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.