Um maravilhoso Natal e um próspero Ano Novo!

Written to Smokes Like Lightning by Lightnin Hopkins

"Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length."
- Robert Frost

This will be one of my shortest-ever blog posts, a brief text wishing all of our family and friends um maravilhoso Natal e um próspero Ano Novo!

As regards our own family, Pelle and his girlfriend, Jemma, arrived yesterday at Ninho da Arara, the pousada of a good friend of mine from my Berkeley days, Davis Bales. Pelle and Jemma will unwind for a couple of days after a long, long journey from UK before returning by bus to Taubaté, where Esben and I will pick them up after picking up Johannes, weather gods willing, from São Paulo/Guarulhos – Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport. Weather gods not permitting…we will have to make do with two of Les Trois Mousquetaires. 7-9-13!

For those of you who have not yet registered the monumental event that was my joining Facebook, I have, in fact, recently succumbed to the seductive power of Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2010. I held out for as long as I could, I really did, but in the end the gravitational pull of the more than 500 million people connected to what Esben glibly describes as the world's most time-consuming image management tool was too overpowering for my fragile psyche. We shall see where it all ends, but for now I have ensconced myself in the warm glow of this world's digital hoi polo.

And finally, what would a year-end blog post be if it did not end with a quote from our generation's oracle:

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”
- Oprah Winfrey

Son of Corcovado

Written to Lifeline by Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals

"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border."

-Sarah Palin, explaining why Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience, interview with CBS's Katie Couric, Sept. 24, 2008 (You can read 9 more gems of equal depth here)

Originally, I was going to call this blog post Moon over Alfheim (I trust this photo explains my initial leaning), but opted instead to title it Son of Corcovado in homage to Esben who, together with Jeff, Suzanna and Emmanuel Cabale, completed the Trilha do Corcovado in the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar - Núcleo Santa Virgínia on Saturday, November 20th.

Armed with his incomparable Nikon D90, Esben took a series of breathtaking photos, five of which I have highlighted here (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

While Esben and his compadres were scaling the heavens, Lone and I remained at Alfheim and took care of the daily chores.

Unable to control myself, particularly given the stunningly beautiful day at hand, I opened the door to the chicken house and let the chicks explore their yard for the first time. Great fun!

And while his choice of extracurricular activities might not be a giveaway, Saturdays are now officially Esben's day off...Sundays Lone's. That said, Lone has as much trouble sitting still as does Esben, so she has taken to making candles out of the leftover bees wax from her honey production. Needless to say, I now know more about wick density than any man has a right to.

Not satisfied with candle making, Lone further added to her farming baggage by participating in a week-long cheese-making course in Paraibuna. While this particular Parmesan did not make the grade, both Esben and I are eagerly awaiting Lone's future efforts.

Finally, I could not let the following observation pass without sharing it:

"If you had spent a million dollars a day since Jesus Christ was born 2010 years ago, you would still not have spent a trillion dollars. And that will be our annual interest bill."

- David Cote, one of the civilian members of a presidential panel set up to help trim the US budget deficit

500

Written to Abbey Road by The Beatles

“When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.”

- Chinua Achebe

If you ever lay awake at night wondering what 500 day-old chicks look like, you can hereafter sleep easy.

After spending the better part of Sunday in Parque da Independência in São Paulo listening to a free Norah Jones concert, Esben departed from South America's leading megalopolis in the early morning on Proclamação da República (Republic Day), which commemorates the end of the Empire of Brazil and the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic in November 15, 1889, and headed toward Campinas to pick up the first half of our order of 1,000 day-old chicks from Fazenda Aves do Paraiso.

Approx. five hours later, Esben arrived with five neatly packed boxes, each containing 100 day-old chicks.

We showed the newest members of Fazenda Alfheim to their lodgings, our massive chicken house, and made sure they had plenty of food and water and a more insulated house within the chicken house to keep them warm during the critical, initial eight days in our care.

The chicks, which cost R$1.10 per head, appear strong, robust and should reach slaughter weight in 90-100 days.

In other developments, Lone and Esben harvested several buckets full of jaboticaba. The word jaboticaba is said to have been derived from the Tupi term, jabotim, for turtle, and means "like turtle fat", presumably referring to the fruit pulp. All I know is it makes a very yummy pancake syrup!

Also, our heirloom corn is growing at breakneck speed…from this to this in 3 weeks!

Finally, for anyone seeking a bit of inspiration, the following article from The Wall Street Journal should certainly lift your spirits.

