Written to You Were Here by Sarah Harmer
Everyone has a photographic memory… some just don’t have film.
- Steven Wright
A number of readers wrote last week and inquired about the end use for the new house at Fazenda Alfheim. The short answer is that it is being built to house a new family of workers who we hope to hire in the next several weeks. In brief, we need more help; there is so much work still to do.
When complete, the house will comprise a large outdoor patio and service area, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms -and spectacular views of Hogwood and beyond.
In animal news, Chiquina is bigger, better and hungrier than ever. She is without question the most rambunctious of all of the piglets. A real marvel.
The ill heifer continues to struggle, but on Sunday she showed some signs of life and was eating well. We continue to treat her with a variety of homeopathic remedies, principally a cream consisting of calendula or pot marigold (for clsoing open sores), zinc oxide (a disinfectant) and citronella (an insect repellent). We clean her sores with water and coconut soap, apply iodine and then the aforementioned cream. 7-9-13.
Even though the fencers have yet to start work, the remaining cattle inaugurated pasture 7 on a misty, cold Sunday.
Negão is currently serving time after attacking a piglet, which, thanks to Pelle's quick reaction, we were able to save. He is allowed out of solitary during the day, as long as he is accompanied by the guards. Fortunately, the piglet, seen here after being treated by Esben, does not look worse for the wear.
In between moving fence posts (Brian and Pelle) and cooking for the workers and washing up (Esben), the boys have managed to relax, even traveling to the beach in Ubatuba a second time.
This week's fauna is a three-way tie among members of the order Lepidoptera (1, 2, 3).
Finally, we will all be heading to São Paulo on Thursday for an extended weekend of visiting friends, dining at a couple of our favorite restaurants, Fogo de Chão (fo-go dèe shoun), Galeria dos Pães and Ofner, and watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which set a worldwide box-office record for its opening week, grossing nearly $400 million U.S. dollars in the five days since its release. Lone and I also have plans to enjoy a massage at Amanary, the spa at the Grand Hyatt São Paulo. Life is pretty good!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
A perfect house
Written to The Best of by Radiohead
His house was perfect whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley.
- J.R.R. Tolkien
Construction of the new house picked up steam this week. Marcos placed the initial order for building materials and 48 hours later the material was delivered -a day after the delivery of 5 m3 of road paving material. The fact that Marcos & Co. paved the driveway and built a storage shed prior to commencing construction helped immeasurably. As a result, Marcos, his father and their new companheiro were able to accelerate their progress tangibly. In truth, Marcos was relieved to get started. It took us several weeks to choose the location for the new house...much longer than anticipated. Prior to this job, all other construction projects at Alfheim have involved improvements to or extensions of existing buildings. Lastly, construction is synonymous with the moving of cinder blocks, and here Pelle and his friend, Freddy, pitched in in a big way.
Progress on Hogwood also moved ahead rapidly. The four pens should be completed in the first half of this week. When complete, Hogwood will comprise an initial holding area, a large area for the boar(s) and the breeding sows, a feeding area which we can enter unencumbered by the descendants of Sus scrofa and a finishing area. Until we discover the holy grail of safe hog birthing, we will breed smaller numbers at a time...and continue with our open-air approach, which sustained its 100% success rate. The eight newly-christened Corinthians (for their coloring) returned to the hog pen...as did all but one gilt, who mysteriously disappeared. She seems to have escaped from the hog pen, and no one has been able to figure out how. Hopefully she will turn up in the next week or two with a litter of healthy piglets in tow. The open air approach involves releasing the pregnant gilt/sow from the hog pen just before she bursts, her finding a suitable birthing locale and building a nest, the birth itself, four-eight days of nursing and her returning to the main hog pen when the piglets are sufficiently hardened.
And speaking of hardened, Chiquina continues to amaze. Her daily intake has been reduced to two times two bottles of milk, supplemented with organic corn, which we keep in the laundry room, close to the kitchen door, where she arrives like clockwork twice daily for feeding. Muninn is keen to play with Chiquina, who except when crawling on him when he is lying down, shows little interest in canine companionship.
Somewhat less hardy were the boys, who after an initial spurt of activity curtailed their workload considerably: Esben hurt his knee so he was relegated to kitchen detail...Martha Stewart beware, Pelle and Freddy relaxed by playing Dungeons & Dragons and Brian got in touch with his inner seamstress.
