Going once, going twice, SOLD!

Written to Moondance by Van Morrison

On Saturday, Lone and I attended a Santa Gertrudis cattle auction in Tietê. Through Márcio, who also attended the event with his wife, Heather, we met the judge for the day, Burnett Joyce, an Australian, who owns and operates Gyranda Pastoral Company, currently extending to the fifth generation, together with his wife, Louise, and their family. To say that Burnett knows cattle in general and Santa Gertrudis in particular is like saying that the Pope has a unique view on the value of condoms in slowing the spread of the AIDS virus...or that one has a better chance of finding work as a stripper than as a banker these days. In short, the man knows cattle. The morning of the auction, before judging took place, Burnett was kind enough to spend some time with me viewing the four bulls that would be sold at auction later that day: #25, #26, #27 and #28. Cattle judging, at least as concerns the format, is a bit like a Miss America competition or a catwalk -only the contestants are quadpedal instead of bipedal. The contestants are primped and primed and paraded around before the judge, after which he dismisses those ranked 11 through n, and then, in descending order, proceeds to announce the winners...10 through 1.

As for the auction itself, I agreed not to bid on #27, which Márcio bought for 14 * R$250 or R$3,500, an excellent price. Unfortunately for me, #26 went for 14 * R$420 or R$5,880. My final bid was 14 * R$400 or R$5,600. Strictly speaking, we do not need a bull for another year, so while somewhat disappointed at losing, the fun outweighed the bitterness by an order of magnitude.

Earlier this week, back at Alfheim, Marcos was ramping up the production of sow maternity houses. While Marcos built, Clair painted...and Layla observed.

In parallel, our first sunflower flowered. Spectacular!

There are a few ‘definites’ without which it would be difficult to imagine a full energy micro-climate: one of them is sunflowers (at least one plant).

- Anastasia, From Book 1 of The Ringing Cedars series, by Vladimir Megré

Meanwhile, light-brown and white-speckled hen's chicks began to take their first steps outside. Impossible not to think them cute.

Speaking of chickens, here are another couple of examples of where they would naturally roost.

When you hear the crowing of cocks, ask for Allah's Blessings for (their crowing indicates that) they have seen an angel. And when you hear the braying of donkeys, seek Refuge with Allah from Satan for (their braying indicates) that they have seen a Satan.

- Muhammad, In the Hadith

In last week's blog post, I mentioned our mandioca or cassava but forgot to include photos...my oversight corrected.

Also, the new, shorter fence posts finally arrived. As you can see from the first photo, Clair is not a tall man, which makes his physical prowess all the more impressive...Paul Bunyon in Mini-Me packaging. This weekend, for example, he moved 150 fence posts more than 100 meters to the spot where we will build the new, enhanced pig pen.

Our weekend ended with a brief but lovely visit to Leonardo's and Tamora's house in Jundiaí.

Finally, it would appear as though Dan and Sandra are considering starting a family...Dan more than Sandra, whose attitude to the whole idea is summed up succinctly in her standoffish body language.

Fauna of the week...or maybe this one.

Let it rain

Written to This Guy's in Love by Steve Tyrell

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
- AMAZING HUMAN FACTS

Beginning at approx. 14:00 on Wednesday, March 18th, it rained 124 mm in less than 24 hours! It rained so much that Lone was forced to empty her precision, German Regenmesser rainwater measuring apparatus in order to keep it from running over. To put this rainfall in perspective, London receives an average annual rainfall of 584 mm! We could not even take photos it was raining so hard...but perhaps this photo of the flattened vegetation along one of the river beds will give you all an idea of both the amount and force of the water.

Not sure if the rain has anything to do with it, but the number and variety of butterflies on display at Alfheim has gone up several notches in the last while. Take a look at this one...and this one. And what about this one...not a butterfly, but certainly a candidate for fauna of the week.

Light-brown and white-speckled mother hen's eggs hatched this week. First four, then four or five more. We think there are eight or nine in all. That brings our poultry total to....a lot.

The chickens have also discovered that hanging out with the hogs is the surest route to a tasty meal.

In other animal news, Muninn has been a little under the weather this week. Not sure why, but he is very, very lethargic.

The new fencers, Wilson and Vincente, made good progress despite the rain...113 fence posts in all. Unlike Chico and Martins, they dig down all of the fence posts before adding the barbed-wire. They are not quite as fast as Chico and Martins, and they cost 75% more, but they seem like nice fellows and the quality of their work appears to be the equal of their predecessors'. Unfortunately, fencing means moving fence posts. I have to remind myself that we will only have to do this once every 15 years!

