Herbal medicine and grease

Written to Soundtrack - The Boat That Rocked by Various Artists

The sun, with all those plants revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

- Galileo Galilei

Mark (yes, he is wearing a cricket hat), our new trainee, is settling in well -despite suffering a mild heat stroke the other day after hoeing with the workers for an hour at midday. As he politely reminded us, when he was again able to utter words that is, "I haven't seen the sun since…well, like August." Aside from his two hours of silence, Mark has already proven himself a real asset: he is hardworking, helpful and easy to be around.

So easy, in fact, that last week the three of us traveled to Lorena, to visit Ana Maria Claro Paredes Silva, Méd. Veterinária, Instituto Oikos de Agroecologia. It was a fruitful visit: Ana Maria was able to help us understand more clearly how she uses a variety of herbal remedies with her dairy cattle. She also provided us with a real guldkorn, Danish for gem. Turns out she uses Maizena, or cornstarch, instead of zinc-oxide as a thickening agent in many of her herbal remedies...much, much cheaper, though minus the anti-septic qualities of zinc-oxide. She also cautioned us against using neem too frequently. Aparently it can affect the hormone balance in animals. Following this latter advice, my favorite witch of Eastwick mixed up a batch of alcohol and lemon grass to spray the animals with this week.

And speaking of spraying the animals, we can unequivocally see the effects of the herbal remedies at Alfheim. Bolinha, the worst hit by berne or warble flies, took almost two hours to treat when we began our program four short weeks ago. Yesterday, we counted less than 10 warble flies, and we finished her treatment in approx. 15 minutes. The Jerseys continue to exhibit strong resistance to parasites, and Mausolus becomes easier to treat each time. Yesterday, he allowed us to treat one of his ears, albeit with his head bound, but had he not wanted to be treated, there is NOTHING we could have done.

On the whole, we are coming to the conclusion that, in spite of some of the limitations of our current feed (no organic source of protein until the Jerseys begin producing milk in the next 60 days…7-9-13!), our animals are remarkably healthy when compared to those at the farms we have visited. They are active, robust and resistant. This does not mean that we do not have our fair share of challenges, or that we still don't have a long way to go before we reach what we consider to be an acceptable, minimum plateau for their welfare, but overall the signs are positive.

And speaking of positive, two of the pregnant sows gave birth last week, 12 piglets each, though we did lose two from the first litter. In sum, 22 new piglets. Our nascent piglet enterprise has reached the point that it pays for all of the feed and approx. three months of worker's salaries. Not bad for a couple of greenhorns!

While on the subject of animals, two of Lone's beehives were attacked by ants this week. On the same day that Lone and I were struggling with the dilemma of what to do, basically to poison or not to poison (and risk losing all of the bees), I phoned our dear friend, Luciano Bonachela, to discuss my Kindle. Long story short: in the course of our conversation, Luciano asked me about the bees, I told him about the ants, and he suggested using grease on the fence posts supporting the beehives to keep the ants from ascending. Lightning strikes! I ended our conversation and ran out to tell Lone. She quickly applied all of the grease we had at Alfheim. While too late to save the first box, thankfully a freebie that Lone gained when a swarm found its way into our corn deposit, hopefully it was soon enough to save the others...7-9-13! Today we purchased 10 liters of grease at the gas station on Rodoviária Osvaldo Cruz. Turns out the grease is absorbed by the fence posts, so Lone will have to apply it regularly. That said, it beats any alternative we could come up with. Thanks again, Luciano!

On a sad note, Max Trop Mignon suffered an early demise. Lone is convinced that Max's becoming late is the work of Muninn, but there were no teeth marks, so I say innocent until proven guilty. Might have to look into a muzzle, though…but I am not conceding anything until there is enough evidence to make a case against our gentle Rottweil Metzgerhund. If anyone has a kitten that needs a home...

Finally, a flora or fauna of the week question: take a look at this photo: what appears to be a leaf is in fact a moth that we found one morning on our living room floor. Galileo was spot on.