Less hardy still is one of our heifers, which has become very weak and has been lying down a lot. We lost a heifer a couple of weeks back after it suffered from similar symptoms. Unfortunately, we basically have no clue as to what happened, though our lack of solid data has done little to diminish the speculation among our workers, which is rampant and ranges from poor pastures to poisonous plants. Márcio, who certainly knows cattle, visited us for lunch on Sunday and was kind enough to take a look at the heifer in question, but his conclusion was equally inconclusive. On Monday Lone called M.V.Ms.Sc. Leslie Almeida, our homeopathic veterinarian, and she recommended isolating the animal and supplementing its grazing with napié, a species of of tall perennial grass, and organic corn.
Ironically, the various problems with the hogs, e.g. miíases, and cattle, e.g. malaise, have strengthened my belief in biodynamics. The reason for my buttressed conviction is that we see the impact of the forces that regulate life and growth on a daily basis -and the importance of taking a unified approach to agriculture. For example, while all of our caipim limão is healthy, the plants that are local to our property suffer no rust whatsoever. The Duroc hogs are infinitely more robust than the F1, a cross between Large White and Landrace; the Durocs have never suffered from miíase, while they are common in the F1. Also, the darker, thicker-haired Duroc do not suffer from sunburn. Our future hog breeding stock will be chosen exclusively from the red-orange and black piglets.
In the case of the Nelore, a breed known for its hardiness, I am convinced that our herd will improve as the cattle acclimatize to our pastures -and we improve the soil- and through selective breeding.
Finally, Lone and Esben, bad knee and all, completed measuring and marking pasture 7 (404 fence posts required, approx. 6.3 hectares), so the boys have their marching orders for the week.
His house was perfect whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley.
- J.R.R. Tolkien
Construction of the new house picked up steam this week. Marcos placed the initial order for building materials and 48 hours later the material was delivered -a day after the delivery of 5 m3 of road paving material. The fact that Marcos & Co. paved the driveway and built a storage shed prior to commencing construction helped immeasurably. As a result, Marcos, his father and their new companheiro were able to accelerate their progress tangibly. In truth, Marcos was relieved to get started. It took us several weeks to choose the location for the new house...much longer than anticipated. Prior to this job, all other construction projects at Alfheim have involved improvements to or extensions of existing buildings. Lastly, construction is synonymous with the moving of cinder blocks, and here Pelle and his friend, Freddy, pitched in in a big way.
Progress on Hogwood also moved ahead rapidly. The four pens should be completed in the first half of this week. When complete, Hogwood will comprise an initial holding area, a large area for the boar(s) and the breeding sows, a feeding area which we can enter unencumbered by the descendants of Sus scrofa and a finishing area. Until we discover the holy grail of safe hog birthing, we will breed smaller numbers at a time...and continue with our open-air approach, which sustained its 100% success rate. The eight newly-christened Corinthians (for their coloring) returned to the hog pen...as did all but one gilt, who mysteriously disappeared. She seems to have escaped from the hog pen, and no one has been able to figure out how. Hopefully she will turn up in the next week or two with a litter of healthy piglets in tow. The open air approach involves releasing the pregnant gilt/sow from the hog pen just before she bursts, her finding a suitable birthing locale and building a nest, the birth itself, four-eight days of nursing and her returning to the main hog pen when the piglets are sufficiently hardened.
And speaking of hardened, Chiquina continues to amaze. Her daily intake has been reduced to two times two bottles of milk, supplemented with organic corn, which we keep in the laundry room, close to the kitchen door, where she arrives like clockwork twice daily for feeding. Muninn is keen to play with Chiquina, who except when crawling on him when he is lying down, shows little interest in canine companionship.
Somewhat less hardy were the boys, who after an initial spurt of activity curtailed their workload considerably: Esben hurt his knee so he was relegated to kitchen detail...Martha Stewart beware, Pelle and Freddy relaxed by playing Dungeons & Dragons and Brian got in touch with his inner seamstress.
Less hardy still is one of our heifers, which has become very weak and has been lying down a lot. We lost a heifer a couple of weeks back after it suffered from similar symptoms. Unfortunately, we basically have no clue as to what happened, though our lack of solid data has done little to diminish the speculation among our workers, which is rampant and ranges from poor pastures to poisonous plants. Márcio, who certainly knows cattle, visited us for lunch on Sunday and was kind enough to take a look at the heifer in question, but his conclusion was equally inconclusive. On Monday Lone called M.V.Ms.Sc. Leslie Almeida, our homeopathic veterinarian, and she recommended isolating the animal and supplementing its grazing with napié, a species of of tall perennial grass, and organic corn.
