the first crop of lemon grass in June -before the onset of winter- in order to prevent rust. At that time, we hope our lemon grass will look something like this.

On Sunday Lone worked in her garden all day...though she did not seem overly pleased with the results.

Finally, several readers have asked about the many snake photos appearing on the blog recently. Over the past month or so, we have had several close encounters with snakes. Most alarming was Clair's recent meeting with a Bothrops jararaca, which as it turned out worked out better for Clair than it did for the jararaca).

This species is often abundant within its range, where it is an important cause of snakebite. It is the most well-known venomous snake in the wealthy and heavily populated areas of southeastern Brazil, where is was responsible for 52% (3,446 cases) of snakebite between 1902 and 1945 with an 0.7% mortality rate (25 deaths).

Lone also managed to secure a driver, one of our good friend Beto Camargo's (from Paraibuna), many, many, many cousins, Abilio, to transport the two Duroc boars which we purchased on our recent road trip, from Jabucabal to Alfheim. Abilio will transport the boars to Alfheim on Thursday...a big day for our fazenda! For his part, Beto is working on the purchase of a herd of cattle for short-term fattening on our now hip-high pastures in order to earn us a few Benjamins while we continue to invest heavily in...well, everything.

And finally (this time for real), for all of you Weather Channel junkies out there: since December 22nd, Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, Lone has been taking daily measurements of the temperature, atmospheric pressure and rainfall. On January 21st, it rained 98 ml! Month to date -through Sunday, January 25th- it has rained 272 ml, this in spite of 11 rainless days! Now all we need is an arc.