The Long Good Friday

Written to Sonny Side Up by Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, and Sonny Rollins

Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.
- B. B. King

My mother departed on March 30th after a very enjoyable two-week visit. Hopefully she will visit us again soon, and perhaps her visit will even inspire my notoriously parsimonious sister, Paula, to visit Fazenda Alfheim, too.

In 110 pots of honey, I mentioned that my mother brought a couple of suitcases full of imports. While most were rather humdrum, e.g. FoodSaver 6-Roll Packaging Rolls for packaging piglets, I did treat myself to a Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation) by Amazon. I have already downloaded a 14-day free trial to The Atlantic and Foreign Affairs and purchased Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and ReWork, by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson. The Kindle represents a turning point in terms of keeping us connected to the big bad world. During the weekends, when we are generally alone on the fazenda, Lone and I regularly joke about popping down to the local bakery and picking up some fresh-baked croissants and the Sunday edition of the New York Times. Well, now we can…almost. Brilliant! And while much has already been written about How the Apple iPad Could Kill the Kindle, for my money there are three powerful reasons why the Kindle will continue to thrive (this from a devoted Apple fan):

1. Price – At $259 the Kindle is much cheaper than the iPad.
2. More compact and lighter. iPad weighs 1.5 pounds and is 0.5″ thin – the Kindle is thinner and lighter (0.36″, 10.2 ounces).
3. Screen is better for reading; readable in direct sunlight.
   In a nutshell, a beautifully designed and highly recommended product.

These e-books, together with The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy, by Bill Simmons, an unexpected and most welcome gift from the world's most curious orthopedic surgeon and my good friend, Tony Matan, will help me stay out of trouble during the lengthening post-Easter evenings.

And speaking of Easter, we enjoyed a three-day visit from Sophie Deram, a friend of Lone's, her husband, Pierre, and their two children, Victor (15) and Emilie (14). A thoroughly delightful weekend, which included much gratifying fodder, the highlight of which was a roasted quarter of a 20+ kg piglet, beautifully prepared -if I do say so myself- by yours truly using a paint-thick basting sauce comprised of olive oil, a fruitful rosé, red onions, cloves and more cloves of garlic, a smidgen of lemon, thyme and salt to taste. Exquisite!

All of this cookery was complemented by copious quantities of fine cheese, a commodity as hard to come by in Vargem Grande -or even São Luiz do Paraitinga or Ubatuba for that matter- as a truthful statement from Goldman Sachs about the financial crisis.

For most of the weekend, Victor and Emilie entertained themselves with Max, whose name they buttressed with the too-French trop mignon. Max Trop Mignon…who wouldn't want to be called trop mignon!

On Good Friday morning, 280 50 kg sacks of organic corn arrived from Fazenda 2M…well, almost. After almost four days on the road, the driver and his dilapidated truck got stuck on the dirt road -a few short km from Vargem Grande. Because the truck was blocking the influx of Easter traffic to Vargem Grande, I had no choice but to spend the whole of Good Friday unloading, loading and unloading nearly 15 tons of organic corn a total of three times, from the grounded lorry to a more suitably-equipped truck owned by Claudinei, a denizen of Vargem Grande, and then from Claudinei's truck into our corn deposit. Thankfully, Clair, Dirlei and João offered their assistance and spent the entire holiday helping me. And even more thankfully, the truck-to-corn deposit offloading height was more suited to a 194 cm tall man than to the height of our farm workers.

The next day, Saturday, Januara, our former neighbor and the person from whom we purchased the used beekeeping equipment, came to help Lone with the next stage of the bee project. According to Lone, everything is progressing well, but then can one really trust a women who hides her face in public (hint: that's Lone on the right).

On Monday we treated the cattle, including Mausolus, for parasites, primarily warble flies and ticks. Three weeks ago I initiated Mondays as animal treatment day, a day when we give all bovine and swine a thorough once-twice-thrice looking over. Since we started spraying the cattle weekly with Neem, also known as Nim or Amargosa, the ticks have virtually disappeared. And Bolinha, who was particularly hard hit by warble flies, and who we also treat with a cream comprised of zinc, calendula and citronella, has improved appreciably; for whatever reason, the Jerseys seem to be more resistant than the other cattle. For his part, Mausolus is behaving pretty well, despite kicking me twice, first on the left forearm and then on my twice-broken right wrist (thankfully, I did not sustain any significant damage). As long as we stay away from his head, he is somewhat amenable to treatment.

