Monday, September 28, 2009

A year in the blogosphere...

Written to Stop the Clocks by Oasis

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
- Albert Einstein

This week's blog post will be my 51st, taking me into my second year of blogging. In the previous year, 1,908 people visited the Fazenda Alfheim blogspot. These 1,908 absolute unique visitors generated 4,883 visits (Benchmark: 203 (+2,305.42%)) from 61 countries/territories, 8,530 pageviews (Benchmark: 370 (+2,205.41%)) and spent an average of 0:02:55 on the site (Benchmark: 00:00:13 (+1,277.43%)). In terms of trending, in September 2008 an average of 97 absolute unique visitors read the blog vs. 184 in June 2009, 198 in July and 188 in August. As a rule, the blog averages in excess of 100 visits per week. To paraphrase Joe Friday from Dragnet fame: "Just the facts, ma'am."

Far more than any numerical significance, the blog has helped us maintain contact with family and friends...and to make new friends. Most recently, Lone used the blog as a calling card of sorts to set up visits at two biodynamic farms in UK, Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch Community Farm in Forest Row, East Sussex, and Grange Village in Newnham-on-Severn. On these visits, Lone and Esben were graciously hosted by Ellie at Tablehurst and David Herman at the Grange.

Tablehurst's hog production consists of 15 sows and two boars, Duroc and Large White. They feed their hogs field beans (own production), oats, wheat, barley and whey from the cheese production at Plaw Hatch Community Farm.

At Tablehurst they do not give the piglets iron injections or drops, but instead a shovelful of soil is placed in the pen where they root. We do not use iron injections or drops, either, since the iron content of our soil is very high. As a result, our piglets acquire what they need simply by rooting.

Different to Alfheim, the hogs at Tablehurst spend the winter months inside and the summer months outside. This is done to conserve the soil. Land used for pigs one year becomes cropland the next.

The hogs are castrated at seven days and slaughtered at 70-80 kg dead weight.

By contrast at the Grange, where they raise Gloucestershire Old Spots, they do not castrate their shoats, but instead eat them before they begin producing hormones (5-6 months and approx. 100 kg).

The Grange also produces goat cheese, and while visiting Lone became completely enamored with the goats. While I agree the goats are very cute, I suspect Lone's interest was stimulated by what she described as the best goat cheese she had ever tasted. Once a Hobbit...

The Grange also has a vegetable garden that is to die for...hopefully we can emulate their success in this area, and we took a huge step to that end this past Saturday by finishing the poultry-proof vegetable garden fencing.

Back at Fazenda Alfheim, Clair cleaned pasture 1 using the Husqvarna 236R brushcutter. Amazing! Pasture 1 (to the right of the dividing fence) looks like a golf course when compared to pasture 2 (on the left), which Clair will clean this week. I made the decision this weekend to ask the Saturday fencing crew to help us reseed the cleaned pastures with calopogônio, capim aruanã and soja perene. This as a supplement to the feces distribution method currently in place. In choosing this route it is my hope that we can significantly speed up the reform of our pastures...and also take advantage of the onset of Spring. In addition to an increase in rain, the temperature is heating up...32˚ Celsius on Sunday...glorious!

The new worker's house is progressing nicely and should be completed on Saturday, October 3rd, se Deus quiser (Portuguese for 7-9-13!), according to Marcos.

Finally, in addition to two biodynamic farm visits, Lone and Esben also managed to pop over to Leicester to visit Johannes and Pelle. During their visit, they visited the school where Johannes teaches, New College Leicester, and also helped Pelle move into his dorm room for year 2 at university.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Lone lands in London

Written to Life Ain't Worth Livin' by J.W. Warren

It is not legal (in Nebraska) for a tavern owner to serve beer unless a nice kettle of soup is also brewing.
- Real Funny Dumb Laws in the United States

Lone boarded a non-stop TAM flight to UK last night, and I just confirmed that she landed safely in London, was picked up by Esben and the two have already returned to Cirencester, where Esben studies.

As mentioned in last week's blog post, Lone will be away until late October. In the meantime, both Fazenda Alfheim and I will try to make do without our better half. In addition, of course, to visiting our boys in UK and her family and friends in Denmark, Lone has scheduled four visits to organic and/or biodynamic farms, two each in UK and Denmark, a couple of which produce hogs. One of the farms Lone will visit, Doves Farm, is a true pioneer of the organic movement. Amazingly, this visit came about while we were relaxing at Emmanuel Rengade's pousada. As it turned out, one of the guests, Lucy, knows the family that owns and runs Doves Farm, and she helped Lone set up a visit. Talk about synchronicity!

While Lone is away, we will begin, among other priorities, a systematic process of cleaning the pastures with our newly acquired Husqvarna 236R brushcutter. Clair loves it, but has found that using it is very demanding physically. As a result, we have agreed that he should limit this work to one pasture per week, i.e. two-three mornings per week. By comparison, this same work would take at least three times longer if he were limited to using a scythe.

