Al Sorat Farm

22/09/2024

The dog pack has a very quiet dog who was totally missnamed Marte, but that is neither here nor there. Our boss dog, JC found her living on the dirt road in front of the farm a few years ago. She was very skittish but in good shape physical so I wondered if she had been dumped or perhaps was a TNR who had been released in the right incorrect place. She wasn't interested in making friends with us humans at the farm, but JC was determined to have her come to live with us. This caused some issues while Calypso was JC's boss partner because Marte also was a very boss sort of dog. We did the usual vaccinations for a dog here and we checked to see (surgically) if she'd been spayed, which she seemed to have been until the next puppy season rolled around and she turned into the raving queen of hell. Although she'd had her uterus removed, clearly the ovaries were still calling the shots and things got even more difficult with Calypso, although, bless her, she did a good job of staying cool. Although it is not usually recommended, we took Marte to a good surgeon who was able to use the hormonally inflamed ovaries to identify and remove them. Life calmed down.

Marte has been here about 4 years now, and gradually moved into the group of older dogs who sleep in my house at night...augmented by Kate, who when she moved in at about 6 or 8 weeks went on a charm offensive to convince ALL the dogs that despite her young age and puppy silliness, everyone LOVED her and realised that she was joining the boss group. Marte was not entirely convinced and the discussions with her took Kate longer than with the others. Most of the time Marte is clearly a boss dog in that she is attached to the boss...Me. But every so often we have noticed that she will move into the girls' house and go sleep in the kitchen there. She goes out to do her business, but she doesn't socialise at all. It's weird and the girls and I have wondered what it was all about. They have noticed that is as though Marte was afraid of something that only she was noticing.

She has a very sensitive social which we sense we have seen in action. A couple of years ago when BenBen was coming into the garden from the driveway, the Great Dane Bran gave a whoof at BenBen that was clearly an order to not let him in and Marte attacked BenBen. It was a strong attack but the injuries were not life threatening. Marte immediately realised that she had done something wrong and she promptly isolated herself under a bush by the barbecue where the dogs had made a bit of a cave. She hid there for 3 weeks, only leaving to get food and water from the house where there is a dog door that she could use at night. BenBen moved into the garden of the Pink House where Nawaya works and the women there, who adored him anyway, made him very welcome. Later in the evening of the attack, I noticed that Marte went over there and followed her to see what was happening. She went there and very clearly apologised to BenBen who accepted the apology. They are friends but BenBen does not trust Bran who doesn't see all that well and whose decisions regarding the other dogs are not that reliable. We all watch Bran very closely now. He thinks that he is a boss dog, but we all know that he simply doesn't have the Right Stuff and his dog-related decisions are not to be trusted.

We have had a weeklong teaching session at the farm that involved three men (old friends of ours) and three women staying at the Pink House while they were conducting lessons. Just before they arrived, Marte moved into the girs' house for some reason. I didn't see her for the week and she couldn't be coaxed into the garden by any means. She seemed happy but wasn't moving out of the house. Early this morning everyone was leaving before dawn to catch flights back to Europe. Last night Marte suddenly burst into the house, leapt up on my bed and greeted me with doggy enthusiasm. Last night she slept in the house with me in her old spot on the sofa. I realise that somehow she seemed to know that there were strangers on the farm and that she wanted to lay low until she knew that they were leaving. Perhaps the girls had been talking in their house about the imminent departure...who knows. But she knew.

20/09/2024

Lately I have acquired the habit of sleeping early (about 9:30/10 pm) and waking early about 5 or 6 am. I often find that I have interesting ideas at that hour, and today I think that I have had one of my better ones. Tell me what you think.

We have a very large paddock at one end of the farm, which was important to our horses at the farm when they were young and fit and doing long rides in the desert and farmland of Egypt from the farm to Dahshur and back. Times have changes, governments have changed, and our current one is not so friendly to riders in the deserts. Our horses are older and so are we, and with an increase from 900 LE per tonne for hay to 9000 LE per tonne, simple horse owning has become problematic. This is especially true since the prices for all of our goods and services are skyrocketing at the same time. As there is more corporate concern with exporting the local produce to earn hard currency, people in Egypt are now having to pay over twice as much for the second class produce that is left in country to feed our families.

So I have about 2/3 feddan (think 2/3 acre) of land here that I don't need as sand paddock and I want to use it in a way that would benefit Al Sorat Farm and also the families who use the farm. We are fortunate in having solar power and solar water pumps so energy is not an issue. This morning an idea came to me to turn the area in the paddock into raised beds for gardening for families who want to both have fresh vegetables of their choosing and also want to have a good excuse to come out to the farm and get some fresh air.

