Written to Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix
In the mountains, the shortest way is from peak to peak: but for that you must have long legs.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
This week at Fazenda Alfheim was characterized by more of the same: more fence posts dug down, more construction on the new house, more clearing of the lake etc. As regards the latter, Clair and Pelle braved nature's wrath -or at the very least the wrath of some very ornery wasps- in an effort to tame definitively our emerging lake...with an assist of sorts from Muninn.
Under the heading of taking advantage of that which is close to home, our good friend, Emmanuel Rengade, invited me to trek the Trilha do Corcovado in the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar - Núcleo Santa Virgínia, 2.5 km from Vargem Grande and 9.5 km from Fazenda Alfheim, together with his friend, Nando (Fernando). When I left Berkeley, California, many, many years ago, I always regretted the fact that I never visited the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, which was located across the street from campus. Similarly, I wish I had taken a flight on the the London Eye during the five plus years we lived just outside of London. I am not entirely sure why it is that we are generally so poor at taking advantage of the riches closest to home, but this seems to be a fairly universal failing.
In an effort to redress this failing, I resolved to accept Emmanuel's invite and get to know one of the most stunning 18 km in all of Brazil. And stunning it is, but also with a grau de dificuldade alto -as clearly evidenced by the spent faces (1, 2) of my partners in crime. Three hours to the top, where the views are figuratively and literally heavenly (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), and three hours back to the base...broken up by a lunch that, for my part, consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fresh fruit, followed by a one plus hour nap. The trail is incredibly well-maintained, passing alongside the crystalline Rio Grande river for approx. 16 of the 18 km. Our guide, João, was most competent. Worth checking out the 33 pics on the Paraitinga Tourismo website. It is also worth noting that the Núcleo Santa Virgínia offers two other trekking options: the 5.6 km Trilha da Piraptinga and the 8 km Trilha do Poço do Pito, both of which are classified as grau de dificuldade leve.
Finally, on our return to Alfheim, Lone had prepared a wonderful dinner consisting of copious quantities of organic fraldinha (bottom sirloin), my all-time favorite red meat, Alfheim's own garden-fresh, mixed green salad with a mustard dressing (using an exquisite mustard from Provence Pousada & Restaurante) and Lone's freshly baked havrebrød or oat bread and goibada or guava-based variation on Jamie Oliver's apple pie. All in all a pretty incredible Saturday.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Lone's no longer latent lake
Written to Recapturing the Banjo by Otis Taylor
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore. . . .
I hear it in the deep heart's core.”
- William Butler Yeats
In last week's blog post, I neglected to mention that Gtec Topografia e Geoprocessamento completed the first draft of the topographical survey of Fazenda Alfheim that we commissioned back in June. The survey, a requirement of the organic certification process, is essentially a resource mapping of our property, outlining its borders and elevations and the location of key natural resources, e.g. forests, pastures, orchards, lakes, rivers and streams. All in all, a terrific planning resource...and the quality of the Gtech team's work has been top-notch. I mentioned that this was the first draft, and indeed the Gtech team will visit Fazenda Alfheim a second time in a month or so to finalize the mapping exercise, including mapping all of the pastures and digitalizing their locations. As well as making it easier for us to visualize and plan our work, this last touch will allow us to size all of the pastures, helping us to determine their carrying capacity.
In addition to facilitating our planning, the mapping exercise uncovered an unexpected treasure: a lake on our property, located just behind the fruit orchard. As it has been officially registered on an earlier, official aerial photo, we are free to clear the reeds etc. (Pelle seen here doing his best Matthew McConaughey impersonation) and utilize this newly discovered pearl for either leisure or fish farming, a common practice in the region. Not sure what the final outcome will be, but this decision represents what is known as a luxury problem: to swim or to fish...to fish or to swim. Sweet!
An equally festive discovery was made by an army of leaf-cutter ants, as they uncovered the corn flour in our kitchen. They even cut small 'leaves' out of the flour's plastic bag. As frustrating as this is, one cannot help but marvel at their drive and work ethic.
Equally admirable is the progress that Marcos and his crew continue to make week in and week out on the new house. With the exception of the porch, the roof has been raised. This will allow the team to begin other tasks at Alfheim and to return to the house whenever -without the fear of being interrupted by the rains.
