My Friend Sandor Hauser

One of Mr. Hauser's many creations

 

I first met Sandor Hauser around 1992 or at the latest 1993 at that time ACTA (Associação Campineira de Tiro ao Alvo) on a Saturday afternoon when I was trying to get started into shooting, not an easy undertaking for someone with very little money in Brazil, where everything connected with guns and shooting is brutally regulated and expensive.

Through a number of deals I became the owner of a Caramuru 32 S&W Long revolver, a virtual copy of a Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector of outstanding quality. I had but a handful of shells and store bought ammunition was out of my reach, so after I fired no more than a cylinder full I had to put it away and just hang around at the ACTA “back shooting aisle” where all the informal shooters congregated to look at guns and people using them.

Then this older gentleman approached me and asked me why I was not shooting, and I explained my situation. He told me to go ahead and shoot and give him my empty shells and that he would reload them for me. He gave me his address and said that I could come Monday evening to his home if I wanted to learn how to reload ammunition.

Let’s say that that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

What I found was a paradise for an engineer-to-be and gun lover. On the back of his home Mr. Hauser had a “bunker” by his own definition, and besides all the machinery, reloading equipment, ammunition and guns I found a heart of pure gold, endless patience and a willingness to share his knowledge, time and personal history that is extremely rare.

Rather than reload my ammo, Mr. Hauser made me take sit by the press, and guided me through each careful step. When we finished he told me to come to the club again next Saturday and shoot with him, and I told him that although his price for ammo was much less than at the local gun shops, it was still expensive and I could not shoot every weekend. Again his kindness came to play and he told me that rather than charge me for the ammo, he would sell me the components in quantities that I could afford (100 cast lead bullets, 100 primers and an amount of smokeless powder to suit, plus some extra shells so I could have at least one full box of 32’s).

I remember coming home with a small bundle that contained all my ammunition and supplies like it was a treasure, and thinking back twenty years, it was.

Sometime later, Mr. Hauser decided to build some reloading presses, one of which is shown above. The process was heavily labor intense, and I eagerly awaited the final product. The price was one hundred and twenty US dollars, and I paid him in six monthly installments. This is arguably the best single stage press I ever used.

My son was born on January 31^st 1995 and I graduated a couple weeks after that. Mr. Hauser and his wife, Mrs. Therezinha, were the first couple to come visit, and we drank the “baby’s pee”, in this particular case part of the content of a bottle of Ballantine’s Gold Seal.

Another piece of equipment that Mr. Hauser designed and built was a shell tumbler and washer. Mine was made using a plastic milk jug and powered by a discarded IBM typewriter and a baby cart wheel.

When we “graduated” from handgun to high power rifle we both had 7x57 mm rifles, and ammunition was even harder to come by. I don’t know exactly how, but Mr. Hauser was able to acquire a large quantity of World War II vintage Brazilian Army ammo, made at Fábrica do Realengo and market 1942. The small problem was that most, if not all primers, were dead due to poor storage.

But that was no problem at all to Mr. Hauser. He patiently disassembled each of the 4,000 plus cartridges, put the beautiful 173 grain spitzer bullets aside, collected every grain of powder for future reuse, and then started the even more labor intense process of reconditioning each shell.

The problem was that the old military ammo used corrosive Berdan large rifle primers, so each shell had to be inspected and grade good or not, then as Berdan primers are slightly larger than the boxer primers we would use to reload, he developed a die and tool to reform and close the primer pocket to the proper dimension. After the operation each shell would be good to three or four reloads if we used lower pressure lead bullets, or two or three if would use the military specification.

There were many other projects. The least successful one was our attempt to use three 7 mm bullets as a “flechette” for 12 gun shotguns. We never could hit anything with it. The more successful ones were to convert available cartridges to unavailable one. Cutting down 38 Special and 32 S&W Long to 38 S&W and 32 S&W was easy and straightforward. Much more complex was reforming 38 Super cases to fit Dr. Nivaldo’s 30 Luger pistol.