In addition to Mondays as animal treatment day, we implemented a new weekly schedule with the workers this week. The gist of the schedule change is to up our focus on planting (two days, from 07:00 until 13:00) and fencing (ditto) in an effort to achieve feed self-sufficiency by Q2 2011. We have already planted mandioca, napier, bananas and, as of today, sugar. We have also begun mapping all of the fazenda's various nooks and crannies in an effort to identify where we can plant 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 etc. of a hectare of potatoes, corn, squash etc. In short, our planting criteria are two-fold:

1. the crop has to be energy-rich, i.e. corn not lettuce; and
2. the seeds have to be both plentiful and easily collected, i.e. to facilitate saving and replanting.

Finally, tomorrow we will pick up our new intern, Mark Simpson, a second-year student at Royal Agricultural College (Esben's college), who is arriving from UK for a ten-week internship.

110 pots of honey

Written to Greatest Hits by Tom Petty

I can walk into a bookstore and hand over my credit card and they don't know who the hell I am. Maybe that says something about bookstore clerks.

- E. L. Doctorow

Two days after publishing my previous blog post, Lone and I were visited by our dear friends Luciano Bonachelo and Vivian Tornero, and their young son, Gabriel. A delightful visit, which we hope will be repeated soon. If Gabriel has anything to say about it, and I expect that he does, a repeat visit is both in the cards and will occur sooner rather than later, that is as long as I continue to be the proud owner of a red Lego tractor. It would be an understatement to say that Gabriel was fond of the Agrale 4100.4.

Two days after our guests had departed, my mother arrived from Los Angeles via New York bearing the better part of two suitcases full of goodies from the land of milk and honey.

And two days after my mother's arrival, Lone and I departed Alfheim on a one-day, 19 hour odyssey to São Paulo, bookended by eight hours of driving, during which we managed to fit in, and I use the term euphemistically, a delivery of piglets to one of our restaurant customers, a sales call to another prospective restaurant and Ellen Bromfield Geld's book signing at Livraria da Vila. As the nearest I had ever been to a book signing involved my standing in line with Johannes at midnight in Oslo, Norway, to purchase Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the real thing was a good bit of fun -and actually knowing the author made it that much more special.

On the way to São Paulo, we used our newly-imported Canon PowerShot SD960 IS, to photograph the 16 blights on the 7.5 km of dirt road from Fazenda Alfheim to Vargem Grande in anticipation of our meeting at the Ministerio Público in Paraibuna on March 23rd, where, incidentally, one cannot enter wearing bermudas etc (thankfully we found a jeitinho). The camera proved more than up to the task, which is more than I can say for the dirt road; if only it could be Photoshopped. As for the results of our meeting with Excelentíssima Senhora Dra. Renata Bertoni Vita, I am cautiously optimistic.

The book signing also gave me another opportunity to speak with Carson, Ellen's husband, about purchasing pasture grass seedlings for pasture 3. Our original group of 20 hogs did such a fine job preparing pasture 2 for reseeding, plowing only the more brush-heavy areas rather than those with brachiaria. It's almost as though they were plowing by numbers…uncanny. After their superlative work, it took Clair, Dirlei and João less than two days to reseed pasture 2. Prior to reseeding, we moved these Masters of the Plow to pasture 3, where they will remain until they have done away with all things green on our weakest pasture. We will then plant the pasture grass seedlings we purchase from Carson and Ellen. Not surprisingly, our 20 environmentally-friendly, perpetual-motion plows are already making solid progress cleaning a pasture that until now has provided little for the bovine residents at Fazenda Alfheim.

We took advantage of the moving of the hogs to pasture 3 to release three of the most pregnant sows. These three sows will subsequently roam the grounds freely for some days while they choose a birthing site and prepare for life as second-time mothers.