Ironically, the various problems with the hogs, e.g. miíases, and cattle, e.g. malaise, have strengthened my belief in biodynamics. The reason for my buttressed conviction is that we see the impact of the forces that regulate life and growth on a daily basis -and the importance of taking a unified approach to agriculture. For example, while all of our caipim limão is healthy, the plants that are local to our property suffer no rust whatsoever. The Duroc hogs are infinitely more robust than the F1, a cross between Large White and Landrace; the Durocs have never suffered from miíase, while they are common in the F1. Also, the darker, thicker-haired Duroc do not suffer from sunburn. Our future hog breeding stock will be chosen exclusively from the red-orange and black piglets.
In the case of the Nelore, a breed known for its hardiness, I am convinced that our herd will improve as the cattle acclimatize to our pastures -and we improve the soil- and through selective breeding.
Finally, Lone and Esben, bad knee and all, completed measuring and marking pasture 7 (404 fence posts required, approx. 6.3 hectares), so the boys have their marching orders for the week.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Here an oink. There an oink. Everywhere an oink oink.
Written to Let's Stay Together by Al Green
The best way out is always through.
- Robert Frost
7-9-13 it seems as though our new birthing strategy is working. Since we began releasing the expectant gilts into the wild, so to speak, we have experienced a 100% success rate. As noted in last week's blog post, The sons of his seed and his blood, gilt 8 gave birth to seven piglets, and now gilt 9 has given birth to 12, gilt 10 to 11 and gilt 11 to eight piglets...bringing our haul thus far to 60 piglets! And there are still nine gilts who have yet to give birth. That said there are a couple of these remaining gilts that do not appear to be pregnant. Nevertheless, if this pattern continues, we should handily reach our goal of producing 60 producer gilts, who in turn should produce somewhere just north of 1,000 piglets a year, allowing us to cull the grandparents to a manageable four sows and one boar.
In a related development, the weekday fencers have almost completed fencing the new hog pen, henceforth dubbed Hogwood. Compared to Hog Haven, Hogwood is an exclusive, gated community. The flora is rich and diverse...the views stunning.
Other milestones reached this week:
The boys also harvested mandioca from the far field that I recently bought back from Paulo, the owner of one of the two markets in Vargem Grande. Paulo had been renting the land from me for the past year. Amazingly, Chiquina, who now shows up unprovoked at our kitchen door a couple of times a day for feeding, followed the boys all the way to the far mandioca field and back, a round trip of approx. six kilometers. Pretty awesome for such a tiny creature.
Finally, Esben brought us a collection of essentials from UK: 20 pairs of work gloves, a Recta DT 420 Global System compass (most compasses work in either the northern or southern hemisphere), more One Earth Emergency Wind Up Lights, a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx handheld GPS device, lots and lots of Green & Black's organic chocolate, an engraved Leatherman and these very hip his & her t-shirts.
The best way out is always through.
- Robert Frost
7-9-13 it seems as though our new birthing strategy is working. Since we began releasing the expectant gilts into the wild, so to speak, we have experienced a 100% success rate. As noted in last week's blog post, The sons of his seed and his blood, gilt 8 gave birth to seven piglets, and now gilt 9 has given birth to 12, gilt 10 to 11 and gilt 11 to eight piglets...bringing our haul thus far to 60 piglets! And there are still nine gilts who have yet to give birth. That said there are a couple of these remaining gilts that do not appear to be pregnant. Nevertheless, if this pattern continues, we should handily reach our goal of producing 60 producer gilts, who in turn should produce somewhere just north of 1,000 piglets a year, allowing us to cull the grandparents to a manageable four sows and one boar.
In a related development, the weekday fencers have almost completed fencing the new hog pen, henceforth dubbed Hogwood. Compared to Hog Haven, Hogwood is an exclusive, gated community. The flora is rich and diverse...the views stunning.
Other milestones reached this week:
- Lone produced Alfheim's first butter, from milk which we purchase from Rosana's father for R$1.00 (€0.37 or $0.51) per liter, which is a win for him (wholesale price: R$0.60 or €0.22 or $0.31) and for us (retail price: R$1.50 per liter or €0.55 or $0.77). Lone is also producing yogurt.