Artemis of Alfheim

Written to Live my Life, Nu Mixx Klazzics and Greatest Hits by 2Pac

Around 800 AD during Tang dynasty, the Chinese were undoubtedly the most productive in the world with the national GDP accounting for half of the world. Would it be more reasonable to assume China reaches its peak when its GDP per capita is at least about the average of the developed world?

- China: Has the Last Opportunity Passed By?! (China in the 21st Century)

In a tradition dating back to 2400BC near Cairo, Lone, Alfheim's Artemis, harvested her first honey, 30 kg from four of her 10 boxes. A mere viewing of the fruits of her labor is sufficient to make one understand why the Greeks viewed honey as not only an important food, but also as a healing medicine, tasting it confirms why the Romans used honey as a gift to the gods. If you are interested in purchasing your very own gift to the gods, a 600 ml glass can be procured for the less-than-princely sum of R$20.00 (€8.57 or $11.66).

Aside from several bee stings, and Lone's resulting man hand, we were so emboldened by this initial success that we have decided to expand production to 40 bee boxes by year's end.

Based on the results from this first harvest, it is reasonable to assume that each bee box will produce approx. 15 kg of honey per year. Thus, already in 2011, Fazenda Alfheim should be producing approx. 600 kg of raw organic honey - the Nectar of the Gods.

In other fazenda developments:

• Our heirloom corn continues to grow spectacularly.
• Our young male calf appears to be recovering well from whatever virus has afflicted him for the past several weeks.
• Likewise, the younger of our Duroc boars seems to have gotten over the worst of his as-yet-unidentified illness.
• Same story for the cows…a change in our milking procedure has nearly put an end to the variola (aka as cowpox or pseudo-cowpox) affecting their utters.

Finally, not to be forgotten in this frenzy of farm activity, Dr. Márcio Magano's birthday bash was great, great fun!

On the map…quite literally

Written to Come Away With Me by Norah Jones

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

- Hodding Carter

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

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

In actual fazenda news...

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

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

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

Road trippin 3.0

Written to R.E.M. Live by R.E.M.

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.”

- Lin Yutang

No quote could better sum up the past weekend, which began on Friday, when Lone and Esben picked me up in São Paulo and we headed out of town toward Porto Feliz (Happy Haven in English) to visit Carson and Ellen Geld. We arrived at Fazenda Pau d'Alho at around 16:30 on a cold, drizzling day. Not long after we arrived, Ellen, Lone and Esben went for a walk, together with the dogs, a trek which culminated with Ellen and Lone filling the bed of our Mitsubishi L200 Triton HPE 3.2 Diesel pickup with half a fazenda worth of saplings. After a lovely dinner, we retired relatively early.

The next day we enjoyed a huge family lunch with a large percentage of the Geld clan…delicious food and delightful company. Just after 16:00 we headed off, decorative clothing in tow to Catanduva for the wedding of Daniel Teruo Famano and Daniella de Grande Curi, which was slated to begin at 20:45. After a quick stop at a local luncheonette (note to any and all: do not mess with a hypoglycemic woman, especially when she doubles as your wife), we changed clothes on the fly and metaphorically-speaking transformed from road-weary ugly ducklings into swans (1, 2, 3) for an evening. While Lone was taking the first photo of a Bossed-out Esben and me, I leaned over to my middle son and quoted Kanye:

The Goyard so hard man I'm Hugo's boss

Why I gotta ask what that two door cost?

Esben's retort was breakneck: the reenactment of this scene from Men in Black.

At somewhere south of 01:00, we departed the festivities and climbed back into our trusty pickup and headed back to Taubaté, where we arrived in the parking lot of Carrefour at 07:00…and waited until the metal roller shutters were lifted at 08:00 to do a little grocery shopping. A couple of hours later, we arrived back at Fazenda Alfheim, more than slightly worse for the wear. Suffice it to say it was a quiet Sunday -despite the fact that it was election day in Brazil.

While I did all of the driving on our road trip, Esben and Lone bore the brunt of the farm work, which involved more sowing of heirloom corn and feijão, caring for our two beautiful new Jersey calves, one male and one female, and the all-important task of picking Jabuticaba! Vidunderligt!

While somewhat cold during the weekend and Monday, the weather cleared today, Tuesday, and with the sun brought hope that our milho criolo will continue to prosper...7-9-13!

