Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Helianthus annuus

Written to Sweet Baby James by James Taylor

Mathematics are well and good but nature keeps dragging us around by the nose.
- Albert Einstein

This week we harvested our first home-grown hog feed...girasol or sunflowers. This is a huge accomplishment, one that was more than a little in doubt for quite some time. Our first foray into feed, soja perene, was anything but successful, and our second, feijão-guandu, likewise a flop. While we have long known that our girasol were developing well, we had no idea about the size of the harvest. When one looks at the field, and the too-far distance between each girasol plant, one could easily draw the conclusion that while healthy, the entire field would not produce more than a few meals for the hogs. Thankfully, this is not the case. A wheelbarrow full of girasol flowers translates into approx. 10 kg of girasol. Mixed with the organic wheat, it makes both yummy and nutritious feed for the hogs. Girasol are very high in protein, something that neither corn or wheat provide much of. I estimate that our field will produce somewhere in the neighborhood of two months of rations for the hogs -when mixed with the organic wheat and the organic corn that will be arriving soon, 260 60 kg sacks in all.

While on the subject of sunflowers, I stumbled across this fascinating text, entitled How Nature does its sums, which sums up some of the ideas of Ian Stewart, one of Britain's most prominent mathematicians, who has recently become interested in a new area of research at the frontier between biology and mathematics:
Physics and mathematics are capable of producing intricate patterns in non-organic constructions (for example, snowflakes and sand dunes). They can offer a range of patterns which will emerge spontaneously, given the correct starting conditions. The theory which is currently gaining support says that life operates by using DNA to create the right starting conditions, and thereafter physics and maths do all the rest, DNA is not the secret of life - hence the title of the book (Life's Other Secret: The New Mathematics of the Living World - Ian Stewart).

The strange case of the fascinating pineapple begins with the observation that its surface is covered in diamonds, which form two sets of spirals, twisting in opposite directions. There are 8 sloping to the left, and 13 sloping to the right. These numbers are special because they are part of the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55...), in which the next number in the series is generated by adding the two previous numbers, ie 1+1=2 and 1+2=3, and so on.

The sequence crops up in many other plants, such as in the arrangement of seeds in the head of a sunflower which usually has 34 spirals going clockwise, and 55 going anti-clockwise. So far, this is just an observation, but biomathematics seeks to find an explanation. An elegant argument in Ian Stewart's book explains that evolution encourages as many seeds as possible, physics provides the mechanism for packing them in most tightly, and mathematics leads to the Fibonacci sequence.
On Friday we had our first visit from our homeopathic veterinarian, Leslie Almeida. Fantastic: knowledgeable, practical, nonsensical and inspirational. She walked the fazenda with us and examined the chickens, hogs, cattle and horses. At every turn she had helpful, practical advice. An examples: mix pine needles, which happen to grow on our property, into barbecue salt and heat the concoction until the pine oil is absorbed into the salt. Next, mix this with the mineral salt, in a ratio of 1:5, and feed it to the cattle three times per month to prevent ticks. Furthermore, Dra. Leslie provided us with an initial list of items to help us begin stocking our own homeopathic pharmacy, specifically:
With these ingredients, we should be able to treat the most common animal maladies.

And speaking of animals:
Finally, if you have not read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan, which was recommended independently to me by two very good friends, Jon Ziarnik and Melissa Mann, it is a must read.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Tonight we're gonna party like it's 2009!

Written to Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers

If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn't show up.
- Dr Seuss

Admittedly, it could well appear as though Lone and I are doing less farm work these days, and I had to laugh when our oldest son, Johannes, recently commented -in fairness while studying for his final, pre-graduation exams at Imperial College London (BSc in Physics), that the rentz, as presently configured, have more of a life than he does. Objectively speaking, we do...or rather we certainly have had over the past several weeks. As if to add insult to his injury, this past week we were able to carry the momentum from our dovetailing birthdays into a weekend party at our friends', Emmanuel Rengade and his wife, Filipa, fazenda, Fazenda Santa Helena. Lone and I showed up expecting a do, but nothing could have prepared us for the extravaganza (notice the pineapple parrot) we experienced.

The day started at noon with drinks and appetizers by the pool and then moved down to the outdoor riding ring for a sort of Festas de Cavalhadas, the commemoration of the medieval victory of Iberian Christian knights over the Moors.
The Festas de Cavalhadas feature a parade beginning with a bugle fanfare announcing the knight's pages, then the mounted knights displaying their colors.
24 riders are divided into two groups to play the old fight. The men in red represent the Moors, the blue represent the Christians. Among the combatants, there are the characters of the king, the ambassador and the warriors.
Ironically, this historic victory over the Moors in many ways marked the culmination of the “the great age of translation”, the revival of Renaissance Humanism, where the intellect of Greece reemerged from the culture of those who had preserved it, the Arabs.
The transfer of Greek works from the Byzantines to the Latin West took place in two main stages:

The first occurred in Babylon, when Greek works were translated into Arabic in the 8th and 9th century during Abbasid rule.