Some of you may have noticed that over the past several weeks the blog photos have tended to be somewhat washed out. This is a combination of the winter light, which is extremely sharp (most of the photos are taken before 09:00), and my dropping our Nikon D80 from a highish altitude. I will probably have to purchase a replacement while Lone delivers it to a dealer in UK, when she travels back to visit the boys and her family and friends in Denmark for a month in late September. If anyone knows of a dealer here in Brazil, give me a holler. 7-9-13 that what ails our camera can be fixed.
With the construction of the new house taking shape so nicely, Rosana and Lone have agreed to a color scheme for all of the houses, yellow for the outside walls and gray for the windows and doors. The two of them began repainting Clair's and Rosana's house this week. While the initial results are quite nice, a second coat will undeniably be required.
Homem-Aranha or Spiderman man returned to Alfheim with Marcos this week to construct the septic tank and a gray-water filtering system for the new house, a gray-water filtering system for Clair's and Rosana's house and three water troughs for Hogwood. In order to avoid using a pump, Spidey had to tap the spring that Lone and Clair recently discovered -to raise its level to a point higher than that of the new house, the same spring which forced us to move the fencing for Hogwood and subsequently the location of the new worker's house. Quite an engineering feat.
On the hog front, we appear to have found buyers for all of the piglets that we do not want to keep. Going price, R$55.00 - R$65.00 (€21.09 - €24.92 or $29.82 - $35.24), somewhat cheaper for the smaller piglets (< 11 kg) and/or buyers from Vargem Grande, the latter in an effort to try and build a local market. At R$50.00 a piglet, our net profit margin is 49%, so no complaints, but we will need to sell a certain volume, at least 50 piglets per month, to make an absolute dent in our monthly expenses. Our target is to reach this initial level of critical mass by Q2 2010, at which time we should have eggs and milk enough to provide all of the hogs' protein requirements, approx. 10-15 liters of cow's milk and 40-80 eggs per day.
Prior to signing off, I wanted to send a shout-out to our very good friends, John Tomizuka and Paula Zandomeni, the newly-proud parents of beautiful twins. Should one or both of you become overwhelmed at any point, take a look at what this mother has to deal with on a daily basis.
Finally, under the heading of 57 channels and nothing on, TV has come to Fazenda Alfheim via Sky. Lone and I had mixed feelings about this decision, but ultimately decided that in the absence of Internet connectivity on our fazenda, for now at any rate, we needed to avoid mimicking the characters from The Throwback, by Tom Sharpe, which you should read if you haven't, but only if you are prepared to laugh until you cry. A marvelous author, the funniest writing IMHO. Whatever our misgivings, I will be only too glad to stay up late watching NBA basketball come November. Go Lakers!
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore. . . .
I hear it in the deep heart's core.”
- William Butler Yeats
In last week's blog post, I neglected to mention that Gtec Topografia e Geoprocessamento completed the first draft of the topographical survey of Fazenda Alfheim that we commissioned back in June. The survey, a requirement of the organic certification process, is essentially a resource mapping of our property, outlining its borders and elevations and the location of key natural resources, e.g. forests, pastures, orchards, lakes, rivers and streams. All in all, a terrific planning resource...and the quality of the Gtech team's work has been top-notch. I mentioned that this was the first draft, and indeed the Gtech team will visit Fazenda Alfheim a second time in a month or so to finalize the mapping exercise, including mapping all of the pastures and digitalizing their locations. As well as making it easier for us to visualize and plan our work, this last touch will allow us to size all of the pastures, helping us to determine their carrying capacity.
In addition to facilitating our planning, the mapping exercise uncovered an unexpected treasure: a lake on our property, located just behind the fruit orchard. As it has been officially registered on an earlier, official aerial photo, we are free to clear the reeds etc. (Pelle seen here doing his best Matthew McConaughey impersonation) and utilize this newly discovered pearl for either leisure or fish farming, a common practice in the region. Not sure what the final outcome will be, but this decision represents what is known as a luxury problem: to swim or to fish...to fish or to swim. Sweet!
An equally festive discovery was made by an army of leaf-cutter ants, as they uncovered the corn flour in our kitchen. They even cut small 'leaves' out of the flour's plastic bag. As frustrating as this is, one cannot help but marvel at their drive and work ethic.
Equally admirable is the progress that Marcos and his crew continue to make week in and week out on the new house. With the exception of the porch, the roof has been raised. This will allow the team to begin other tasks at Alfheim and to return to the house whenever -without the fear of being interrupted by the rains.
