Hog hazing gone wild!

Written to Live at the Aquarius Theatre: The Second Performance by The Doors

"Pol Pot - he rounded up anybody he thought was intellectual and had them executed. And how he told someone was intellectual or not was whether they wore glasses. If they're that clever, take them off when they see him coming!"

- Ricky Gervais

The first of our 2011 volunteers, Amanda Moropoulos, departed recently after three weeks at fazenda Alfheim. She was a delight: easygoing, helpful and hard working…cannot say enough good things about her. And in a weird case of it's a small world after all, her dad's cousin, Craig Moropoulos, coaches football in Santa Barbara, California, were I spent approx. 11 of my formative years, and her mother is from Leicester England, where Johannes and Pelle live, and where my father was born.

We also added a new employee this year, Jhesebel Aline de Santana: 19-years old, drives a tractor like she has been doing it her whole life (even though I am pretty certain she hasn't), lassoes pigs one-handed while hanging from trees, climbs jussara palms like a monkey chasing a banana, is hard-working, fearless and sharp as a whip -a real find. She is so clever, in fact, that soon after joining us she won a five-year scholarship to study at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Unicamp (University of Campinas). We are, of course, thrilled for her, and we have agreed that she will continue to work at Fazenda Alfheim during school holidays etc. This was important for her as she otherwise would not be able to afford the R$45 (€19.93 or $26.99) bus trip back to Vargem Grande!

And while on the subject of new additions, Danielle Haddad (caught here displaying a piece of Lone's amazing cheesecake), who studied at the Royal Agriculture College with Esben, began a three-four-month internship with us on February 4th. Danielle will be joined by Jamie Paxton and Julie Pallozzi, two more volunteers, who will arrive sometime next week and on February 21st, respectively.

As summer wanes there is no shortage of life at Fazenda Alfheim.

An abundance of life is certainly a euphemism for describing the hog's activity over the past couple of weeks. On February 1st, we moved all of the F1 sows, the Duroc boars and, after a brief period seconded to an acclimatization pen next to but separate from the incumbents, the three new large Sorocaba/Monteiro boars to pasture 3 to harvest the corn. At first, it was nothing but love, but after a week or so the three new boars started, more or less systematically, to attack first the Duroc boars and then one another. Boars began quite literally running for their lives, escaping from pasture 3, followed by a number of the sows…chaos ensued! We have implemented martial law, detaining the two most aggressive new boars in the secure facility with the other, smaller Sorocaba/Monteiro hogs. Biggie, our prize Duroc, is recovering with a few ladies in a far-away field that will soon be planted with sugar cane, while Beta, our younger Duroc, has been moved to the pre-maternity ward while he, too, recovers from a number of serious wounds. The last Sorocaba/Monteiro boar has also been locked down, but separate from his homies as they started in on him once they had beaten down Biggie and Beta. We are not sure how all of this will end, but after two weeks of chasing hogs in and out of various pens and pastures and treating wounds, we are satisfied with a pause to think. I am pretty certain that we can file this under the heading To be continued...

Prior to hog hazing, Esben and Jhesebel prepared more bee boxes in anticipation of our expansion from 20 to 40 boxes, which should take place later this month. Once fully operational, this latest expansion will raise Fazenda Alfheim's annual production to approx. 600 liters of raw, organic honey! In that connection, we have begun working with Suzanna Jones to develop a logo for the fazenda and its products. I will report on our progress in this endeavor more or less real time. Very exciting!

Finally, Lone and I spent this past weekend in São Paulo. On Saturday we went to Shopping Vila Olímpia, where we saw The King's Speech at Kinoplex Vila Olímpia. An absolutely delightful, thoughtful and suspenseful film. I have not seen such a fine film in a long, long time. A must see.