- Alfheim has its first, very own, homegrown duckling, proudly displayed here with her mother, Sandra. Officially, this would make Sandra, Lone's good friend from New York and Sandra's namesake, a godmother.
- Esben, Brian and Pelle arrived to much joy, celebration -and a little goofiness.
- We broke ground on the new house...and it will be spectacular. It's location is the result of the accidental discovery of a spring, a spectacular spring, which forced us to change the planned route of Hogwood's fencing to accommodate the strict environmental legislation. In brief, all animals and buildings must be offset 30 meters from any source of running water and respect a 50 meters diameter from any spring.
- The black and white-spotted hen is the proud mother of 19 chicks! That's right...19 chicks!
The boys also harvested mandioca from the far field that I recently bought back from Paulo, the owner of one of the two markets in Vargem Grande. Paulo had been renting the land from me for the past year. Amazingly, Chiquina, who now shows up unprovoked at our kitchen door a couple of times a day for feeding, followed the boys all the way to the far mandioca field and back, a round trip of approx. six kilometers. Pretty awesome for such a tiny creature.
Finally, Esben brought us a collection of essentials from UK: 20 pairs of work gloves, a Recta DT 420 Global System compass (most compasses work in either the northern or southern hemisphere), more One Earth Emergency Wind Up Lights, a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx handheld GPS device, lots and lots of Green & Black's organic chocolate, an engraved Leatherman and these very hip his & her t-shirts.
Monday, June 29, 2009
The sons of his seed and his blood
Written to Guitararama by Stephen Dale Petit
And now we come to the Grail, the Quest. I think it is true that any man...when he comes to maturity has a very deep sense that he will not win the Quest. He knows his failings, his shortcoming and particularly his memories of sins of cruelty, of thoughtlessness, of disloyalty, of adultery, and these will not permit him to win the Grail...Lancelot could not see the Grail because of his faults and sins of Malory himself. He knows he has fallen short and all his excellences, his courage, his courtesy, in his own mind cannot balance his vices and errors, his stupidities.
I think this happens to every man who has ever lived...But there is an answer ready to hand for every man...The self-character cannot win the Quest, but his son can, his spotless son of his seed and his blood who has his virtues but not his faults. And so Galahad is able to win the Quest, the dear son, the unspoiled son, and because he is the seed of Lancelot and the seed of Malory, Malory-Lancelot has in a sense won the Quest and in his issue broken through to the glory which his own faults have forbidden him.
- John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
Our three Galahads have each won a Quest in June:
Johannes, now 22 years old, graduated from Imperial College London, ranked 6th overall in the Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings of the world's top 100 universities in 2008, with his BSc in Physics -and he was informed last Friday that he achieved a 2:1 -approx. 3.5 G.P.A. He will begin working for Teach First, an independent charity launched in 2002 to bring excellent teachers into challenged secondary schools across the UK. Johannes will teach Science at New College in Leicester, the birthplace of my father, who passed away two years ago.
Not to be outdone, Esben, 20, completed his second year at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester as the top student in his year...for the second straight year.
And last but by no means least, Pelle, 19, finished his first year at the University of Leicester, University of the Year 2008/9 in UK, as the 9th best student in his Geography class of more than 100.
Alfheim's own Malory-Lancelot feel as though they have in a sense won a Quest.
Other Quests won this week:
Finally, as also mentioned in last week's blog post, Esben, his friend Brian, and Pelle, will be arriving on Thursday, July 2nd. Pasture 7 awaits, i.e. approx. 500 mourões or fence posts need moving -the 220 cm variety rather than the shorter, lighter 130 cm variety. It goes without saying that I will be supervising everything.
And now we come to the Grail, the Quest. I think it is true that any man...when he comes to maturity has a very deep sense that he will not win the Quest. He knows his failings, his shortcoming and particularly his memories of sins of cruelty, of thoughtlessness, of disloyalty, of adultery, and these will not permit him to win the Grail...Lancelot could not see the Grail because of his faults and sins of Malory himself. He knows he has fallen short and all his excellences, his courage, his courtesy, in his own mind cannot balance his vices and errors, his stupidities.
I think this happens to every man who has ever lived...But there is an answer ready to hand for every man...The self-character cannot win the Quest, but his son can, his spotless son of his seed and his blood who has his virtues but not his faults. And so Galahad is able to win the Quest, the dear son, the unspoiled son, and because he is the seed of Lancelot and the seed of Malory, Malory-Lancelot has in a sense won the Quest and in his issue broken through to the glory which his own faults have forbidden him.