One of the things that I have learned in having the farm is just what an astonishing about of produce can be grown in a fairly small area when thought is given to placement and timing of crops. We have everything that we need for some very effective raised beds that could produce plenty for one or two families who might work them. There is a technique for building composting beds that begins with wood from largish to small size, moving through branches with leaves, and then other compostable items such as manure. With all of our trees, we have all of that on hand along with manure from poultry, horses, goats and sheep, along with a cow and a buffalo.

One of the issues with farming in Egypt is clearly the change in climate and the heat and sun in the summer. I've been looking at Maged El Said's white shelters for his plants in Sinai at Habiba Organic Farm (HOF) and I want to find out more about the best way to shelter plants from the heat. We have our old vegetable gardens in a mango grove that provides shade and we have a dark netting greenhouse, but the paddock is in full sun and not much can handle full sun during Egyptian summers any more...especially not humans.

I have a long way to go from lying in bed with something that seems to be a great idea until we get something on the ground. But to have an idea for which about 80% of the ingredients are available, is a wonderful feeling.
Hanady, Ashraf, Nawaya

19/09/2024

19/09/2024

Water is Sacred, Water is Life. Yet sadly, around the world, the sacred and precious waters of many indigenous communities have been stolen or polluted to feed the global (and local) economic development of former and present colonizers.

Right now I am on vacation, with my family, staying at the Country Inn hotel in Page, Arizona, on land that had once legally belonged to the Navajo (Diné) people. Our hotel has flush toilets, showers and ice machines. The city of Page has car washes and even a golf course, all fed by the clean waters of Lake Powell.

Meanwhile, many of the Navajo (Diné) staff at our hotel return each evening to their homes on the reservation, where they don't have access to Lake Powell's water. Where poverty is perpetuated, and water infrastructure doesn't exist for at least 30% of the people, who have to travel long distances to get water for cooking, toilets and showers.

A similar situation exists for other Native Americans and for poor and indigenous peoples around the world, where wealthier neighbors and former colonizers have either stolen local water rights, polluted water supplies with resource mining, leveraged aquifer rights (for agricultural use and export), or used dubious legal strategies to cut off access to clean drinking water for poor and indigenous communities.

From Flint Michigan to Gaza and the West Bank, to South Africa's poorest black communities, Aboriginals in Australia, native Hawaiians and the Maori in New Zealand, lack of clean water access leads to conditions of economic impoverishment for local people that are perpetuated in this way.

Its a legacy of racism and colonialism, still very much with us today. The global economy is like a machine that creates much suffering for hundreds of millions of people. Rarely given much attention by politicians, schools or the media, having water rights stolen can be as devastating to a community as losing access to land.

Without local water access, indigenous people cannot easily grow their own food or build up their local economies. They cannot raise children to be healthy and strong. Greater ecological consciousness requires a deeper understanding of how this tragedy has been created and is still maintained.

~Christopher Chase
Page, Arizona

Map One: If you look closely, one can see the territorial lines drawn by the states of Utah and Arizona around Lake Powell, cutting off water rights for the Navajo (Diné) Nation. In other places, (like Gaza and the West bank) similar leveraging of laws has cut off access to lakes and/or aquifers. This has happened to poor and indigenous communities all over the world.

Map Two: This is the city of Page, Arizona, built on land that belonged originally to the Navajo Nation. The people and businesses in Page have access to Lake Powell' water, while the Navajo (Diné) do not.

19/09/2024

Yeniifer Glick died in Luling, Texas, on July 10th, 2022. She was 31 weeks pregnant. Her autopsy report stated that her cause of death was hypertensive cardiovascular disease associated with morbid obesity; pregnancy was listed as a contributing factor. “None of the records from when Yeni was alive acknowledge that, given her multiple underlying conditions, an abortion would have increased her chances of survival,” Stephania Taladrid writes. But four outside medical experts who reviewed Yeni’s medical file agreed that Yeni’s death was preventable and that a therapeutic abortion, if offered and accepted, would probably have saved her life. Taladrid writes about the risks Texas’s anti-abortion laws pose for both pregnant women and medical professionals: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/WGw2bB

19/09/2024

On Sunday, Donald Trump was on one of his golf courses in West Palm Beach when an SKS-style rifle was pointed through a fence near the sixth hole. His Secret Service detail shot in the direction of the weapon. The suspect, who had been hiding by the palm trees and hedges that border the course there for almost 12 hours, ran, leaving behind his loaded gun, a GoPro, and a bag of food. The next day, Trump’s campaign claimed that “Democrats’ rhetoric inspired another attempt on President Trump’s life.” At the same time, Trump was sending supporters chain e-mails (“Forward this message to 10 friends… I want to spread the LOVE!”).