At one time when there was no or very limited choice of jacketed pistol bullets, Mr. Hauser made a lot of .357 jacketed hollow points using old TV antenna aluminum tubes.

Another of his pet projects was to recondition once fired bullets that were recovered from the club dirt trap. He would wash and sort them and then swage and calibrate each one. The reconditioned 9 mm 115 grains made great reloads for my 2 inch 38 snubby revolver due to the very low recoil.

I couldn’t ever repay what Mr. Hauser has done for me. My feeble attempt is to try to bring new people to shooting and hunting. If a new shooter shows up at the club (and I mostly shoot shotguns nowadays), I will always volunteer a gun and box of shells so this person can cut his or her teeth at a couple clay birds.

 

Even leaving outside of Brazil for over 13 years I visited Mr. Hauser at least annually, but about two years ago, due to age and health issues, Mr. Hauser and Mrs. Therezinha moved in with their only daughter, and since that time I was unable to contact him. I am still trying.

To Think About

Are we facing the gathering storm?

This week I received a signed copy of "Histórias do João Grande", by Carlos Henrique Menke, MD (ISBN 978-85-7497-578-8).The book brings a collection of chronicles written over almost fifty years by Doctor Menke, a passionate hunter, fisherman, conservationist, medical doctor and professor, and the background is the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

In the 238 pages of this beautifully written book, Dr. Menke tells the sad story of how a vibrant nature friendly hunting culture was overthrown by a noise minority of Eco-radicals and how all legal hunting in a state that was once a reference in environmental stewardship, came to an end due to a court order. No discussion, no debate, just misguided emotions. But "Histórias do João Grande" is a lot mo than that. It is a vibrant book about the passion that burns deep inside of us hunters.

At its final chapter, Dr. Menke provides us with a gift in the form a quote from the renowned American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and writer Thomas Sowell: "Freedom means, in the end, the right of people to do things that we do not like."

As the year, but not the world, comes to an end, and it is already very clear that we will have  a very challenging 2013, we should ponder about freedom and the world we want to build and leave to our children.

May you all have a Christmas of renewal and rebirth and be the architects that build us all a better future.

The Best Tool Ever Created

The Hunter and the Huntsman

Excellence is the only word that could describe or be attributed to the iconic Swiss Army Knife.

When I was a child growing up in Brazil most of the men I knew carried at least one pocketknife, but only a fortunate few had a Swiss Army knife. The Brazilian economy was very “protected” against imported products, and basically the only way to acquire one of these magnificent tools was to travel abroad or have someone that traveled to bring you one.

I remember when I was ten or eleven years old that one of my father’s friends traveled to Europe and brought him a Swiss Army knife. I am quite sure that it was a Mountaineer. He immediately took it to Seo Lavezzo, the local saddle maker to have a pouch made, and my father carried that knife for years, until I liberated it. Eventually my dad got a SwissChamp, a thirty-two-tool monster that is almost impractical in my personal view.

Personally I have been carrying Swiss Army knives on an almost daily basis in one form or another for the last quarter of a century, give or take a couple years. The only reason that I don’t carry them everyday is because of the existing air travel restrictions on carry-on luggage that were put in place after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. My current strategy is to have spares knifes in the facilities that I visit most often.

When I started my professional life after college I still carried my knife on a belt pouch, and that was immediately noticed by some of my colleagues, to the point that I received a copy of a fantastic chronic by Brazilian writer Fernando Sabino “Homens de Canivete” that I will include without permission at the end of this blog.

Currently I use a belt clip and carry my Huntsman in the right back pocket of my trousers. I consider the Huntsman the perfect balance between size and usefulness and this is one tool I would take with me to a desert island.

My wife continuously complains that this is an expensive habit and it wears down on the same particular spot therefore reducing the useful life of my clothes, but I just can’t go around without my trusted companion. However, she did not complain when my knife had the only can opener around our new house a couple weeks ago, and saved the day by allowing her to cook an excellent sweet potato casserole.