In addition to moving hogs, we also prepared 110 pots of honey mead, where Lone and Rosana would later place the first ten of what we hope will be many bee boxes (each bee box contains 80,000 bees). With absolutely nothing other than her Danish gumption, Lone has brought our second revenue stream from analysis to preparation to production in record time. If all goes well, the ladies will be harvesting Fazenda Alfheim's first honey in less than three months, with each bee box producing approx. 20 kg of honey per year.

Finally, our pure-bred Gir bull has been named: Mausolus...and the fazenda has acquired a new mouse trap.

Animals and friends

Written to Her Majesty by The Decemberists

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
- Tennessee Williams

It has been quite a while since I last entered the blogosphere…three weeks to be exact. While it might be tempting to conclude that my absence has its roots in a dearth of activity at Fazenda Alfheim, quite the opposite is the case; these past three weeks have been so full of grand activities that I will have my hands full trying to recount it all without writing a tome.

It all began back on Friday, February 19, when we arrived at Fazenda Pau d'Alho, owned and run by Carson and Ellen Geld. Fazenda Pau d'Alho is the same fazenda where Lone and I attended the Santa Gertrudis cattle auction back in March 2009. Carson and Ellen raise Santa Gertrudis cattle, produce hay and sell selected grass seedlings (Bermuda (Cynodon dactylon)). Like her father, Louis Bromfield, Ellen is also an author. She will be signing the Portuguese version of her latest book, View From Fazenda: Tale Of Brazilian Heartlands (Pelas Janelas da Fazenda), on March 18th, at 19:00, at Livraria da Vila, Alameda Lorena, 1731. During our most enjoyable four-day visit, Ellen kindly shared with us the story of her famous father, The Man Who Had Everything, a documentary about Louis Bromfield, which chronicles the life of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, successful Hollywood screenwriter and true Renaissance man.

An original member of the writing staff at Time Magazine, Louis Bromfield (1896-1956) gained international fame in the 1920s and 30s as a best-selling novelist. The author of 30 books, Bromfield also wrote screenplays that starred the likes of Hollywood stars Greer Garson, Humphrey Bogart, Myrna Loy, Mae West, Lana Turner, and James Cagney. While writing his popular books, first in New York City, and later in Paris, his celebrity status and engaging personality brought about friendships with people ranging from American actors to Indian maharajahs to British royalty. After leaving Paris, Bromfield moved to Malabar Farm in 1938 to pursue his childhood dream. There he hosted the "secret" wedding of his close friends, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, placing Malabar Farm and his radical agricultural experiments in the national spotlight.

Bromfield was an early and eloquent proponent of organic and self-sustaining farming. Malabar Farm was much more than a "gentleman's farm", in addition to being a working farm, the land was used as a government testing site for soil conservation. The estate, now an Ohio State Park, remains a working farm.

Unfortunately, we lost all of the beautiful photos of our visit to Fazenda Pau de Alho when Lone accidentally knocked our Canon PowerShot SX200 IS off of the dresser in the guest room where we were staying. Fortunately, my mother will be arriving next week from California for a two-week visit, bringing with her, among many imports, a new Canon PowerShot SX200 IS.

During our visit at Carson and Ellen's, we also had the opportunity to meet Roberto Vicente Lopes, Carson's long-time veterinarian. As it turns out, Roberto is well-traveled in the world of Jersey cattle, and he was able to assist us with the purchase of two pregnant, pure-bred Jersey cattle, Ressurrection Arabula (born: 18/04/2008) and Rosa Cristiana Iatolá (born: 09/09/2008). Both mothers are carrying female calves. In this way, we managed to acquire four pure-bred female Jerseys for less than the price of three. Ressurrection Arabula will give birth in May/June, after which fresh, organic milk will flow from the land of the Light elves [Ljósálfar].

Unlike the Nelore, the Jersey are calm and friendly, so much so that they would be at home in a petting zoo.

Before Ressurrection and Rosa were delivered to us, our pure-bred Gir bull made his entrance at our fazenda, all 500+ kg of he who as yet remains unnamed. Somewhat skittish, our unnamed macho hid for his first two-days in the secondary forest on pasture 6. I visited him twice, but decided to leave him be when on my second visit he let me know in no uncertain terms that he had no intention of being moved. After a couple of days in hiding, he descended onto the pasture together with Bolina, who had followed him up after spending their honeymoon alone on grass, her moos of love discouragingly ignored.

