Me love you long time

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. Sc. 1.

Written to Live from Madison Square Garden by Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood

Lone and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on Sunday! I am not sure if the phrase "Me love you long time" was originally concocted to cover such reverable events, but it certainly seems appropriate under the circumstances. Parabéns para nos! Among other activities, we enjoyed a sumptuous lunch at Dois. Highly recommended...simply exquisite, and very reasonably priced for an upscale culinary experience.

Back at Alfheim, we finally received some good news on the hog front: gilt 7, one of the two which we let out of the pen, gave birth to eight piglets in the high grass behind the orchard. No pictures yet, but both sow and piglets are doing well.

Our new house guest, Chiquina, is doing well, too. She even gets out a bit to stretch her tiny legs -or not. Over the course of this week we will slowly be introducing her back into the hog pen. The first test runs have all gone smoothly.

Two more hens are brooding. When their eggs hatch, we should be pretty close to having 100 cabeças of poultry. As soon as Marcos and his father finish our churasqueira in the next couple of weeks, we will begin BBQ'ing some of the roosters and cockerels. To paraphrase Vincent Vega in the I Don't Dig On Swine scene from Pulp Fiction: Chicken tastes good.

Sandra continues to complement the brooding hens.

Marcos' father finished our book shelves...wonderful to finally get our books out of their boxes. Our living room has grown exponentially as a result.

Marcos completed the outbuilding for our telephone...nicest building at Alfheim. We joke that we would move in if we were smaller.

Marcos found three more fencers from Paraibuna. They will work from Mondays through Fridays, while the local fencing crew continue on Saturdays. At last we should be able to build the momentum necessary to complete all of the pastures and hog pens.

Finally, Esben, Esben's friend, Brian, and Pelle will be arriving next Thursday, July 2nd...the rentz can't wait!