- John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
Our three Galahads have each won a Quest in June:
Johannes, now 22 years old, graduated from Imperial College London, ranked 6th overall in the Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings of the world's top 100 universities in 2008, with his BSc in Physics -and he was informed last Friday that he achieved a 2:1 -approx. 3.5 G.P.A. He will begin working for Teach First, an independent charity launched in 2002 to bring excellent teachers into challenged secondary schools across the UK. Johannes will teach Science at New College in Leicester, the birthplace of my father, who passed away two years ago.
Not to be outdone, Esben, 20, completed his second year at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester as the top student in his year...for the second straight year.
And last but by no means least, Pelle, 19, finished his first year at the University of Leicester, University of the Year 2008/9 in UK, as the 9th best student in his Geography class of more than 100.
Alfheim's own Malory-Lancelot feel as though they have in a sense won a Quest.
Other Quests won this week:
- Chiquina has been repatriated to the hog pen, though we still have to feed her four times a day. Looking at these 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 photos, there can be little doubt that Lone enjoys this work.
- Gilt 8, gave birth -in the open air- to seven healthy piglets. We just released the next four expectant gilts from the hog pen. 7-9-13!
- The Saturday fencers finished pasture 6...and the cattle are now grazing on virgin pasture.
- Lone harvested her first crop of Capim Limão or Lemon Grass...and decided to dry it in our living room. 23 years teaches one patience.
- Marcos and his father completed Clair's and Rosana's carport.
- We broke ground on our churasqueira...BBQ'd beef, pork and poultry coming soon!
- I reached an agreement with the individual who had been renting a portion of our fazenda, and we now have access to the last mandioca field...approx. 10 hectares is my best guess.
Finally, as also mentioned in last week's blog post, Esben, his friend Brian, and Pelle, will be arriving on Thursday, July 2nd. Pasture 7 awaits, i.e. approx. 500 mourões or fence posts need moving -the 220 cm variety rather than the shorter, lighter 130 cm variety. It goes without saying that I will be supervising everything.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Me love you long time
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. Sc. 1.
Written to Live from Madison Square Garden by Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood
Lone and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on Sunday! I am not sure if the phrase "Me love you long time" was originally concocted to cover such reverable events, but it certainly seems appropriate under the circumstances. Parabéns para nos! Among other activities, we enjoyed a sumptuous lunch at Dois. Highly recommended...simply exquisite, and very reasonably priced for an upscale culinary experience.
Back at Alfheim, we finally received some good news on the hog front: gilt 7, one of the two which we let out of the pen, gave birth to eight piglets in the high grass behind the orchard. No pictures yet, but both sow and piglets are doing well.
Our new house guest, Chiquina, is doing well, too. She even gets out a bit to stretch her tiny legs -or not. Over the course of this week we will slowly be introducing her back into the hog pen. The first test runs have all gone smoothly.
Two more hens are brooding. When their eggs hatch, we should be pretty close to having 100 cabeças of poultry. As soon as Marcos and his father finish our churasqueira in the next couple of weeks, we will begin BBQ'ing some of the roosters and cockerels. To paraphrase Vincent Vega in the I Don't Dig On Swine scene from Pulp Fiction: Chicken tastes good.
Sandra continues to complement the brooding hens.
Marcos' father finished our book shelves...wonderful to finally get our books out of their boxes. Our living room has grown exponentially as a result.
Marcos completed the outbuilding for our telephone...nicest building at Alfheim. We joke that we would move in if we were smaller.
Marcos found three more fencers from Paraibuna. They will work from Mondays through Fridays, while the local fencing crew continue on Saturdays. At last we should be able to build the momentum necessary to complete all of the pastures and hog pens.
Finally, Esben, Esben's friend, Brian, and Pelle will be arriving next Thursday, July 2nd...the rentz can't wait!
- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. Sc. 1.
Written to Live from Madison Square Garden by Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood
Lone and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on Sunday! I am not sure if the phrase "Me love you long time" was originally concocted to cover such reverable events, but it certainly seems appropriate under the circumstances. Parabéns para nos! Among other activities, we enjoyed a sumptuous lunch at Dois. Highly recommended...simply exquisite, and very reasonably priced for an upscale culinary experience.