Some of you may have noticed that over the past several weeks the blog photos have tended to be somewhat washed out. This is a combination of the winter light, which is extremely sharp (most of the photos are taken before 09:00), and my dropping our Nikon D80 from a highish altitude. I will probably have to purchase a replacement while Lone delivers it to a dealer in UK, when she travels back to visit the boys and her family and friends in Denmark for a month in late September. If anyone knows of a dealer here in Brazil, give me a holler. 7-9-13 that what ails our camera can be fixed.
With the construction of the new house taking shape so nicely, Rosana and Lone have agreed to a color scheme for all of the houses, yellow for the outside walls and gray for the windows and doors. The two of them began repainting Clair's and Rosana's house this week. While the initial results are quite nice, a second coat will undeniably be required.
Homem-Aranha or Spiderman man returned to Alfheim with Marcos this week to construct the septic tank and a gray-water filtering system for the new house, a gray-water filtering system for Clair's and Rosana's house and three water troughs for Hogwood. In order to avoid using a pump, Spidey had to tap the spring that Lone and Clair recently discovered -to raise its level to a point higher than that of the new house, the same spring which forced us to move the fencing for Hogwood and subsequently the location of the new worker's house. Quite an engineering feat.
On the hog front, we appear to have found buyers for all of the piglets that we do not want to keep. Going price, R$55.00 - R$65.00 (€21.09 - €24.92 or $29.82 - $35.24), somewhat cheaper for the smaller piglets (< 11 kg) and/or buyers from Vargem Grande, the latter in an effort to try and build a local market. At R$50.00 a piglet, our net profit margin is 49%, so no complaints, but we will need to sell a certain volume, at least 50 piglets per month, to make an absolute dent in our monthly expenses. Our target is to reach this initial level of critical mass by Q2 2010, at which time we should have eggs and milk enough to provide all of the hogs' protein requirements, approx. 10-15 liters of cow's milk and 40-80 eggs per day.
Prior to signing off, I wanted to send a shout-out to our very good friends, John Tomizuka and Paula Zandomeni, the newly-proud parents of beautiful twins. Should one or both of you become overwhelmed at any point, take a look at what this mother has to deal with on a daily basis.
Finally, under the heading of 57 channels and nothing on, TV has come to Fazenda Alfheim via Sky. Lone and I had mixed feelings about this decision, but ultimately decided that in the absence of Internet connectivity on our fazenda, for now at any rate, we needed to avoid mimicking the characters from The Throwback, by Tom Sharpe, which you should read if you haven't, but only if you are prepared to laugh until you cry. A marvelous author, the funniest writing IMHO. Whatever our misgivings, I will be only too glad to stay up late watching NBA basketball come November. Go Lakers!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Alfheim au naturale
Written to Led Zeppelin 1 by Led Zeppelin
Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.
- Yoda (from The Empire Strikes Back)
It's official: Fazenda Alfheim has been certified IBD/IFOAM Accredited.
Almost a year to the date of the first visit (July 25th, 2008) by Rui Manuel Marques Martins Martins, a consultant from Associação Brasileira de Agricultura Biodinâmica, we received word of our organic certification.
It has been a hard -and at times frustrating- road, but for the moment our arrival feels terrific. We can now sell our piglets in Brazil as organic, and all of our crop fields, minus one (not including our fruit orchards, which will be certified in January 2010), have been certified. There are still a handful of minor non-conformities that have to be addressed during the second inspection by IBD later this year, but nothing that should derail us.
A similar characterization could be applied to the construction of the new house at Fazenda Alfheim...nothing seems to be able to stop its relentless forward march. After three weeks, comprising a total of only 12 work days, Marcos and his crew are ready to raise the roof this week. There is, of course, still much work to do, but it seems reasonable to assume that Marcos will meet his initial estimate of a ten-week build.
In hog-related news, our piglet count increased to approx. 69 with the addition of another nine piglets from gilt 14. Moreover, Chico, the piglet with the head trauma, is recovering nicely together with Chiquina in the auxiliary garden next to the kitchen. The two seem to enjoy one another's company, and Chico is back on his feet and moving without any impediment whatsoever. Interestingly, on close examination, it is possible to discern a slightly higher percentage of Duroc in Chico, who is redder, than in Chiquina. Rounding out the latest in hog news, Clair sold his hog, Miss Massey, and her 10 piglets to the owner of one of the two local supermarkets, so he is a happy man.