One night in Baghdad, the 9th century Caliph Al-Mamun was visited by a dream. The philosopher Aristotle appeared to him, saying that the reason of the Greeks and the revelation of Islam were not opposed. On waking, the Caliph demanded that all of Aristotle’s works be translated into Arabic. And they were. And it wasn’t just Aristotle. Over the next 200 years Greek philosophy, medicine, engineering and maths were all poured and sometimes squeezed into Arabic. It was a translation movement of extraordinary depth and scope so that, hundreds of years before Aristotle reached the West, the intellect of Greece was woven into the tapestry of Arab thought.

The second is “the great age of translation” in the 12th and 13th centuries as Europeans conquered formerly Islamic territories in Spain and Sicily. Scholars came from all over Europe to benefit from Arab learning and culture. About the same period, after the Fourth Crusade, scholars such as William of Moerbeke gained access to the original Greek texts that had been preserved in the Byzantine empire, and translated them directly into Latin.[6] There was a later stage when Western knowledge of Greek began to revive in Renaissance Humanism, and especially after the Fall of Constantinople when there was an influx of refugee Greek scholars in the Renaissance.
The Cavalhadas was followed by a barbecue...not a US-style barbecue, or even by a Brazilian churrasqueira...but a B * B * Q (vegetarian readers are herewith warned). More precisely, a whole cow was slaughtered and cooked over an open fire for 24 hours before the party. Lone, not surprisingly, was first in line to taste the exquisite beef, displaying her Viking roots, though she was quickly followed by about 200 other guests.

The guests included the Prefeita of São Luiz do Paraitinga, Ana Lúcia Bilard Sicherle, a city run by women (Mayor, City Council President, Judge, Prosecutor, Commissioner and Captain of Military Police) and affectionately referred to by its inhabitants as the 'pink city'.
Paraitinga tem prefeita, presidente da Câmara Municipal, juíza, promotora (são as únicas da cidade), delegada, capitã da Polícia Militar, assessoras de secretarias municipais (como são chamadas as titulares das pastas), gerentes de banco, donas de pousada, de lojas e por aí vai. Os moradores brincam que é a "cidade cor-de-rosa".
In farm-related news, the Nelore appear to be enjoying pasture 5...pasture 6 is on its way and will hopefully be finished by the end of next week.

Also, we had to purchase six cubic meters of stones to shore up our entry road after the many rains...the first three truckloadfuls arrived this week. We also bought two more horses from Márcio; the latter arrived today.

Finally, many of the hogs are looking VERY pregnant...we hope to have big news soon.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Happy birthdays to us!

Written to Tchamantché by Rokia Traoré

Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.
- Benjamin Button
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to Lone
Happy birthday dear Rance and Lone
Happy birthday to us!
Whichever week ends up comprising April 30th (my birthday) and May 3rd (Lone's birthday) inevitably and invariably goes down in my myopian world as the best week of the year! When the calendar gods demonstrate their munificence by blending these two big-league dates with an International Workers Day that falls on a Friday, thus delivering a three-day weekend, the trifecta is complete. Add to all of this bounty a visit from our very good friends Paula and Leo, and the long weekend was nothing short of perfect.

Before celebrating, however, we had to do a little work, more specifically tagging the heifers' ears. Because our corral is somewhat primitive (read: really, really primitive), Wilson and Clair had to lasso the heifers, as opposed to running them into a chute, after which we all helped to wrestle them to a standstill before tagging them. Once again, man bested beast, but the beasts put up a respectable struggle, and certainly earned our respect. In my wildest fantasy I would never have guessed that a cow could jump over a nearly two-meter tall fence...surprise, they can. All things considered, we managed to complete the job with surprising ease -and thankfully without incident.

In other work-related news, Marcos and his father finished constructing the walls of the new storage room, which is looking very good...from any angle. All this progress in less than two weeks!

While Marcos and his father focused on the construction of the new storage room, Wilson, Agenor and I began dismantling the old pig pen. While we were working, the happy hogs were busy rooting up their new digs.

On Saturday morning, after a delicious breakfast, we took Paula and Leo for a long walk aound Alfheim...culminating in a visit to our magnificent waterfall.

Big news on the brooding hen front: dwarf hen mother is at it again, together with her full-sized sister. Combined these batches should produce more than 20 chicks. Together with light-brown and white-speckled hen and her nine rapidly-growing chicks, our poultry production is more than on track. Equally exciting, Sandra, Alfheim's lone duck, and Dan the drakes better half, is starting to lay eggs...two at last count and increasing daily.

Finally, on our last trip to São Paulo, Lone and I saw W., Oliver Stone's unusual and inescapably interesting George W. Bush biopic. Josh Brolin's arresting turn in the leading role is scary good...a doppelgänger. Richard Dreyfuss's (one of my favorite actors) portrayal of Dick Cheney is also a treat. Lone called it one of the scariest movies she has ever seen.

And lest we never forget, I will leave you with 3 Bushisms from the Top 10 Bushisms of 2008:
  • "I didn't grow up in the ocean -- as a matter of fact -- near the ocean -- I grew up in the desert. Therefore, it was a pleasant contrast to see the ocean. And I particularly like it when I'm fishing." --Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2008
  • "And so, General, I want to thank you for your service. And I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq." --to Army Gen. Ray Odierno, Washington, D.C., March 3, 2008
  • "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008
To quote Monty Python...Say No More!