We recently bought 600 130 cm high fence posts (as opposed to the normal 220 cm high fence posts for cattle pastures) for the enhanced pig pen. It is in this area that we plan to place the sows' maternity houses. Marcos built a prototype of my design this week. Still a few adjustments to be made, but soon the landscape behind the current pig pen will be populated with ten to 20 hog maternity houses. That is nearly as many houses as in all of Vargem Grande. We have already purchased all of the construction material. We assume that all of the gilts are pregnant because the older boar has been leaving them in peace, a break from his past practice. Not sure why, but we continue to be surprised by how well nature organizes everything. I cannot count the number of people who have told us to separate the boars from the pregnant females, and I could never understand why: surely the boars know, and the females can take care of themselves -not to mention their soon-to-be offspring. Our thinking was confirmed when we recently stumbled across the following text in one of our biodynamic handbooks, Bio-Dynamic Farming Practice, by Friedrich Sattler and Eckard Wistinghausen:

If pigs are to be kept in groups of several breeding sows with boar and piglets until weaned, adequate space is needed and the animals must be used to each other.

The prototype maternity house is open along the bottom, allowing the piglets to avoid being crushed should a momma sow inadvertantly lie on one or more of them...something they rarely do. We have also decided not to build a raised floor, putting the animals in direct contact with the ground; sow's stomachs are very sensitive when nursing, and plywood can cause irritation or worse. We will close them in completely for the first five-six days after birth, after which they will be allowed to roam freely. We are expecting the piglets to be born towards the end of May, beginning of June.

Another interesting tidbit from the same book:

The sun takes 25,920 years to move through the whole zodiac. A human being takes the same number of breaths (25,920) in a 24-hour day.

In other, non-animal news, Marcos spent the whole of the week inside, out of the rain, building shelves in the two suites in our house. The beta results are very rustic, but exactly what we were looking for.

Marcos' father, Adilio, meanwhile, spent most of the week closing the gap between the top of the walls and the roof in Clair and Rosana's house. Should make winter considerably more bearable.

Finally, under the headline of depressing but true, take a look at the U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK. Refresh the page three or four times and watch the debt grow!

Farmer Frankie* finds a waterfall

Written to Nevermind by Nirvana

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
- Abraham Maslow

Over the past couple of months, the Polícia Florestal have been visiting regularly, looking for poachers. The police use our fazenda as their entry/exit point to inspect/protect the State park, Núcleo Santa Virginia. On one of their recent visits, they mentioned that they had stumbled across a waterfall not far from our house. On Wednesday, Rosana, Lone aka Frankie aka Frankie Four-Fingers (see below) and Dener decided to go on an expedition to find the waterfall. And find it they did. It was all Lone could talk about for the rest of the week. However, as they had wisely decided not to take the camera, I say wisely because Lone fell into at least one pool of water in between balancing on stones, Alfheim's newly discovered gem remained hidden to me.

That same day, Lone and Rosana went fishing for fresh-water shrimp, probably a form of crayfish. Not so appealing in the hand, but once cooked they transformed into a delight for both the eyes and the palate.

This week saw a drama of the female sort unfold when Rosana removed the unfertilized eggs from under a brooding Elle. Hormones raging, she quickly unseated the light-brown and white-speckled hen, who herself is brooding, from her nest. Needless to say, the light-brown and white-speckled hen did not take this affront to her maternal instincts lying down. Well, in a way she did, because she quickly pushed her way onto her nest alongside Elle until 24 hours later she had regained her throne by attrition.

On Saturday, Lone and I made a pilgrimage to the waterfall, camera in tow, carefully wrapped in a plastic bag and stowed away in a backpack. Barely 15 minutes from our house lies a breathtaking, six-seven meter high waterfall. We cleared a bit of the flotsam and jetsam in the pool and then went for a shower. As it was quite warm that day, the water was cool but not chilly. Wonderful! Be sure to bring your bathing suits when you visit.

Speaking of guests, I have compiled a list of essentials for those of you planning to visit Alfheim:

• Boots or better still Wellington boots
• A broad-rimmed hat
• Chocolate for the hosts (unlike the Auditors of Reality in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels, the powerful experience of the flavor of chocolate is not fatal for Lone and me)
  

This week we passed a mini-milestone of sorts: we managed to produce a complete meal consisting solely of animals and plants produced at Alfheim. The meal comprised a succulent chicken, fried squash, fresh tomatoes and Lone's fresh baked havre boller, Danish for oat buns. Okay, so the oat buns were not made of locally-produced ingredients, but everything else was. More importantly, I can state without hesitation that until you have eaten organic, free-range chicken of the non-Dwarf variety, you have not tasted chicken. Exquisite!

It being goiabada or guava season, we should have topped off this meal with freshly harvested goiabada. Unfortunately, the local goiabada suffers from some sort of illness. Unfortunate for Lone and me, but fortunate for the pigs, who have been receiving daily bucketfuls of fresh produce, primarily goiabada but also squash and tomatoes to complement their more pedestrian rations of organic corn and wheat. The only risk is leaving the bucket unguarded for even a moment.