Finally, in a blow to The Man, Monsanto appears to have fallen on hard times in the past year, its stock falling 42% since the beginning of the year, shortly after Forbes named it “company of the year” back in December. While normally not one to gloat over others' misery, I admit to having trouble hiding my glee over these developments. The New York Times article is well worth a read.

Road trippin 2.0

Written to FELA In Concert Starring Fela Anikulapo Kuti

“Like life, basketball is messy and unpredictable. It has its way with you, no matter how hard you try to control it. The trick is to experience each moment with a clear mind and open heart. When you do that, the game -- and life -- will take care of itself.”

- Phil Jackson

A week after breaking my collar bone and a rib, my abuser, aka Esben, and I set off at 21:30 in our Mitsubishi L200 Triton HPE 3.2 Diesel pickup from São Paulo for Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, a 1,011 km trip, to visit Toshio Hisaeda's hog farm. We drove through the night, taking turns behind the wheel, emerging from the darkness into an endless savannah, sprinkled with an out of place feed lot, a handful of sugar cane fields and a lot of roadworks, finally checking into our room at Vânia Hotel e Lanchonete in Campo Grande at around 11:00.

We chillaxed for the remainder of Monday, only leaving our humble abode to eat at a local diner for the princely sum of R$14.00 (€6.25 or $8.16).

On Tuesday, we visited Toshio at his office, Sementes Boi Gordo, an impressive seed business employing approx. 200 people. Toshio, the iconoclast that he is, has established a garden and a chicken yard on the premises, and we spent most of the afternoon meeting with Toshio and his employees.

That evening we met Toshio and a job candidate at Toshio's restaurant, where we dined on a sumptuous array of Japanese dishes. Truly yummy!

The following morning, Wednesday, we awoke at 05:00, packed, checked out of the hotel and headed off on the first of two farm visits. Stop 1: Toshio's 900 hectare hog farm, where he raises more than 1,000 hogs. The farm is run by only two employees, who are responsible for every aspect of raising the Sorocaba and Monteiro breeds that dominate Toshio's herd.

At any given time, Toshio's hogs and their offspring can be found in one of three main areas:

1. A maternity ward that features individual pens with drip-water systems and a retractable roof. The pregnant sows are typically brought into the maternity ward 15-30 before birthing and are released into...
2. the weaning area, mother sow together with her piglets, a couple of months after birthing. From the post-maternity weaning area, the animals are placed in...
3. a common pen, where all of the adult hogs and weaners live. The hog pens, which with the exception of one, monster 30-hectare pen, are approx. two hectares in size, have been seeded with Estilosantes Campo Grande, a protein-rich legume that comprises the majority of the hogs diet together with cassava and sugar cane. Once a week the hogs receive two kg of corn, though this is more of a behavioral modification tool that the workers use to train the hogs to gather at the entry gate, thus facilitating their move when required. There are no houses in these hog pens, i.e. the hogs sleep under open sky.

It is worth noting that while in the maternity ward, the pregnant sows receive a feed consisting of corn flour, soy and ash, approx. 15% of the latter to combat parasites.

After wrapping up our visit at Toshio's hog farm, we travelled a few km down the road to visit his 2,000 hectare cattle farm, where he raises 2,500 head of Wagyu beef cattle. After the tour, we enjoyed another fabulous lunch consisting of comida mineira, topped off with the most exquisitely delicious lemon mousse, the recipe for which I asked and was given.

After thanking our host profusely for his hospitality, we jumped into our bucket of bolts and headed back to São Paulo, where I had a full schedule of meetings on Thursday and Friday.

And while Esben and I were playing Thelma and Louise, Lone, Megan (Megan's parents please see the mini Megan photo gallery here: 1, 2, 3, 4) and Rosana were busy back at Fazenda Alfheim preparing Esben's apartment, among other tasks.

Painting aside, the week's biggest news in the Vale da Paraiba, was the announcement from beekeeper Lone that she will indeed harvest honey this year, more than 100 liters in November! Amazing! We got a little taste from a small sample, and as a lifelong honey connoisseur I can assure all of my readers that I have never tasted anything quite so delicious. Book your jar today because it will be sold out in less time than it takes to count Sara Palin's IQ. Parabéns, beekeeper Lone!

Finally,

• Jennifer Chatman, of the University of California, Berkeley, conducted experiments in which she tried to find a point at which flattery became ineffective. It turned out there wasn’t one.
• And next time you feel like your style is being cramped, think of this group of brothers and sisters!