500

Written to Abbey Road by The Beatles

“When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.”

- Chinua Achebe

If you ever lay awake at night wondering what 500 day-old chicks look like, you can hereafter sleep easy.

After spending the better part of Sunday in Parque da Independência in São Paulo listening to a free Norah Jones concert, Esben departed from South America's leading megalopolis in the early morning on Proclamação da República (Republic Day), which commemorates the end of the Empire of Brazil and the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic in November 15, 1889, and headed toward Campinas to pick up the first half of our order of 1,000 day-old chicks from Fazenda Aves do Paraiso.

Approx. five hours later, Esben arrived with five neatly packed boxes, each containing 100 day-old chicks.

We showed the newest members of Fazenda Alfheim to their lodgings, our massive chicken house, and made sure they had plenty of food and water and a more insulated house within the chicken house to keep them warm during the critical, initial eight days in our care.

The chicks, which cost R$1.10 per head, appear strong, robust and should reach slaughter weight in 90-100 days.

In other developments, Lone and Esben harvested several buckets full of jaboticaba. The word jaboticaba is said to have been derived from the Tupi term, jabotim, for turtle, and means "like turtle fat", presumably referring to the fruit pulp. All I know is it makes a very yummy pancake syrup!

Also, our heirloom corn is growing at breakneck speed…from this to this in 3 weeks!

Finally, for anyone seeking a bit of inspiration, the following article from The Wall Street Journal should certainly lift your spirits.