Prior to the arrival of the Gir and the Jerseys, we sold the remaining Nelore heifers. Economically, the Nelore turned out to be a poor investment, but they did serve a noble purpose: helping us learn about raising cattle, pasture management etc. In business-speal, the Nelore would be known as a strategic investment…hopefully one of our last such investments.

In between all of the cattle activity, we moved the younger of the Duroc boars to Hogs Copse, to the second of the two pig pens. His arrival was hastened by some distinctly Lindsey Lohan-like Mean Girls' behavior by Betty, Chiquina and their two cohorts. Initially, we decided to move the four Alfheim-produced gilts to the same area as the 15 gilts from TOPIGS. Bad idea. Chiquina and her gang bullied the 15 gilts, who admittedly have a very sweet demeanor, to such as extent that when Lone and I visited them on just their second night together, the gang of four had taken over the house and were sleeping soundly while the 15 gilts from TOPIGS were nowhere to be found. At feeding time, I had to spend 10-15 minutes lording over the four to ensure that they did not prevent the 15 from eating the corn. A lot of biting and pushing…pretty rough stuff. As a result, we decided to move our breeding plan up by one month and start with the gang of four. Therefore, we moved Chiquina and company in with the young Duroc boar, hoping that his presence would encourage a more socially-correct behavior from the meanies. Beginning in April, we will add three TOPIGS' gilts to the breeding party each month for five months, removing each respective group after they have spent three months with Mr. Lover Man.

To feed all of our existing boars, sows and gilts...and future piglets, I recently purchased 30 tons of organic corn from Fazenda 2M. If everything goes according to plan, we will receive it all this week, in two shipments of 15 tons each, the maximum practical weight for trucks traveling on dirt roads of less than pristine quality. 30 tons of corn should last us for almost a year, if, that is, we are able to purchase 50 * 200 liter plastic storage containers from Zico, the owner of Padaria do Zico in Natividade ad Serra. 7-9-13!

After all of this animal-related activity, both Lone and I needed a little R&R. Fortunately, we were able to schedule a weekend at the best beach house in Maresias with our our good friends John Tomizuka and Paula Zandomeni (click here to see the unauthorized photo), who coincidentally happen to be the owners of this pearl of an abode. This was also our first chance to meet Massimo and Kaya, John and Paula's twins. A wonderful weekend of chilaxing, as Johannes would say.

Before arriving in Maresias, we took a four-hour detour to meet with the mayor of Natividade ad Serra, João Carvalho, to discuss the poor condition of the municipal dirt road that connects Rodovia Osvaldo Cruz (SP-125) and Rodovia dos Tamoios (SP-99) and serves as Fazenda Alfheim's lifeline to the outside world. This visit will be followed up with a visit to the Ministerio Público in Paraibuna on March 23rd. The fun never stops.

Prior to our trip to Maresias, we had a visit from our conventional hog veterinarian, Paulo Augusto, his wife Roberta, also a veterinarian, and their son, Leonardo (who earned R$1.00 for catching a hen and became good friends with Chiquina), a very enjoyable two days.

This weekend will bring more guests to Fazenda Alfheim: at long-last our dear friends, Luciano Bonachela and Vivian Tornero, and their young son, Gabriel, will pay us a visit.

Finally, I made some minor tweaks to the blog format and added a reading list (thanks for the suggestion, Sara) and reaction boxes. As always, comments are welcome. Strange but true parting note: it is possible to wash an iPod Shuffle (the classic version) in the washing machine without destroying it. Who would have thought...