Back at Alfheim, we finally received some good news on the hog front: gilt 7, one of the two which we let out of the pen, gave birth to eight piglets in the high grass behind the orchard. No pictures yet, but both sow and piglets are doing well.
Our new house guest, Chiquina, is doing well, too. She even gets out a bit to stretch her tiny legs -or not. Over the course of this week we will slowly be introducing her back into the hog pen. The first test runs have all gone smoothly.
Two more hens are brooding. When their eggs hatch, we should be pretty close to having 100 cabeças of poultry. As soon as Marcos and his father finish our churasqueira in the next couple of weeks, we will begin BBQ'ing some of the roosters and cockerels. To paraphrase Vincent Vega in the I Don't Dig On Swine scene from Pulp Fiction: Chicken tastes good.
Sandra continues to complement the brooding hens.
Marcos' father finished our book shelves...wonderful to finally get our books out of their boxes. Our living room has grown exponentially as a result.
Marcos completed the outbuilding for our telephone...nicest building at Alfheim. We joke that we would move in if we were smaller.
Marcos found three more fencers from Paraibuna. They will work from Mondays through Fridays, while the local fencing crew continue on Saturdays. At last we should be able to build the momentum necessary to complete all of the pastures and hog pens.
Finally, Esben, Esben's friend, Brian, and Pelle will be arriving next Thursday, July 2nd...the rentz can't wait!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Working on hard enough problems
Written to The Best of Santana by Santana
If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake.
- F. Wikzek
It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.
- Ornette Coleman
While I am mostly convinced that we have avoided making major mistakes with respect to the rearing of our hogs, the events of the past couple of weeks, our research into the issue of savaging -as well as that of many readers- and the many comments that last week's posting generated have all convinced me that we are working on a very complex problem. As our virtual veterinarian-in-waiting and sometime orthopedic surgeon, Tony Matan, correctly concluded, there clearly is no consensus on how to totally prevent this problem. Nor is there even agreement on the frequency of the problem: Tony's research suggests that the percentage of savaging is 3%, while an article in New Scientist sent to me by my mother suggests that One in eight piglets born alive is fatally mauled by its mother.
And the complexities do not stop there: this past week saw another case of mass cannibalization, while Hannibela 3 is now nursing sow #1's piglets. Go figure!
Our latest strategy, which was generated after a Sunday evening meeting with Clair and Rosana to discuss the importance of taking a constructive approach to these very disturbing events, is to let the two most-likely-to-give-birth-soon gilts out of the pen. We did so on Monday, June 15th, and they are now roaming free at Alfheim. Interestingly, one of them has gone dark, presumably, or perhaps more accurately, hopefully, to build her nest.
Our rationale for taking this approach was based on the following observation from the New Scientist article:
In other, less-sobering news, our shipment of 250 sacks of organic corn arrived from Fruto do Sol. Fortunately, I was away the day it arrived, so I escaped the corporal punishment that is moving 250 60-70 kg sacks of anything. Amazingly, this load made nary a dent in our new storage room.
Also, for the past two Saturdays we have been working with a new team of fencers, three-four day workers from the team of mandioca harvesters that work at our fazenda each Monday. They are all from Vargem Grande, and all have worked previously with Clair. Thus far the experience has been excellent. Unfortunately, Wilson, our most recent fencer, from Paraibuna, proved too unreliable. Unfortunate because we liked him and his work was solid, but he had an annoying habit of taking entire days and/or weeks off -wreaking havoc with our pasture planning. This coming Saturday we will inaugurate pasture 6, a huge deal as it will finally allow us to implement a proper, albeit nascent, system of grazing management. I say nascent because Most rotational grazing systems utilize ten or more paddocks to best achieve the benefits of the system. We have plans to open another four pastures over the coming two months. Remarkably, under this type of system grazing cattle will return 70 to 85 percent of the nutrients consumed back to the pasture. If that does not qualify as the definitive argument for sustained cattle production, I have no idea what does.
In a case of what goes around comes around, I had to move 65 fence posts (my punishment for missing the offloading of the corn) last Saturday from the staging area next to our house over to the bottom of pasture 6, where Castanha and Gargalo brought them up the hill. Most impressive work by the horses.
Finally, the one surviving, abandoned piglet has taken up residence in our kitchen, and she is doing wonderfully. Quite the character and an immediate favorite of one and all at Alfheim. We hope to reintegrate her into the herd (litter #3) over the next couple of weeks.
If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake.
- F. Wikzek
It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.