Even having a nice collection of custom knifes I only took with me on safari my inseparable Swiss Army knife and a custom-made single blade friction folder that my father gave me. Make sure that your knife has scissors, tweezers, corkscrew, and bottle opener. Good beer doesn’t have twist caps, South African wine is very good and the scissors and tweezers are very useful for end of the day surgeries like picking thorns or rounding toenails.

As a final notice I must say that only a Victorinox rides my belt. I can’t even get used to Wenger, even if the same company owns them. As for any copy, forget about them, they are not worth the trouble.

Homens de Canivete

Fernando Sabino

"Os homens, incidentemente, se dividem também em duas categorias: os que são e os que não são de canivete.

Eu, por mim, confesso que sou homem de canivete. Meu pai também era: tinha na gaveta da escrivaninha um canivete sempre à mão, um canivetinho alemão com inscriçõesd e propaganda da Bayer. Não se tratava de arma de agressão, mas, ao contrário, destinava-se, como todo canivete, aos fins mais pacíficos que se pode imaginar: fazer ponta num lápis, descascar ma laranja, limpar as unhas.

É, aliás, o que sucede com todos os homens arrolados nesta categoria a que honrosamente me incluo – os homens de canivete: são pessoas de boa paz e que só lançariam mão dele como arma defensiva quando se fizesse absolutamente necessário.

Alegria de criança que não abandona o homem feito: a de ter um canivete. Era de se ver a excitação de com que meu filho de dez anos me pediu que não deixasse de lhe comprar um na Alemanha. È perigoso – advertem os mais velhos, cautelosos – cautela que não resiste à minha convicção de que o menino saberá lidar com ele como é mister, pois tudo faz crer que virá a ser, como o pai, um homem de canivete.

Os mineiros geralmente são. Quem descobriu isso, penso, foi o Otto, que não deixa de sâ-lo, ainda que de chaveiro e, certamente, por atavismo – pois me lembro da primeira pergunta qe lhe fez seu pai ao chegar um dia ao Rio:

- Você sabe onde fica uma boa cutelaria?

Sempre fui um grande freqüentador de cutelarias. Quando o poeta Emílio Moura aparece pelo Rio, não deixo de acompanhá-lo a uma dessas casas para olhar uns canivetes – pois se trata de um dos mais autênticos homens de canivete que eu conheço, e dos de fumo-de-rolo. Entre meus amigos mais chegados, embora nem todos o confessem, muitos fazem parte dessa estranha confraria. Paulo Mendes Campos não esqueceu de recomendar-me determinada marcad e canivete ao saber de minha viagem – e, se bem me lembro, seu pai é um dos infalíveis portadores de canivete que se tem notícia. Rubem Braga também deixou-se denunciar numa esplêndida crônica, “A Herança”, que pode ser lida em Borboleta Amarela, a respeito de um irmão que abria mão de tudo, mas reclamava do outro a posse de um canivete.

Alguns continuam sendo homens de canivete, mesmo que hajam perdido o seu ainda na infância. Aliás, os homens de canivete vivem a perdê-lo, não sei se pelo prazer de adquirir outro. Para identificá-lo, basta estender a mão e pedir: me empresta aí o seu canivete. Se se tratar de alguém que o seja, logo levará naturalmente a mão ao bolso e retirará o seu canivete. Foi o que fez Murilo Rubião, por exemplo, que é outro: ao chegar da Espanha, a primeira coisa que me exibiu foi seu belo canivete, adquirido em Sevilha.

Para terminar, digo que não há desdouro algum em não ser homem de canivete. Há homens de ferramenta, de isqueiro, de chaveiro e até de tesourinha. Graciliano Ramos não era homem de navalha? Homens de revólver é que não são uma categoria das que mais admiro: até parece que não são homens, para precisar de uma proteção que lhes poderia propiciar, em caso de necessidade, um simples canivete."

Living with the 28 Gauge

The end of a great afternoon

Nobody will argue that the 12 gauge is the queen of all shotguns. It is the most available, the most used, the most flexible, and would be my recommendation to almost anyone that is getting start in shotguns, provided they have the size and muscles to handle the weight of the gun (recoil is no longer a problem with the advent of “featherweight” and low pressure target rounds that will shoot ¾ to 7/8 ounces).

