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...