We will soon be able to harvest Caqui or Persimmon, which unlike goiabada seems to flourish here at Alfheim. Can't wait!

When she otherwise has a free minute, Lone has taken up weaving baskets from bamboo.

The growth of the girasol or sunflowers is nothing short of Chernobyl-like. In one week they have gone from this to this!

And speaking of growing fast, Huginn and Muninn are rapidly approaching Layla in overall body size. If possible, Huginn appears to be growing faster than Muninn, who despite his physical prowess continues to be as gentle as ever. That said watching Muninn dig himself a hole to rest in is like watching Caterpillar earth-moving equipment operate. Layla was lying behind his chosen resting spot on Saturday and was nearly buried alive.

The Mad Hatters (Nelore) seem to be settling down under the gentle influence of Bolinha and to a lesser extent Castanhã and Alazão, and from time to time they actually look a bit like cattle rather than pre-pubescent girls at their first sock-hop.

This week will see Marcos and his father will return for a second week of work, the arrival of a new crew of fencers, this time from Paraibuna, and a local stone cutter.

* Owing to her penchant for cutting herself while working in the kitchen, Johannes, Esben, Pelle and I lovingly refer to Lone as Frankie, i.e. Franky Four-Fingers, a reference to Benicio Del Toro's legendary character in Snatch.

The Witches of Eastwick

Written to The Ultimate Collection by B.B. King

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.
- Bill Vaughan

Clair spent most of the week constructing a brooding house for the egg-laying hens. The result is completely consistent with our previous hen house standards -simple and robust. As Borat would say, "Very Nice. Great Success." Rosana, who we have dubbed Dona do Galinheiro for her dominance of all things poultry, contributed to Clair's project by weaving six brooding nests out of bamboo. Polyface here we come.

While Clair was otherwise occupied, the witches of Alfheim finished stirring their cauldrons and began spraying their anti-ant pepper on the fields and orchard. We are all eagerly anticipating the results, though if it works I will have to remember to be extra nice to Lone...no telling what potion might be next. Kaoê participated in the voodoo. His comment, spot on for a seven-year-old boy: Tia, eu não sei se eu entendo muito bem como funciona (Auntie, his moniker for Lone, I am not entirely sure I understand well how this works). Comically, his lack of understanding did not stop him from absentmindedly tasting the pepper.

In parallel, the oxen crew completed plowing the first field. Beautiful work. Unfortunately, their boss and I simply could not agree on the grazing rotation, i.e. on which pasture the oxen would spend their nights, so they will not be coming back. It is truly a shame, but this was one of those cases where the gringo and the local did not manage to communicate. Sometimes you have to agree to disagree.

We will plant girasol or sunflower on the plowed field. As it turns out, girasol grows extremely well in our soil. We had little success with the soja perene, and the jury is still out on feijão-guandu, so it is nice to see that our thumbs may be green after all. At any rate the girasol has really taken off in the test field where we planted Lone's capim limão or lemon grass -and also mandioca or cassava, abacaxi or pineapple, peanuts and a cornucopia of squash. In fact, the girasol is doing so well that Lone is concerned it might block the sun from her capim limão. Most surprisingly, the abacaxi appears to be doing quite well. In fact, with the exception of the aforementioned soja perene and feijão-guandu, everything else is coming along nicely.

On Saturday, our good friend Beto from Paraibuna came for a work visit together with a mate. The purpose of his visit was to help us corral the Nelore so that we could examine them for parasites. Very impressive watching a verdadeiro cowboy work. Calm, systematic and skilled. Needless to say they were able to herd the Mad Hatters into the corral, though it still took some coaxing. I tried to imagine how this exercise might have gone without their help...not a pretty image. And best of all, they used our two new horses, Castanha or Chestnut and Alazão or Sorrel. After several hours of riding and herding, Beto concluded that 'o carvalho foi testado!'. In a chest-nutshell, he liked my horse. Sorrel will never be mistaken for either George Clooney or the Flash, but he is a solid workhouse. Hopefully Sorrel will approximate the fictional life of Bill the Pony, Samwise Gamgee's pony in The Lord of the Rings. I personally tested Sorrel late on Saturday afternoon, after he had spent the morning herding the Nelore, and he passed with flying colors, carrying me and a 50 kg sack of feed for several kilometers. Beto lent us a saddle, and our very good friend Márcio donated a first-class saddle to help start us on our life with horses. Where would we be without good friends!

On Sunday, after a long day of work, Lone and I went riding for a couple of hours...everything looks grander on horseback.