But, with all its qualities the 12 may be just too much gun, and if it is the queen, then, in my opinion the 28 gauge is the princess of shotguns. I know that a lot of people will make their cases for the 16 and 20 gauges and a few may even put a word or two for the 410 bore. And the 24 and 32 gauges are all but forgotten.

Anyway, my vote and my case are for the 28 gauge and the light and in the majority of cases well-balanced guns that shoot it. And the last point is very important, if you are going to use a 28, make sure to select a gun that is made in a properly sized frame, and not some misconceived and ungainly aberration that just happen to haven smaller holes drilled in barrels that would handle a 20 gauge shell easily.

If you read other posts in this blog you will already know that our household guns when I grew up were 28 gauges, and that they were big enough to handle all the hunting that we had around.

At that time in Brazil the standard 28 gauge shells were waxed paper 2 ½ inches (65 mm) loaded with 5/8 ounces (15,5 grams) of shot. The available shot sizes were T (an uncommon size in the US, it is slightly larger than BB), 3, 5 and 7.

T shot is recommended for animal up to the size of a paca or agouti (Cuniculus paca), which is probably the best tasting meat we will ever have the pleasure of eating, and my father used it very successfully for that. For all feathered game, including waterfowl (the most prevalent around our farm were paturis (Netta erythrophtalma) which are similar to teals) and upland birds we used shot No. 5.

For larger game like capivara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) we relied on IDEAL slugs. The IDEAL is an European design that never caught up in the US, and is basically a pure lead cylinder that has three rings around it in the outside (this allows the slug to be stable while moving through the barrel and the external rings can deform when passing through the choke) and spiral groves inside that look like an helix or a propeller, therefore the popular name Helix Bullet. The internal groves are supposed to make the projectile spin during flight and provide enhanced stability and precision. To prove this we would put one slug inside the gun barrel and blow air from the shop compressor and the slug would really spin. If that really happened on flight I don’t know.

Later when I started having to hand load my own brass shot shells for capivara I replaced the more expensive IDEAL slugs by fishing sinkers of more or less the appropriate size, and used them quite effectively on an old Rossi Overland, side-by-side exposed hammer shotgun. I had a lot of fun with this gun and still have it stored in Brazil. It is completely out of face, one of the barrels has a bulge and the lower rib is coming apart, and it has not fired a shot in twenty years, but I could not part away from the little rack.

If you fast forward from my childhood to the last ten years, I have had many different 28 gauge shotguns here in the US and used them quite extensively, but solely for clay shooting and upland birds.

I had a very nice Beretta 686 that I could shoot quite well, but traded for a Browning 20 gauge side-by-side if for no other reason than I am really infatuated with side-by-side guns. This gun saw quite a bit of use on pheasants in many preserves in Michigan and on mourning doves in some farms in Indiana, since Michigan laws prevents us from shooting our birds before they migrate to Indiana where we must pay a lot more to shoot them. The only exception was the fall of 2004 when we had the only experimental dove season in Michigan (see blog “The Missed Doves of Michigan, September 2011).

Then I had a really charming Remington 1100 Sporting that I used as part of the trade for another side-by-side, this time an AyA 16 gauge, if for no other reason that I was tired of looking for ejected shells all over the local skeet fields and just could not use it if there was snow on the ground as 28 gauge shells are too expensive not to be reloaded.

Eventually I was able to overcome all the infamous Brazilian red tape and bring my dad’s Beretta 28 side-by-side Model 409 to the US and I already commented about this fantastic little gun on other posts. Initially I shot it very little as it was chambered for 2 ½ inch shells, but that is now solved as this gun was fully restored by Del Whitman.

Recently Brenneke started offering 28 gauge 5/8 ounce slugs, but I have no experience with them. Before that I created my own big game ammo by loading two 50 caliber musket balls inside a standard wad. Unhappily I never did any comprehensive tests to evaluate their performance, but I have little doubt that they would be as deadly as any muzzleloader shooting similar projectiles.