On Tuesday, the former President made his first in-person public appearance since the golf-course incident, at a town hall in Flint moderated by Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “They’re at it again,” an employee at General Motors told Antonia Hitchens. “They’re trying to kill him because he’s trying to stop the deep state.” At the Republican National Convention, after the first attempt on Trump’s life, the messaging had been about unity and love—even if those themes ultimately curdled into the usual tropes. This time, it was all about bravado. “Being President, it’s a little bit dangerous,” Trump said. “They think race-car driving is dangerous. No. They think bull riding, that’s pretty scary, right? No. This is a dangerous business.” He went on, “Only consequential Presidents get shot at.”

Read a dispatch from Trump’s appearance in Michigan this week: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/8fucvR

19/09/2024

ACE is a well run hard working charity and a great way to visit Luxor! Just being honest here.

19/09/2024

Poetry Heba Al-Agha, Julia Choucair Vizoso
Heba Al-Agha’s ‘Free Poems in the Autumn’
September 19, 2024

This poem was composed on September 13, 2024, as the first signs of autumn arrive.

Free Poems in the Autumn

By Heba Al-Agha

Translated by Julia Choucair Vizoso



How will my poems be free this fall

when memory can’t shed its heartbreak, how will I check on my balcony rose

when I haven’t watered it in

one year

our clothes in the washing machine, unwashed and unhung.



How will I take new pictures of my tree-lined street

when someone recommends I take one from right there,

the spot where he was martyred.



How will she look at me, the Poinciana tree that shaded the barbershop next door

and now pines for the boys on their way to school and the mothers who nagged at them

to prune their frizzy heads, as she asks of me:

What took you so long!



How will my poems be free in the fall, when it’s time to shake off

the exhaustion of summer, to plan

a boat trip, a breakfast at Marina or somewhere new that Gaza invents,

a morning walk to coffee, the indulgence of a croissant from Mazaj.



How will my poems be free when I am in waiting

for Saturday, for a long break, for my mother’s lap to throw myself into

for a visit to our farm where I’ll walk around like a tourist picking all the buds, a yellow date,

a guava

for my gluttonous eyes as I ask my mother, When will the olives be harvested?

for returning home with colossal jars of dates and lime.



In this fall that is free

of homecomings and goings and visits to my mother, Saturdays and streets and Poinciana trees, children and homes and olives, and a single guava fruit."

September 13, 2024

This poem was composed on September 13, 2024, as the first signs of autumn arrive. Free Poems in the Autumn By Heba Al-Agha Translated by Julia Choucair Vizoso   How will my poems be free thi…

18/09/2024

Horse people, here's your chance to brush up on your Italian, although Agnese Santi speaks perfectly good English. She is also an excellent equine dentist who has been staying and teaching at Al Sorat Farm for the last few days. We have high hopes of being able to get her back here for classes.

What she does in her free time is to care for horses running wild in the mountains outside of Florence. Paula Da Silva, you will be interested in this.

It is not at all often that I have the opportunity to recommend a charity and know in my heart that it is the real deal.

Please do check this out and share it. Who know that Italy had wild horses anyway?

18/09/2024

Horse people, here's your chance to brush up on your Italian, although Agnese Santi speaks perfectly good English. She is also an excellent equine dentist who has been staying and teaching at Al Sorat Farm for the last few days. We have high hopes of being able to get her back here for classes.

What she does in her free time is to care for horses running wild in the. mountains outside of Florence. Paula Da Silva, you will be interested in this. It is not at all often that I have the opportunity to recommend a charity and know in my heart that it is the real deal.

Please do check this out and share it. Who know that Italy had wild horses anyway?

16/09/2024

I have had a water buffalo for years now. Fada is our third in fact, after Qamar the daughter of Gamila. These are incredible creatures, but we don't see the range of them here in Egypt.

When water buffalo make a home for themselves in abandoned spaces, they can bring with them a rich array of frogs, bats and plant life.