Carnaval 2009

Written to Bowie at Beeb: Best of BBC Radio 68-72 [BOX SET] [LIVE]

The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.
- Robert Bloch

Carnaval was R * E * L * A * X * I * N * G, a well-deserved break from the day-to-day of farming. As mentioned in the previous blog post, we visited our new friends, Emannuel and Filipa, at their magnificent fazenda near Catuçaba on Saturday, where we enjoyed a wonderful day, which culminated with a three-hour tour of the fazenda on horseback. I broke every rule of cowboy by horseback riding in shorts and Crocks, and boy was it fun! Emmanuel plans to establish a hotel fazenda on the property, not hard to understand given both the awesome beauty of the place, the infrastructure and his background as a successful pousada owner.

We returned from Catuçaba on Saturday evening, enjoyed a light dinner of fresh farm eggs (these not found at your local Tesco) and then woke up on Sunday morning to a relaxing, two-day visit from our good friends Melissa, Layla's previous owner, Patrícia and Patrícia's son, Alexandre. Melissa and Patrícia brought us a beautiful needlework from Mexico, which has quickly become Alfheim's official dining table centerpiece. In sum, Carnaval offered a lot of rest and rehabilitation all around: Clair and Rosana were given Monday, Tuesday and Ash Wednesday off. Even the two day-workers who plow with oxen got into the spirit of Carnaval...Bahian style, i.e. they went AWOL for the entire week. I finally called their boss, Lei, who, after a bit of back and forth, assured me that they would be back bright and early on Monday, March 2nd. We'll see...initially he told us that they would return to work on Monday, February 23rd. While it is nice, and very Northern European, to be able to count on the precise whenabouts of people who work for you, it is far from the end of world in this case...they are paid per alqueire (2.42 hectares or 5.98 acres) plowed and sowed.

In other animal news, the Galinha-d'angola or Helmeted Guineafowl suffered two casualties last week: one was sick and had to be euthanized and Lone accidentally guillotined another when she shut the door of the hen house...ouch! Yet another has what appears to be a broken leg, but for the time being seems to be doing well enough by flying whenever walking is too troublesome. Also, Dan and Sandra, our newly-dubbed duck couple, named after friends of Lone's who live in New York, and who sent us a children's book entitled Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McClosky, are doing well and have returned to swimming in the river. And on Sunday Lone bought two new roosters, three hens and 13 fertilized eggs for our two brooding hens from Rosana's father. In another 21 days or so we should have enough chicken power to establish hen houses on each of the pastures and in the pig pen -at which point we will be ready to farm Polyface style.

On Saturday we moved the 20 Nelore heifers and the eight plowing oxen from pasture 4 to pasture 3, not an altogether easy task as far as the Nelore were concerned; the heifers are extremely skittish. One got tangled up in the barbed wire fence when passing into pasture 4. After Clair and I freed her, she was so wound up that she attempted to charge us, coming close on a couple of occasions. It is quite self-assessing to stare an almost 200 kg animal in the eyes that, because of fear, is intent on harming you. Nelore are known to be bravo, but they will settle down as they mature and acclimatize. The company of the oxen has already helped in that regard, and pasture 3 offers far fewer places to hide, so the two groups of bovinae mingle more often than on pasture 4, where the Nelore basically remained in self-imposed exile, out of site in the top left-hand corner for the first week.

On Monday, March 2nd, Bolinha, our recently-purchased, pregnant dairy cow, a Hollandaise-Jersey cross, will arrive. We will begin milking her in May, shortly after she gives birth. Historically, this will be her third calving, Bolinha has produced approx. 15 liters of milk per day, more than enough to supplement the hogs' feed of organic wheat, which we recently purchased from Fazenda 2m, and which should arrive, all 3 tons of it, on Wednesday, March 4th. Each hog should consume approx. 1.8 kg per day (75% carbohydrates and 25% protein), though because they are free range this number is, in fact, much lower. When lactating, however, their daily ration will increase to approx. 6 kg.

This week Lone and Rosana will be testing peppering to combat ants. Peppering involves burning ants, pulverizing their ashes -followed by dynamization, and then applying the pepper for three consecutive nights to the affected plants when the sun or the moon is in Taurus. It all sounds pretty voodoo, but Maria Thun, a pre-eminent expert in biodynamic cultivation methods, and others have achieved good results using this method. Simply put, the concept involves treating like with like, similar to the way most vaccines work -or venom and anti-venom. I will let you know what the Alfheim witches discover.

Finally, we have reached two critical inflection points: the first involves the need to purchase some horses, mules and donkeys to help with herding and transporting of heavy materials. The second is the need for more farm help. To the latter end we have decided to begin constructing another worker's house. I believe I mentioned that Marcos has already produced a detailed budget on his last visit. Therefore, I expect us to break ground sometime this month. In parallel we will have to get serious about recruiting more help, a process that involves a delicate trifecta of identifying a solid, hard-working individual, convincing him to come and work for the Alemanzão and making certain that he meets with the approval of Rosana and Clair...should be an interesting local journey.