Yesterday was the Capoeira Batizado event on our ranch! The Batizado is the day when everyone in the martial art gets a little higher in the cord color. About half of the family goes to this Brazilian martial art, and, like in kung-fu, you get higher with belts. But in the case with Capoeira you get into a higher rank with cords. All the people from the Maculele group gather somewhere to get their cords. Now an event like that is pretty big....

Rudi’s final day is here. After months of free range living, eating what he wants, tipping over water buckets everywhere, it’s finally his time to be slaughtered. He’s a little more than half a year old, and we had him since he was no bigger than a small chihuahua. Now, this very afternoon, he will be slaughtered and roasted. All that fat on him will be put to a use soon! Why are we slaughtering Rudi today? Because tomorrow...

Today, everyone had a great time. We invited the whole Capoeira Maculelê group and Pascal’s girlfriend, Megan, over. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art, kind of like a dance. You sing Portuguese songs and clap in a circle, and in the center two people do the fighting/dancing. Well, they came over today and we had a wonderful afternoon. This morning, while half the family went to Capoeira, some stayed home and had a not so great...