On the map…quite literally

Written to Come Away With Me by Norah Jones

"Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings."

- Hodding Carter

I just received word that Lone arrived safely in Denmark, with my Amazon Kindle in tow, after more than 24 hours of travel. She will be visiting her faderland until October 28, when she returns to São Paulo, just in time for cowboy Magano's birthday celebration at Fazenda Caetê -and her first official Fazenda Alfheim honey harvest.

Prior to Lone's departure, we had the pleasure of a three-day visit from some new friends, Jeff and Suzanna Jones, who we met through Emmanuel Rengade. Great, great fun!

In actual fazenda news...

• I am at last comfortable in stating that we have a herd, defined by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated as a number of animals of one kind kept together under human control, of cattle, in all 10 Jerseys plus Mausolous and Bolina. We brought all 12 cattle together for the first time in a long time, the kickoff of our plan to keep the cattle off of the pastures for the next approx. six weeks, the beginning of the critical spring growth period.
• Esben, Clair and João planted various types of gourds between all of the rows of milho criolo, so now we just have to sit back and hope for the best. 7-9-13!
• The 30 sows and 3 boars that we purchased from Toshio Hisaeda arrived on Friday, October 8th, but thus far they are somewhat camera shy, so photos will have to wait. Most importantly, all 33 arrived in terrific shape, even after traveling the more than 1,000 km from Mato Grosso do Sul. In all, we now have 75 sows and five boars…a ratio of 1:15, which we have learned, thanks to a bit of research by Esben, is ideal for free-range hog farming.
• Fazenda Alfheim has officially been located and tagged (see attached *.kmz file in my e-mail) on Google Earth. Hopefully this will help those readers who have yet to visit our magic kingdom to get to know the property better…and also encourage them to stop by and see it for themselves in the non-virtual world.

Finally, in a somber note, and one which is far more likely to impact us in the medium term than Global Warming, the FDA is only now awakening to the threat posed by antibiotic resistance:

The drugs have been almost routinely used in recent years for common colds and ear infections in children, and have become fairly standard additions to feed in chickenhouses and for livestock, which are then eaten by consumers. The result has been the growth of bacteria and life-threatening diseases that respond poorly, if at all, to even some of the most modern antibiotic treatments.