Herbal medicine and grease

Written to Soundtrack - The Boat That Rocked by Various Artists

The sun, with all those plants revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

- Galileo Galilei

Mark (yes, he is wearing a cricket hat), our new trainee, is settling in well -despite suffering a mild heat stroke the other day after hoeing with the workers for an hour at midday. As he politely reminded us, when he was again able to utter words that is, "I haven't seen the sun since…well, like August." Aside from his two hours of silence, Mark has already proven himself a real asset: he is hardworking, helpful and easy to be around.

So easy, in fact, that last week the three of us traveled to Lorena, to visit Ana Maria Claro Paredes Silva, Méd. Veterinária, Instituto Oikos de Agroecologia. It was a fruitful visit: Ana Maria was able to help us understand more clearly how she uses a variety of herbal remedies with her dairy cattle. She also provided us with a real guldkorn, Danish for gem. Turns out she uses Maizena, or cornstarch, instead of zinc-oxide as a thickening agent in many of her herbal remedies...much, much cheaper, though minus the anti-septic qualities of zinc-oxide. She also cautioned us against using neem too frequently. Aparently it can affect the hormone balance in animals. Following this latter advice, my favorite witch of Eastwick mixed up a batch of alcohol and lemon grass to spray the animals with this week.

And speaking of spraying the animals, we can unequivocally see the effects of the herbal remedies at Alfheim. Bolinha, the worst hit by berne or warble flies, took almost two hours to treat when we began our program four short weeks ago. Yesterday, we counted less than 10 warble flies, and we finished her treatment in approx. 15 minutes. The Jerseys continue to exhibit strong resistance to parasites, and Mausolus becomes easier to treat each time. Yesterday, he allowed us to treat one of his ears, albeit with his head bound, but had he not wanted to be treated, there is NOTHING we could have done.

On the whole, we are coming to the conclusion that, in spite of some of the limitations of our current feed (no organic source of protein until the Jerseys begin producing milk in the next 60 days…7-9-13!), our animals are remarkably healthy when compared to those at the farms we have visited. They are active, robust and resistant. This does not mean that we do not have our fair share of challenges, or that we still don't have a long way to go before we reach what we consider to be an acceptable, minimum plateau for their welfare, but overall the signs are positive.

And speaking of positive, two of the pregnant sows gave birth last week, 12 piglets each, though we did lose two from the first litter. In sum, 22 new piglets. Our nascent piglet enterprise has reached the point that it pays for all of the feed and approx. three months of worker's salaries. Not bad for a couple of greenhorns!

While on the subject of animals, two of Lone's beehives were attacked by ants this week. On the same day that Lone and I were struggling with the dilemma of what to do, basically to poison or not to poison (and risk losing all of the bees), I phoned our dear friend, Luciano Bonachela, to discuss my Kindle. Long story short: in the course of our conversation, Luciano asked me about the bees, I told him about the ants, and he suggested using grease on the fence posts supporting the beehives to keep the ants from ascending. Lightning strikes! I ended our conversation and ran out to tell Lone. She quickly applied all of the grease we had at Alfheim. While too late to save the first box, thankfully a freebie that Lone gained when a swarm found its way into our corn deposit, hopefully it was soon enough to save the others...7-9-13! Today we purchased 10 liters of grease at the gas station on Rodoviária Osvaldo Cruz. Turns out the grease is absorbed by the fence posts, so Lone will have to apply it regularly. That said, it beats any alternative we could come up with. Thanks again, Luciano!

On a sad note, Max Trop Mignon suffered an early demise. Lone is convinced that Max's becoming late is the work of Muninn, but there were no teeth marks, so I say innocent until proven guilty. Might have to look into a muzzle, though…but I am not conceding anything until there is enough evidence to make a case against our gentle Rottweil Metzgerhund. If anyone has a kitten that needs a home...

Finally, a flora or fauna of the week question: take a look at this photo: what appears to be a leaf is in fact a moth that we found one morning on our living room floor. Galileo was spot on.