Hitting our stride

Written to August & Everything After - Deluxe Edition by Counting Crows

Take care of your Thoughts because they become Words.

Take care of your Words because they become Actions.

Take care of your Actions because they become your Habits.

Take care of your Habits because they become your Character.

Take care of your Character because it will form your Destiny, and your Destiny will be your Life ... and ...

There is no religion higher than the Truth.

- the Dalai Lama

While things take time (TTT) is as true as ever when speaking of farming, it is also true that we are beginning to hit our stride and establish a daily routine that pushes us ever closer to our short- and medium-term goals.

Only last week I spent an entire Thursday morning walking the fazenda with Clair, Dirlei and João, planning the next critical three-four months in painstaking detail. The motivation for this hands-on planning session was the upcoming window for planting crops, which begins in the second half of July and ends in the first half of November. Before we can begin planting, of course, there are a number of critical tasks which must be completed:

• Manually clear the remaining post-hog shrubbery on pasture 3. Clair, Dirlei and João, with a couple of spirited contributions from Mark, have basically finished this job -in less than one week. √
• Treat the pastures and fields with calcium. We recently purchased 14 tons of calcium through the Casa da Agricultura in Natividade da Serra, the first seven tons of which were delivered this morning. √
• Secure the delivery of the plow, till and planter. Delivery has been confirmed by Agritech Lavrale Ltda. in Campinas for June 17th. √
• Ensure sufficient hog pens so as to avoid the need to fence during the critical weeks of planting. Hogwood is essentially ready and waiting for a new rotation, Hog Copse was emptied on June 1st and is in recovery mode (approx. six months) and Hog Weald, our latest construct, is still virgin territory…un-tread-upon and waiting. By my back-of-the-envelope calculation, our existing stock of hog pens will carry us through Q1 2011. √
• Pick and store mandioca (cassava) branches for planting in September. As the branches can be stored for approx. three months, we will begin this task next week.
• Secure untreated bean and corn seeds, mandioca branches and sugar cane and elephant grass stalks. We would like to plant sweat potatoes as well, but thus far have been unable to identify a supplier with sufficient volume. √

In sum, we are primed for a successful planting season, which in turn should allow us to achieve our goal of animal feed self-sufficiency beginning in Q1 2011. Given that feed is our second greatest expense, after wages, and unquestionably the biggest pain in the behind logistically-speaking, this would be a monstrous accomplishment. 7-9-13!

Over the past two plus weeks, when not planning the upcoming planting season, we partook in a couple of enjoyable outings:

1. Anella, Sandra, Mark, Emmanuel Cabale, another charming frog (worth reading the link) who is working with Emmanuel Rengade on his Fazenda Santa Helena project along with Jeff and Suzanna (an American couple who we hitherto had not had the pleasure of meeting) and I went for a gentle trek along the easiest of the three trails in the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, Núcleo Santa Virgínia, the six km, three waterfall, Trilha do Garcez.

Lone drew the short straw and stayed behind, taking advantage of a kind offer of assistance from our former neighbor, Januara, to check up on Lone's bees. In addition, Bia, Lone's former pottery teacher in São Paulo, paid us a visit, bringing with her a glorious clay salt pig as a present. After the hike, everyone returned to Alfheim for a BBQ and a chilaxing afternoon that effortlessly morphed into evening.

The following Monday Lone took the young folks to Picinguaba and Ubatuba, where Anella and Sandra, in particular, took full advantage of the opportunity to store up some Brazilian sand, surf and sun before heading back to their harsh Nordic fædreland. While Lone, Mark, Anella and Sandra were out frolicking, I stayed home to mind the fazenda.

In other farm-related news, the piglets are thriving, the first group of which will be ready for slaughter at eight weeks, essentially two months earlier than previous batches. We are definitely getting the hang of this.

And speaking of getting the hang of something, we are now officially experts at herding hogs…moving three different groups between gardens, pastures and pens in one day, in some cases more than a kilometer -and after lunch no-less (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14). Completely hassle-free. Amazing what a difference a year makes.

Lone is now officially a milk maid, though her dairy cattle herding skills leave a bit more than a bit to be desired, something she will have to work to improve as our herd of dairy cattle is set to expand by two, perhaps as early as this weekend. In preparation for the birth of the calves, the men built a stall in the corral, which they proudly displayed for the camera.

And speaking of menagerie expansion, Sofia Sow, so named by Anella, gave birth to an unquantified litter yesterday, after holding out for what seemed like forever, or at least for what looked like a physiological impossibility.

Finally, for all of you who own iPods/iPads, I would like to plug the iTunes U, Apple's collection of university content. I have started to download an eclectic collection of lectures whenever I visit the an urban center near or far, and the quality, in most cases, is nothing short of extraordinary -and free! Currently auditing: Justice with Michael Sandel.

Equally free, virtually any older work of classic literature on Amazon.com. I just finished downloading 16 works to my Kindle this morning, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Oliver Twist and Crime and Punishment.

What did we ever do before the internet?