On the cattle front, we lost two more heifers, bringing our total losses to five, one to Cascavel, commonly known as the South American rattlesnake, two more to either poisonous plants or Cascavel and two to pneumonia. The remaining 15 look healthy, so 7-9-13. In hindsight: I was penny wise and pound foolish, i.e. I bought the cattle too cheaply. Unlike the 20 F1 gilts, the cattle were probably not the best of stock to begin with...clearly a shame, but live and learn. On a positive note, we officially inaugurated our pasture rotation on August 1st. Initially we will rotate the cattle every day after 16:00...to acclimatize them to the new routine, and also to begin adhering to the law of the second bite, a key tenet of management-intensive grazing (MiG).
Basically in a nutshell, to graze your stock rotationally you need to only allot what they will eat in a 24 hour period. The key to building soil, and good grass/forage, and having healthy livestock is the rest period. To achieve this rest period you have to contain your animals, and portable electric fencing is what helps you do this. Just as important as moving the cows forward to fresh grass, you need to keep them from going back to the grazed area that needs to recover from the animal impact. In grazing lingo, that is called the law of the second bite. If the stock is allowed to regraze the tender young growth, you will set back that plant about 40%. The plant needs to recover before being grazed again. And when you have to start buying feed, 40% adds up quick! Much easier to keep that back fence in place, than it is to buy hay or grain.Finally, Esben and Brian returned to UK on Friday, after spending four wonderful days in Rio de Janeiro, where they stayed with our very good friends, Artur and Alessandra. Thankfully, Pelle returned to Alfheim today from a week plus in São Paulo visiting friends, so things won't be too quiet.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Out of the wild
Written to Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
Never mind about 1066 William the Conqueror, 1087 William the Second. Such things are not going to affect one's life ... but 1932 the Mars Bar and 1936 Maltesers and 1937 the Kit Kat - these dates are milestones in history and should be seared into the memory of every child in the country.
- Roald Dahl
Lone and the boys left Alfheim for São Paulo on Thursday morning, and I joined them in the world's third largest metropolis that same evening. The next day Lone surprised me with a box of chocolates from Chocolat Des Arts, a boutique in Vila Nova Conceição. Enclosed in the box was a veritable and overwhelming affluence for the senses. Observe the craftsmanship (1, 2, 3). And in case any of you are still wondering, the answer is unequivocal: yes, it tastes as good as it looks. Well worth the price, which is not for the feint of heart.
After a four-hour lunch on Friday, dominated almost entirely by a discussion of Alfheim present and future, Lone and I decided to swap our cogitations of the real world for those of the imaginary, moving forward our plans to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by a day. Esben, Pelle and Brian joined us for what proved to be a most enjoyable cinematic experience. Like the books, each film has improved appreciably in almost every respect. We are even warming to Michael Gambon's portrayal of Professor Albus Dumbledore -after the almost impossibly high bar set by the late, great Richard Harris.
Following two hours in the dark, we reentered the Muggle world and dined as planned at Fogo de Chão (fo-go dèe shoun), where we celebrated Brian's 20th birthday. As always the food was exceptional. That said the price has risen considerably in the three-plus years since our last visit. Assuming Brian is a reasonable proxy for Johannes appetite-wise, a not altogether absurd jumping off point in spite of the difficulty of imagining a world in which there are two bipeds not named Michael Phelps who can consume 12,000 calories per day, the final bill was approx. 75% higher than I remember. On the other hand, there is simply no place like it in Brazil or abroad -except, of course, at one of the 16 locations in US.
Given the inclement nature of the weekend weather in São Paulo, we decided to continue our cinematic odyssey on Saturday and see Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. The Hollywood Reporter summed it up well when it opined: A missed opportunity to make gangster picture with flesh-and-blood characters.
In scouring for movie reviews, I discovered a fun website called Rotten Tomatoes. The site uses a simple methodology in which users categorize each film as either Fresh or Rotten, resulting in a summary score tongue-and-cheekily called the Tomatometer. In the case of Public Enemies, the Tomatometer was 66%. By comparison, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince earned a Tomatometer of 83%. The weekend's third film, Slumdog Millionaire, which Lone and I watched on Sunday on my Macbook after I rented it from the iTunes Store, achieved a Tomatometer of 94%. In all cases, the Tomatometers were consistent with my own opinion of each film.