- Ornette Coleman
While I am mostly convinced that we have avoided making major mistakes with respect to the rearing of our hogs, the events of the past couple of weeks, our research into the issue of savaging -as well as that of many readers- and the many comments that last week's posting generated have all convinced me that we are working on a very complex problem. As our virtual veterinarian-in-waiting and sometime orthopedic surgeon, Tony Matan, correctly concluded, there clearly is no consensus on how to totally prevent this problem. Nor is there even agreement on the frequency of the problem: Tony's research suggests that the percentage of savaging is 3%, while an article in New Scientist sent to me by my mother suggests that One in eight piglets born alive is fatally mauled by its mother.
And the complexities do not stop there: this past week saw another case of mass cannibalization, while Hannibela 3 is now nursing sow #1's piglets. Go figure!
Our latest strategy, which was generated after a Sunday evening meeting with Clair and Rosana to discuss the importance of taking a constructive approach to these very disturbing events, is to let the two most-likely-to-give-birth-soon gilts out of the pen. We did so on Monday, June 15th, and they are now roaming free at Alfheim. Interestingly, one of them has gone dark, presumably, or perhaps more accurately, hopefully, to build her nest.
Our rationale for taking this approach was based on the following observation from the New Scientist article:
In the wild, sows spend time and effort building elaborate nests of twigs and branches in preparation for their offspring. But their nesting activities were severely curtailed within the confines of a crate. And the pigs that went on to savage their offspring left it far later to start nest-building activities such as snuffling at the floor and bars and pushing straw around. They were still active four hours before the birth, while more peaceful sows were lying quietly on their sides.At the very least, under these conditions the gilts should have more time to build their nests undisturbed by the other hogs. Worst case: if they do savage their young, their behavior should not impact the other expectant mothers. 7-9-13!
In other, less-sobering news, our shipment of 250 sacks of organic corn arrived from Fruto do Sol. Fortunately, I was away the day it arrived, so I escaped the corporal punishment that is moving 250 60-70 kg sacks of anything. Amazingly, this load made nary a dent in our new storage room.
Also, for the past two Saturdays we have been working with a new team of fencers, three-four day workers from the team of mandioca harvesters that work at our fazenda each Monday. They are all from Vargem Grande, and all have worked previously with Clair. Thus far the experience has been excellent. Unfortunately, Wilson, our most recent fencer, from Paraibuna, proved too unreliable. Unfortunate because we liked him and his work was solid, but he had an annoying habit of taking entire days and/or weeks off -wreaking havoc with our pasture planning. This coming Saturday we will inaugurate pasture 6, a huge deal as it will finally allow us to implement a proper, albeit nascent, system of grazing management. I say nascent because Most rotational grazing systems utilize ten or more paddocks to best achieve the benefits of the system. We have plans to open another four pastures over the coming two months. Remarkably, under this type of system grazing cattle will return 70 to 85 percent of the nutrients consumed back to the pasture. If that does not qualify as the definitive argument for sustained cattle production, I have no idea what does.
In a case of what goes around comes around, I had to move 65 fence posts (my punishment for missing the offloading of the corn) last Saturday from the staging area next to our house over to the bottom of pasture 6, where Castanha and Gargalo brought them up the hill. Most impressive work by the horses.
Finally, the one surviving, abandoned piglet has taken up residence in our kitchen, and she is doing wonderfully. Quite the character and an immediate favorite of one and all at Alfheim. We hope to reintegrate her into the herd (litter #3) over the next couple of weeks.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The problem of pain
Written to Coba Coba by Novalima
Our greatest challenge today...is to couple conviction with doubt. By conviction, I mean some pragmatically developed faith, trust, or centeredness; and by doubt I mean openness to the ongoing changeability, mystery, and fallibility of the conviction.
- Kirk Schneider, 1999, The Paradoxical Self, p. 7
This week was more about fallibility than conviction. We continue to have problems with the gilts savaging and cannibalizing their piglets in an incomprehensibly heartbreaking fashion. This behavior, which tears at the very core of our conviction, seems to fly in the face of Mark Twain's quote that 'nature knows no indecencies'.