Long day's journey into night

Written to Braveheart: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by James Horner

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

- Albert Einstein

This week was marked by the arrival of our second purchase of gilts, 15 from TOPIGS do Brasil, one of the three largest companies in the world specializing in swine genetics. The gilts were scheduled to arrive on Shrove Tuesday, aka Pancake Day, the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of fasting and prayer called Lent, at between 08:00 and 09:00. Clair, Dirlei, João and I cut wood all morning, not wanting to start a major project or be caught too far from the main house when the gilts arrived. Taking a lesson from the Samba schools, which recycle all usable materials for the following year's Carnaval immediately after the public blowout, we also began separating all of the wood that was fit for use as construction material. This wood will be brushed off, painted and set aside until needed. At somewhere around 11:30, the home phone rang and a driver from TOPIGS tried to explain his situation, but the line kept cutting out. After four or five aborted calls, Lone managed to gather that he was nearby and informed him that I would come and get him, which I happily agreed to do. When I ran into his truck less than two km down the road, he was headed in the wrong direction. He explained that he had been worried that his truck would not be able to navigate the final stretch and decided to turn around. After several minutes of conversation, I convinced him that the road ahead was dry, and that he would have no problem arriving at our fazenda. I also took the opportunity to inquire as to his lateness. He apologized profusely while showing me the instructions he had received from his dispatch: Distrito Bairro Alto, Natividade da Serra, 12180-000 was all that the company had sent their driver forth with. Somewhere along the way, the dispatch truncated our clear directions…

Indo para Ubatuba (Rodoviário - Osvaldo Cruz) no km 66 vira a direita para Vargem Grande. Segue placas para Vargem Grande...13 km. Ao chegar á Vargem Grande tem mais 7 km continuando na mesma estrada. Em frente da entrada da fazenda tem um mourão pintado laranja. Em total da 20 km de estrada da terra.

…to the six words and a single zip code above. As a result, he had driven through the night to Natividade da Serra, arriving there at approx. 06:30. FYI, it easily takes two and one-half hours to drive to Natividade da Serra from Alfheim.

Long story short, he informed me that he would have to turn his truck around further on down the road, where there was more room to maneuver. I subsequently reversed the car and waited. What seemed like an eternity later (probably 25 minutes if I had been counting), I decided to drive toward Vargem Grande to see what had become of the driver and his specially-designed truck carrying in excess of 100 gilts, only 15 of which were destined for our fazenda. And find him I did, stuck in the mud about two km down the road. Inexplicably, he had decided to turn his truck around by driving through a deep pool of mud without first checking its depth. To make a long story even shorter, it took us several attempts at digging out the truck, pulling it out with a Valtra 685 tractor, then two Valtra 685 tractors, before we finally managed to excavate his truck and its 10,000 kg of gilts from the morass, off-loading our 15 gilts in the process in two loads of seven and eight gilts, respectively, onto my Lego tractor.

What originally was scheduled to be a light, half-day of work turned into a triple overtime debacle in which one gilt died (TOPIGS, not ours), most likely from stress and heat exhaustion. The animals, packed seven-eight to a cage, were subjected to a grueling ordeal, despite the truck being outfitted with a sophisticated sprinkler system for watering the animals. In point of fact, the driver had neglected to top up the water tank before embarking on the dirt road and quickly ran out of water. Had it not been for the numerous 20-liter milk cans full of water that we pulled from the river and threw over the animals using a plastic water bottle we cut in half, more certainly would have succumbed under the brutal conditions; those that did survive were quite literally marked by the day.

Under the heading of all's well that end's well, our 15 new gilts are recovering well in their new digs, the elegantly and appropriately named Hogs Copse, a recently-opened, state-of-the-art housing development on the hillside to the right of the entrance road as one enters Alfheim.

That said, in spite of their remarkable physicality -they are a mere 150 days old- the new gilts are characterized by an odd combination of bulk and atrophy that comes from confinement. Fortunately, this will pass as they quite literally walk themselves into shape like contestants on The Biggest Loser.

Two hillsides away, our original herd of gilts-turned-sows are all doing well, lean and strong, prescient icons both of what is possible and inevitable for the latest additions to Alfheim's ever-growing menagerie. As evidence of their fitness, I offer photos of a game I like to call flip the sack. The sacks in question are filled with 50 kg of corn. The sows move the sack around like a pair of socks. Even Clair and João find these sacks heavy, but for the sows all it takes to get a sack airborne is a light flick of their tough snouts and strong neck muscles.

Once I have served up a tasty lunch of corn for the hogs, I turn my attention to the piglets, who for their parts have long since figured out that my presence signals a bellyful of more than just laughs.