Back at Alfheim, construction on the new house raced ahead in spite of the weather; Marcos and his crew were limited to only three days of work because of the rain.
Finally, Lone and I returned to Alfheim on Sunday to receive M.V.Ms.Sc. Leslie Almeida, the homeopathic veterinarian, who we had asked to visit so she could examine the sick heifer. Her diagnosis: pneumonia. She prescribed a treatment consisting of Silicea terra and Ferrum metallicum. While on the premises, she also examined a piglet which appears to have suffered a concussion, probably from being kicked in the head by one of the larger hogs. For this she prescribed Nux vomica. And for all of the animals, from cats to cattle, Sulphur 30CH once a month to strengthen their immune systems, particularly against all types of parasites.
Never mind about 1066 William the Conqueror, 1087 William the Second. Such things are not going to affect one's life ... but 1932 the Mars Bar and 1936 Maltesers and 1937 the Kit Kat - these dates are milestones in history and should be seared into the memory of every child in the country.
- Roald Dahl
Lone and the boys left Alfheim for São Paulo on Thursday morning, and I joined them in the world's third largest metropolis that same evening. The next day Lone surprised me with a box of chocolates from Chocolat Des Arts, a boutique in Vila Nova Conceição. Enclosed in the box was a veritable and overwhelming affluence for the senses. Observe the craftsmanship (1, 2, 3). And in case any of you are still wondering, the answer is unequivocal: yes, it tastes as good as it looks. Well worth the price, which is not for the feint of heart.
After a four-hour lunch on Friday, dominated almost entirely by a discussion of Alfheim present and future, Lone and I decided to swap our cogitations of the real world for those of the imaginary, moving forward our plans to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by a day. Esben, Pelle and Brian joined us for what proved to be a most enjoyable cinematic experience. Like the books, each film has improved appreciably in almost every respect. We are even warming to Michael Gambon's portrayal of Professor Albus Dumbledore -after the almost impossibly high bar set by the late, great Richard Harris.
Following two hours in the dark, we reentered the Muggle world and dined as planned at Fogo de Chão (fo-go dèe shoun), where we celebrated Brian's 20th birthday. As always the food was exceptional. That said the price has risen considerably in the three-plus years since our last visit. Assuming Brian is a reasonable proxy for Johannes appetite-wise, a not altogether absurd jumping off point in spite of the difficulty of imagining a world in which there are two bipeds not named Michael Phelps who can consume 12,000 calories per day, the final bill was approx. 75% higher than I remember. On the other hand, there is simply no place like it in Brazil or abroad -except, of course, at one of the 16 locations in US.
Given the inclement nature of the weekend weather in São Paulo, we decided to continue our cinematic odyssey on Saturday and see Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. The Hollywood Reporter summed it up well when it opined: A missed opportunity to make gangster picture with flesh-and-blood characters.
In scouring for movie reviews, I discovered a fun website called Rotten Tomatoes. The site uses a simple methodology in which users categorize each film as either Fresh or Rotten, resulting in a summary score tongue-and-cheekily called the Tomatometer. In the case of Public Enemies, the Tomatometer was 66%. By comparison, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince earned a Tomatometer of 83%. The weekend's third film, Slumdog Millionaire, which Lone and I watched on Sunday on my Macbook after I rented it from the iTunes Store, achieved a Tomatometer of 94%. In all cases, the Tomatometers were consistent with my own opinion of each film.
Back at Alfheim, construction on the new house raced ahead in spite of the weather; Marcos and his crew were limited to only three days of work because of the rain.
Finally, Lone and I returned to Alfheim on Sunday to receive M.V.Ms.Sc. Leslie Almeida, the homeopathic veterinarian, who we had asked to visit so she could examine the sick heifer. Her diagnosis: pneumonia. She prescribed a treatment consisting of Silicea terra and Ferrum metallicum. While on the premises, she also examined a piglet which appears to have suffered a concussion, probably from being kicked in the head by one of the larger hogs. For this she prescribed Nux vomica. And for all of the animals, from cats to cattle, Sulphur 30CH once a month to strengthen their immune systems, particularly against all types of parasites.
Monday, July 20, 2009
2 beds, 1 bath
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!
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!
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.
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