In the afternoons, Clair will reseed Hog Haven, which the hogs laid bare before being moved to Hogwood, with another of our new tools. Thankfully, Hog Hill, our third giant pig pen, has recovered nicely since we first had it plowed with oxen and planted sunflowers back in March. Since then the vegetation has regenerated, and even though it is not as dense as Hogwood, it will nonetheless make an attractive scampering ground for our new gilts, who, despite their diminutive size, display an almost proportionally impressive ability to clear vegetation as their parents.

In sum, then, the grandparents, as the first generation of hogs are known, reside in Hogwood, while the next generation of producers will reside on Hog Hill. While all of this residing is taking place, we will reseed Hog Haven in preparation for a new group of gilts, or alternatively as a surplus area if Hogwood or Hog Hill should require a period of fallow. It is worth noting that Hogwood is comprised of three separate areas, each approx. one to one and one-half hectares, while Hog Hill is comprised of two separate areas, each approx. one hectare. The hogs will be rotated within these areas according to their rate of habitat destruction. After reseeding Hog Haven with milheto, soja perene and calopogônio, we will add a fence in the middle in order to create two separate areas à la Hog Hill, each approx. one hectare. As discussed in an earlier blog post, we are currently seeding our existing pastures with calopogônio, capim aruanã and soja perene, all of which we mix into the mineral salt that the horses and cows consume (distribution by feces).

And speaking of horses and cows, we discovered this weekend, much to our horror, that our gentle, old horses possess a nasty streak when it comes to sharing mineral salt with their bovine compadres. In brief, they shoo the cattle away and eat all of the mineral salt immediately. As a result, we decided to place the cattle on pasture 5, for example, while leaving the horses on pasture 4. When the cattle are moved, as they are daily, to pasture 6, 7, 8 etc., the horses are subsequently moved to pasture 5, 6, 7 etc. Hopefully in this way the cattle will get their daily requirement of mineral salt, approx. 100 gr per cow.

In other farm news, Sandra, our duck, has produced nine very cute ducklings, and the Saturday fencers have almost completed fencing the large field in front of our house. This will become Lone's new and improved vegetable garden, with a chicken-wire fence to keep out inquisitive poultry. This new garden is just under one hectare -plenty of room to grow bounteous quantities of Danish potatoes to accompany Alfheim's homemade chicken.

Finally, our new hand grain grinder arrived on Friday. While we were unable to assemble it for a test grind during the weekend, it certainly was not for lack of interest. Once properly assembled, we will have an easier time grinding organic corn for the chicks and ducklings.

Monday, September 14, 2009

An unwontedly festive evening

Written to I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got by Sinead O'Connor

The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.
- Charles de Gaulle

It has been 14 days since I last published a blog post. Between then and now, Lone and I enjoyed a much-needed three-day weekend at Fazenda Alfheim, which included a morning of piglet castration (more on that later), and last weekend at Pousada Picinguaba. The latter is owned by our good friends, Emmanuel Rengade and his wife, Filipa. Relaxing does not begin to describe our two days by the shore. Likewise, post-card perfect falls far short when describing the views from the pousada. Our visit to Picinguaba was extra special because on Friday morning Sr. Roberto, currently one of our contract fencers and soon-to-be Fazenda Alfheim's third full-time employee, with an assist from Clair, slaughtered our very first piglets. These were then cooked to perfection by Beto, Emmanuel's chef, who studied in Paris for three years, and shared with the pousada's guests. Beto actually deboned one of the piglets in its entirety...without breaking a single bone. He then marinated, stuffed and sewed the piglet whole before cooking it. Simply amazing! Equally amazing was the taste. Needless to say I am biased, but without a doubt it was the best pork I have ever eaten -comparable even to the finest Brazilian beef. It quite literally melted in our mouths. And as if all of this were not sufficiently marvelous, Joseph Keller, a professional photographer from New York, who was in town taking pictures of the pousada for Emmanuel, provided parents and piglets with a most honorable pictorial send-off. Truly an unwontedly festive evening!

As mentioned earlier, prior to participating in the good life, we had the unenviable task of castrating 22 piglets (on Saturday, September 5th). Thankfully, with the help of Sr. Roberto, Clair and Rosana -and a good deal of preparation by Lone and me to secure the proper equipment and homeopathic medicine- it turned out to be a straightforward affair. While I am pretty sure the affected piglets harbor another, less-positive view, what is certain is that the whole affair took less than two hours. Straightforward or not, and for what I hope are obvious reasons, I chose not to take any photos.

The fortnight's other major happening was the grand opening of Hogwood, Fazenda Alfheim's new four hectare (approx. 10 acres) pig pen. Amazingly, Lone, Clair and Rosana managed to coax the hogs from Hog Haven to Hogwood in less than one-half hour...this compared with the two-day battle we engaged in when moving the hogs 8 months ago. Maybe they had an inkling of the paradise that awaited them...or maybe not. In any event there can be little doubt about how much they are enjoying their new digs (no pun intended).

Finally, Lone will be leaving for Europe (UK and Denmark) for a month-long visit on Sunday. She is certainly thrilled, but equally certain Fazenda Alfheim will be emptier in her absence.