The locals, i.e. the residents of Vargem Grande, are convinced that this is happening because our hogs are hungry, which hardly explains why only the mothers are cannibalizing their piglets, nor how the 'good' mothers are nursing their young outside the maternity houses, in plain view of the purportedly 'hungry' hogs, none of whom show more than a passing, good-neighborly interest in the new, smaller denizens of Hog Haven. For his part, Clair has decided that there are too many hogs in our pen, this in spite of the fact that said pen is approx. two hectares in size, considerably more space than the 51.75 m2 that a similar number of hogs would have access to in a confined feeding operation. In a confined feeding operation, each hog would reside in a grand total of 2.25 m2, including piglets. Also, if inexperience is the culprit, it is more than a little odd that things went haywire after the first two successful births, i.e. the Hannibelas (as in Lecter) had two perfect role models after which to pattern their maternal behavior. Furthermore, after gilt #3 savaged and cannibalized her five piglets, gilt #4 gave birth and was nursing her six piglets in the perfect image of motherhood before suddenly, without explanation, she, too, began to savage and cannibalize her young. Fortunately, we managed to save four of the six, which we placed with sow #1. Two of these four piglets are still alive. And as if to complete the maddening incongruity gilt #5 passed on the secure confines of a maternity house and broke the sequence of death by giving birth to five healthy piglets in the open air. In the same way that the well-known Christian scholar, C.S. Lewis, once called the “problem of pain,” atheism's most potent weapon against the Christian faith, the disconsolate truth of this phenomenon is that it defies any form of logic or attempt at explanation. At this point all we can do is either trust our conviction or accept its fallibility -and treasure the 17 healthy piglets that have survived thus far.
Finally, in a positive example of nature's enduring struggle, we were informed this week by the Polícia Militar Ambiental, who visited our fazenda in their continuing battle against poachers who illegally chop down between 5,000 and 10,000 acaí palm trees each week, that they had spotted a very rare, at least for our region, bird, the Lesser Seed-finch, most probably the Chestnut-bellied Seed-finch, or Curio in Portuguese, at Alfheim.
Our greatest challenge today...is to couple conviction with doubt. By conviction, I mean some pragmatically developed faith, trust, or centeredness; and by doubt I mean openness to the ongoing changeability, mystery, and fallibility of the conviction.
- Kirk Schneider, 1999, The Paradoxical Self, p. 7
This week was more about fallibility than conviction. We continue to have problems with the gilts savaging and cannibalizing their piglets in an incomprehensibly heartbreaking fashion. This behavior, which tears at the very core of our conviction, seems to fly in the face of Mark Twain's quote that 'nature knows no indecencies'.
The locals, i.e. the residents of Vargem Grande, are convinced that this is happening because our hogs are hungry, which hardly explains why only the mothers are cannibalizing their piglets, nor how the 'good' mothers are nursing their young outside the maternity houses, in plain view of the purportedly 'hungry' hogs, none of whom show more than a passing, good-neighborly interest in the new, smaller denizens of Hog Haven. For his part, Clair has decided that there are too many hogs in our pen, this in spite of the fact that said pen is approx. two hectares in size, considerably more space than the 51.75 m2 that a similar number of hogs would have access to in a confined feeding operation. In a confined feeding operation, each hog would reside in a grand total of 2.25 m2, including piglets. Also, if inexperience is the culprit, it is more than a little odd that things went haywire after the first two successful births, i.e. the Hannibelas (as in Lecter) had two perfect role models after which to pattern their maternal behavior. Furthermore, after gilt #3 savaged and cannibalized her five piglets, gilt #4 gave birth and was nursing her six piglets in the perfect image of motherhood before suddenly, without explanation, she, too, began to savage and cannibalize her young. Fortunately, we managed to save four of the six, which we placed with sow #1. Two of these four piglets are still alive. And as if to complete the maddening incongruity gilt #5 passed on the secure confines of a maternity house and broke the sequence of death by giving birth to five healthy piglets in the open air. In the same way that the well-known Christian scholar, C.S. Lewis, once called the “problem of pain,” atheism's most potent weapon against the Christian faith, the disconsolate truth of this phenomenon is that it defies any form of logic or attempt at explanation. At this point all we can do is either trust our conviction or accept its fallibility -and treasure the 17 healthy piglets that have survived thus far.
Finally, in a positive example of nature's enduring struggle, we were informed this week by the Polícia Militar Ambiental, who visited our fazenda in their continuing battle against poachers who illegally chop down between 5,000 and 10,000 acaí palm trees each week, that they had spotted a very rare, at least for our region, bird, the Lesser Seed-finch, most probably the Chestnut-bellied Seed-finch, or Curio in Portuguese, at Alfheim.
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