16/09/2024

I have become an early waking person over the past few years and I have found my bird friends in the garden as a result. The trilling call of the kingfisher who moved into my garden and is now feeding his family lizards rather than fish from the almost defunct canals around here is the first greeting of my day. The call brings a flash of glistening turquoise into my head and reminds me that the day isn't going to happen if I don't get up.

And then the crows start. We have a huge family of crows at the farm with nests in every sort of tree imaginable. The taunt the dogs throughout the day, play tag between the fences and trees. I love watching them surfing the palms on windy days. When their young ones are learning to fly, they have trusted me to pick them up to place them where the parents can retrieve them after failed flights. Any dogs who go near the youngsters are attacked enmasse, and most of the humans here are wary, but I just tell the parents that I'm going to help and everything is fine.

"One September dawn on the verge of a significant life change, sitting on my poet friend’s dock, I watched a great blue heron rise slow and prehistoric through the morning mist, carrying the sky on her back. In the years since, the heron has become the closest thing I have to what native traditions call a spirit animal. It has appeared at auspicious moments in my life, when I have most yearned for assurance. It became the first bird I worked with in my almanac of divinations. At times of harrowing uncertainty and longing for resolution, I have found in the long stillness of the hunting bird, waiting for the right moment to do the next right thing, a living divination — a great blue reminder that patience respects the possible.

It is naïve, of course, to believe that this immense and impartial universe is sending us, transient specks of stardust, personalized signs about how to live the cosmic accident of our lives. Still, it is as foolish to ask the meaning of a bird as it is to see it as a random assemblage of feather and bone. Reality lives somewhere between matter and meaning. One makes us, the other we make to bear our mortality and the confusions of being alive. Meaning arises from what we believe to be true, reality is the truth that endures whether or not we believe in it. That is the difference between signs and omens. Signs disrespect the nature of reality, while omens betoken our search for meaning, reverent of the majesty and mystery of the universe — they are a conversation between consciousness and reality in the poetic language of belief.

A bird is never a sign, but it can become an omen if our attention and intention entwine about it in that golden thread of personal significance and purpose that gives life meaning."

One September dawn on the verge of a significant life change, sitting on my poet friend’s dock, I watched a great blue heron rise slow and prehistoric through the morning mist, carrying the s…

09/09/2024

So much fun with Facebook. There seems to be an update of some kind that keeps me from being able to go from the Al Sorat Farm page to my personal page. Damned if I can figure out where the door is to shout “Open Sesame!”

04/09/2024

Lif Strand asked me about the photo in my post. These are the horns of one of our bucks, Alwan (his name means "Colours") who suffered a catastrophic leg injury. Rather than euthanise him, we used one of our razor sharp knives to slaughter him and we kept his head hanging on the post to dry. This was during our usual insanely hot covid summers when no one at all was coming to the farm who might be upset by the sight of a drying skull. But when we moved into fall, we realised that some of the small children who came here on school trips might be a bit put off by the reality of a skull, so we took and old, very expensive, Irish flymask to cover the bones, leaving only his beautiful horns visible.

Alwan was a lovely gentle buck who sired many of our goats and it is good to know that he is still watching over his herd. The blue glass disk is a Turkish evil eye amulet to help him in his job.

03/09/2024

That medication that was supposed to help my brain could kill me if I need a pain killer.

02/09/2024

Vet Hive Mind in Cairo:

Where can I find a reliable sonar for a dog today or tomorrow. There seems to be one person who makes rounds of vet clinics on Tuesdays and perhaps one other who makes rounds another day. One of these people has had a running "appointment" with us at the farm for over a week and has never shown up.

I have a sick dog here who needs a sonar and I need to get this for her.

01/09/2024

First off. Don’t laugh right away! This was my second run at having surgery to remove an M&M size chunk of something from my knee and it was cancelled in the operation room.

Why it was cancelled is incredibly important. The anesthesiologist asked me the usual questions about sensitivities and then he asked if I was taking anything for blood thinning like Pletaal and I am. Because of my age we felt that a spinal would be best but to safely use a spinal I need to change my medication to an aspirin based one that is safe for surgery. He’s giving me a prescription for this today.

So I’m on my way home without surgery but with a strong warning for my friends who might have a TIA and get a prescription for something that will help your heart or brain, but could kill you if you have to have surgery when you are taking it. The name of the safe medication according to Dr. Khaled Samah’s is Aspirin Protect 100 mg to be taken after dinner once a day.

We can’t expect dermatologists, orthopedists, or internists to keep track of our medications. I keep my medications listed on my phone, and today I brought them with me. I thanked him for saving my life.

31/08/2024