Homesteading and California Dreaming

Visiting the home of my youth

On this glorious summer day, Jill and I are staying in an elegant guest house built out of a shipping container located in Redwood City, California. The home overlooks San Francisco Bay, Palo Alto, and the Stanford University campus, where I was born 65 years ago and spent my early childhood.

We are here because I am once again speaking to the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley tonight. Fourth year in a row! Today’s talk continues the theme of exposing the methods of psychological warfare that are being deployed by Western governments against their citizens and is titled “Weaponized Fear.” Yesterday, the Liberty Forum hosted a VIP dinner where I spoke for about half an hour.

After 50 years of being together and 45 years of marriage, I am truly grateful for the love and support of Jill, who selflessly travels with me—as we once again log about half a million air miles a year. We sometimes have a grueling and exhausting schedule. Without her companionship and assistance, I just couldn’t do it.

Jane Kearney, the leader of the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley, snapped this photo of us last night.

Some tickets for the talk are available, and they can be obtained online - if anyone reading this is interested. The event will be held at the IFES Portuguese Hall, 432 Stierlin Rd, Mountain View, CA 94043

In the meantime, today, we are staying at this lovely cottage, where we will have a day of writing, light hiking, and maybe a swim planned in this beautiful location. The house looks out over a backyard dotted with oaks and native plants. There is a huge redwood tree that stretches out over the property. Young olive trees, white roses, and other drought-tolerant plants fill out the planting areas. The poolside patio invites one to sit outside. This morning, the hummingbirds were particularly interesting to watch as they darted here and there.

We just got back from a hike with Alix Mayer, the Chairperson of the Free Now Foundation and a prominent advocate for civil liberties and health rights.

Her organization focuses on exposing threats to individual freedom, originally in the context of California’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the more important projects that her organization, the Free Now Foundation, is working on is to restore vaccine medical exemptions for children in California.

Hiking in the California hills is light years away from our own farm, where our farm manager oversaw the birth of a new foal last night. Olivia has again handled the operation with a skill set far beyond her years. A lot goes into ensuring that mom and foal are healthy, and Jill and I are very proud of Olivia, who has overseen the process with competence and common sense in our absence.

Caring for the birthing dam and foal ensures a good outcome. Some of the tasks include disinfecting the umbilical cord. Then, we have to ensure that the placenta doesn’t get stepped on and torn before it is expelled, as pieces left in the uterus can cause infections. We literally tie up the afterbirth to the tail - until it passes. We also have to check that it is expelled in a timely manner. Which in this case - the placenta didn’t come out until this morning. So, oxytocin and antibiotics had to be administered last night, and our veterinarian had to come and flush out the mare’s uterus this morning. A placenta can soon cause a mare to go “septic, " and laminitis then might set in. If a horse has a large inflammatory response, the process of laminitis or founder can develop. The risk is that significant permanent damage can occur, causing hoof unsoundness (as the foot inflames inside the hoof, causing hoof wall damage) or even death.

Then there is the question of whether the foal is nursing. This particular newborn colt did not latch on at first, and he didn’t have an interest in nursing, so Olivia had to intervene and eventually milk the dam - Flor - so that she could bottle feed the little one. Just as she prepared the bottle, he finally latched on - crisis resolved. So, the extra colostrum was frozen in case of an emergency with another mare and foal to be born. The colostrum is critical for foals to drink, as without the antibodies found in the first milk, foals will soon sicken and die.

The colt was given an enema, as many foals get constipated with the sticky meconium (newborn baby poop), which can also cause complications. Then, the foal is inspected for various issues, such as congenital defects, crooked legs, etc. Both dam and foal are carefully monitored. For instance, a temperature spike can mean an infection. The presence of severe diarrhea can be an indicator of a bacterial or viral infection in the foal.

Olivia has been helping us with the birthing process for many years and has become an expert equine midwife. We are so thankful to have her. Certainly, we couldn’t travel during the birthing season without her.

This is the first foal for our junior stallion Onasis. As we were hoping, it looks like the sire has improved on the dam, and the new (still unnamed) colt has the short, close coupled back of both dam and sire with a longer neck and more open area between head and neck (the throatlatch) which is a key characteristic of the sire. His strong legs, longer pasterns, and good angles in his shoulder and hip are encouraging, but we will have to wait a few weeks to see if his movement is as good as his breeding suggests it might be.

It's just the way things are with breeding horses. You breed the best to the best and hope for the best. Then, it is a matter of patiently waiting ten months for a baby to develop and about ten years of training to get to a fully schooled Lusitano.

The Portuguese government owns the Lusitano registry, and the APSL (Association of Pure Blood - Sangue- Lusitanos) maintains the registry. APSL rules are that the first letter of a foal’s name indicates the birth year, and this is a “U” year, so we need to find names beginning with the letter U. The first foal born on our farm this year was a filly, and we have named her Utopia. This colt is the second for this year, and we are considering “Uriah” for his name. Four more to go, so all “U” name suggestions are welcomed!

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There is something about a baby horse that can bring tears of joy to my eyes. The miracle of each new life coming into the world makes me want to continue breeding horses despite all the hard, daily work required. Having foals in the pasture makes my heart sing. This is the reward for the decades of our lives we have patiently invested in developing our herd, one horse at a time, knowing that we are merely stewards, building upon centuries of prior breeders’ efforts. Helping the Lusitano breed to pass through time and migrate from Portugal worldwide.

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A little off topic, but for those interested, here is Jade - our senior Lusitano stallion - after many years of training.