1. Wait for him…he usually brings food
2. Only the biggest and boldest dare enter
3. And they tell two friends
4. And they tell two friends
5. And so on
   

The combination of corn soaked in fresh cow's milk for 24 hours proves irresistible -for the sows as well.

With daily temperatures consistently above 30 °C, the other irresistible treat is a mud bath. In fact, any reprieve from the sun will serve for a hog.

In other farm news, Chiquina and Pixie's after-comer, no name yet, is recovering extraordinarily well from a horrific case of miiase, which drilled three heavy-duty-nail-sized holes in her head. She is alert, strong and demanding her cow's milk five-six times a day. No question she will survive and flourish. If the size of Chiquina's behind is indicative, parasitic attacks at an early age are no impediment to the long-term health of a hog.

Finally, Lone took three National-Geographic-worthy photos this week:

• some very cute ducklings
• the eucalyptus trees in front of the entrance to our fazenda
• a spider's web that would make Shelob proud

A day in the life a half year on...

Written to Hello Love by Be Good Tanyas

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

- Will Rogers

Slowly but surely we are coming to grips with the additional labor resources we have had at our disposal since October (Dirlei) and January (João), respectively. Since January, we have had four full-time employees. As I noted in a recent blog post, this has ratcheted up significantly the speed at which we can complete work -by an order of magnitude, actually. It has also required us to rethink how we use our own time. The result of this rethink is that Lone divides her day as follows:

• 05:30 - 07:00: yoga, meditation and breakfast
• 07:00 - 09:30: farm work
• 09:30 - 10:00: break
• 10:00 - 12:30: office hours, e.g. paperwork, phone calls, e-mails
• 12:30 - 13:30: lunch
• 13:30 - 16:30: farm work

While my day shapes up as follows:

• 06:00 - 07:00: pilates and farm work
• 07:00 - 09:30: exercise the dogs (aka me pretending to be Cesar Millan), breakfast (while watching ESPN SportsCenter) and office hours
• 09:30 - 10:00: break
• 10:00 - 12:30: farm work
• 12:30 - 13:30: lunch
• 13:30 - 16:30: farm work

Typically, we meet with the workers every morning at 07:00 to discuss the day's activities, and again at 16:30 to wrap up.

Lone works with Rosana much of the time, and this contact is invaluable.

I generally work alone from 10:00 to 12:30, which includes feeding the hogs, and then with either Clair, Dirlei or João from 13:30 to 16:30. This gives me a chance to spend some quality time with each of the men. Beginning next week, Rosana and her potent powers of observation will be joining me for the midday hog feeding.

In addition, there are a number of activities, such as slaughtering and treating the hogs for miíase or berne, that require a team effort. On those occasions, we all pitch in.

Thus far, everyone seems to work well together, and each one of our employees brings something complementary to the table that enhances Alfheim. Clair brings a joy to his work which is contagious. He sings from morning to early evening: A estrada longa que é a vida. Rosana is the brains of the operation: she sees all, knows all and her intuition is True North. Dirlei is exceedingly calm and knows a great deal about both animals and the maintenance of everything from chain saws to tractors (he also has a great deal of experience driving a tractor, something that proved most useful a couple of weeks back when I managed to get my Lego tractor stuck in the mud). João is simply a machine. If Clair is a cross between Paul Bunyon and John Henry, then João is a cross between the Hulk and Iron Man. He simply does not tire. Even Rosana expressed concern that he works too hard, not a reaction one would normally expect from her.

In other farm news, the ducks have taken to our recently-cleared lake, and we purchased 36 bee hives, enough to produce approx. 720 kg of honey per year, and assorted equipment from Januara, until recently, when she moved to Taubaté with her husband, a neighbor from down the road.

The purchase of the bee hives is integral to our goal of testing all of the farm's business models prior to Esben's arrival in July. Thus far, we have successfully tested the production and sale of organic piglets. Milk, a guaranteed sale to the local Associação in Vargem Grande, is next (April), followed by pasture-raised broilers (May), which we hope to sell locally for R$9.00 (€3.51 or $4.86) live and finally honey (?). We have two Danish visitors, Sandra and Anella, who will spend May cleaning and preparing the bee hives, so hopefully we will bee operationally sometime in June.

