Our outdoor kitchen is infested with crazy chickens. Crazy or just incredibly dumb, but then dumb just comes with chicken territory. These two ladies take the cake, though. It all started normally enough, with them selecting roosting spots within the kitchen. Ever seen it happen? It’s cute. Like newlyweds apartment hunting, the rooster leads the hens …
Bucket Brigade
We have endless water at the farm. Most of the time. It’s a true luxury. It runs day and night, and we do our best to route it to the most useful places so that its abundance isn’t wasted. It’s easy to be casual about it, because if it isn’t used it just means that …
Tinderbox
It was my first day in Brazil after the long nighttime bus ride back to our interior town. It had been a month since I had stepped on Brazilian soil. I opened the living room door and peer out into the yard. The light burned my eyes. Was the Brazilian sun always this bright? My eyes itched. …
Traitorous
See this lovely flower? Her name is Cansanção. Her name is lyrical—like canção (song) or cansaço (weariness). She lives right next to and her flowers look just like those of the delicious-smelling marsh plant (shown in the forefront of the above picture). Trust her not. There is no end to the number of stinging plants …
The First Rule of Feira Club
I’ve recently joined an elite club: the sellers at the Saturday feira (market). After a few weeks, I have a few observations. It’s a secret society. The first rule of Feira Club is that you do not talk about Feira Club. Membership is as simple as having a bench or a cloth laid out to sell …
Fotocrônica: Work Gloves
See those thorns the size of effing knitting needles? That’s a wild lemon tree, which grow all over our property. Good for caipirinhas at the end of a long day, not so good for those doing the yardwork. It seems everything has thorns here. Last year started counting thorny and stinging plant varieties as a way to …
Watering Can
They ask: What do you do for a living these days? I answer: I’m a farmer. Yes, really! Me, the career professional. We’re milk farmers now. Really. No kidding. Yeah, huh? Isn’t life wild. But the real answer only works in Portuguese. If you raise cows you say, Mexo com leite. I mess around with milk. If you grow things, Mexo com roça. I mess around in the countryside. …
Fotocrônica: The Stuff of Life
Of course I brought things home from the USA. My latest and most precious possession was a carefully packed and hand-carried 5inX5inX5in box: a Sawyer Point Zero Two Viral water purifier and bucket adapter kit. Ok, so maybe my preferences are a bit weird. Most Brazilians bring back things from Victoria’s Secret and Calvin Klein …
Returning Home
I am back home in Brazil and the spring rains have come. The air is deep and damp, and the humidity fills your lungs and greases your skin. I like it. It reminds me of summers at home in Maine. Funny how that happens here; this place is familiar even though the packaging is different. …