Finally, we visited São Luiz do Paraitinga this morning to place an order at Depósito Cursino, our local DYI. Both Lone and I were struck by how much the town had recovered since our last visit with Dennis and Anne in late January. All of the debris and mud have been removed from the streets, many shops are operating at 100% and people everywhere are busy repairing and painting their houses and businesses. When evaluating their progress, it is critical to remember that the Paraitinga River rose eight to ten meters in the town center; everything was submerged. The owners of Depósito Cursino found a freezer full of ice cream on their roof (interesting side note: the owner still has not come forward)! When I compare these developments with those in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, which almost five years on is still mostly empty, devoid of schools, businesses, even people, the contrast is shocking. Without a doubt any number of caveats can be applied to such a comparison. Nonetheless, it is arresting to consider that Brazil might actually be better equipped to deal with a natural disaster of magnitude than the world's richest country.

The value of swine

Written to Noventa Anos Do Samba by Jamelão

Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not commit adultery. Don't eat pork.

I'm sorry, what was that last one? Don't eat pork. God has spoken.

Is that the word of God or is that pigs trying to outsmart everybody?

- Jon Stewart quotes (American Comedian and Actor, b.1962)

Since November we have been dabbling in the sale of organic piglets to a handful of upscale restaurants in São Paulo. This has given us an invaluable opportunity to test and fine tune our organic piglet business model. Fortunately, the initial analysis looks very promising. The key numbers:

REVENUE

price per kg: R$17.00

average weight per piglet (kg): 13

average revenue per piglet: R$221.00

FEED

# of sows: 30

# of piglets per litter: 6 (we are currently achieving closer to 8)

# of piglets per year per sow: 12

piglet mortality: 10%

total piglets per year: 324

kg. of feed per sow per day: 2

# of days: 243

kg. of feed per day (during lactation): 5

# of days per lactation: 122

total kg of feed per year: 1,095

cost of feed (per kilo): R$0.55

total cost of feed per year per piglet: R$55.87

LABOR

# of days per year: 365

# of hours per day: 1

# of hours per week (slaughter): 19

total labor hours per year: 1,337

total labor hours per piglet: 4

net labor costs (per hour): R$5.80

total gross labor costs per piglet: R$23.92

TRANSPORT

total km per week: 426

km per liter: 8

liter per week: 53

price per liter (gasoline): R$2.49

total cost per week: R$158.24

piglets transported per week: 6

cost per piglet: R$25.40

TOTAL COST PER PIGLET PER YEAR: R$120.18

NET MARGIN PER PIGLET (R$): R$100.82

NET MARGIN PER PIGLET (%): 46%

Clearly, we will be quite pleased if we can continue to maintain a net margin per piglet of 46%.

As important, however, is to make certain that our partners are successful. In other words, our profits will be short-lived if we overcharge our restaurant customers. Therefore, before setting prices, I produced a simple, back-of-the-envelope analysis to test whether we were creating a win-win scenario. Without all of the desired data points, I applied the following simple logic:

• At approx. 33%, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) has the highest food costs in the fast-food industry (only data point I could find).
• A high-end restaurant should have higher food costs as a percentage of revenues than a fast-food restaurant.
• Our restaurant customers charge approx. R$140.00 (€54.37 or $75.57) for a portion of piglet (defined as a quarter or sixth of a piglet). This works out to between R$10.77 (€4.18 or $5.81) and R$16.15 (€6.27 or $8.72) per person -proving beyond any doubt that eating exceptionally well does not have to be expensive.

Given these inputs, and assuming that our restaurant customers divide a 13 kg piglet into 6 pieces (a pretty reasonable assumption considering that each sixth of a piglet would produce 9 servings of 250 gr), their food costs as a percentage of revenues would be 26%, less than a fast-food restaurant. It is our humble hope that this particular win-win strikes a righteous balance between what Joel Salatin refers to as making a white collar salary from a pleasant life in the country and what Mohandas K. Gandhi would refer to as commerce with morality.