The last 28 gauge that I bought is a Browning Model 12 grade I. This gun fits me particularly well and outshoots almost any other gun that I have. My highest score at trap was shot with it, using ¾ ounces low speed reloads with No. 8 shot.

However during all these years and having shot all these fine guns I had one frustration. I had never used a 28 gauge to hunt codorna or perdiz (Nothura maculosa), the princess of upland birds that my father used to hunt. Before you ask, the queen of upland birds is the perdigão or martineta (Rhynchotus rufescens), but that is another story.

Finally in last July during my latest trip to Uruguay I was able to finally have the princess of shotguns and the princess of upland birds on the same date. I used a Stoeger/Boito/ERA 28 gauge side-by-side, and shot Spanish made ¾ ounces 7 ½ shells to shoot a 10 bird limit on perdiz every afternoon that I went out, and for an inexpensive Brazilian made shotgun, it performed amazingly well. All birds that I hit fell hard, and the many that I missed were entirely my fault.

On the mornings we shot doves and the odd pigeons, and I noticed no difference on my hit ratio compared to the 16’s and 20’s that I used on previous years and there was the added benefit of not having a sore shoulder once the morning was over.

On the last evening we performed a service to a local farming by thinning out the caturrita or cotorro (Myiopsitta monachus), a highly destructive vermin in the form of colorful parrot. Their nests were located in a eucalyptus grove and since we were not there for sport anything was fair game and we wanted to get the most of the shells that we had. I remember bringing seven birds down with a single shot, and at the end of the culling we shot about seventy five birds with less than forty shells.

Life is too short to do things that we don’t enjoy, so I am quite happy to be living with the 28 gauge for over four decades, since the days that I used to follow my father’s steps while hunting perdiz over our English pointer Diana in our farm in Brazil, and retrieving the spent 28 gauge paper hulls just to smell their inebriant essence, until some weeks ago when I first had the opportunity to smell a Michigan woodcock shot by the same Beretta shotgun.

And I hope that I will be able to continue to enjoy many other “adventures”.

Protecting Your Ears While You Are Out Hunting

Your new best friend!

Hi my name is John O'Connor, I am a father, outdoorsman and passionate about living a healthy lifestyle. Over the past few years I have become more and more interested in hearing loss. My father and grandfathers, who are and were all hunters, are affected by hearing loss.  I feel that there is a general lack of understanding around the issue and it is our job to spread awareness where we can.  Check out my new blog at www.bloggingwjohno.blogspot.com!

For most hunters, they put a lot of emphasis on the safety of this hobby and all of the small details that go into having a safe trip.  Unfortunately, some hunters are not as safe as they should be when out in the wilderness.  You probably have a checklist of all of the things that you need every time you go out hunting with friends and relatives.  However, if you don't have any type of hearing protection on that list, you are missing something incredibly vital.

Your hearing loss cannot be reversed once it happens.  You can use a hearing aid or hearing aids to help pick up sounds around you, but you will never truly be able to get your hearing back.  My father who has been hunting for years now is severely affected by hearing loss due to hunting.  Although hunting is not the number one cause for his hearing loss it did play a large roll.  Now in his 70’s he still likes to get out and hunt but always remembers to bring the proper hearing protection with him so he doesn't damage his hearing further.  This is why prevention is key for anyone who wants to preserve this particular human sense.  Protecting your ears and your hearing can be easier than you might think, but it needs to become a habit that gets added onto your hunting checklist before you go out.  The benefits of protecting your hearing are practically endless and can make a difference for you later on in life.

You are probably thinking about ways that you can protect your ears from hearing damage, but you also need to put some emphasis on the hearing of your group members.  Even group members who are not going to be firing guns need to wear some type of hearing protection.  Gunfire is incredibly loud and can do an enormous amount of damage to a person's hearing.  This is why you need to protect both your ears and the ears of your friends and family members before you venture out into the wilderness.

You should definitely make a stop to your local sporting goods store to see what type of hearing protection they have available.  Most of the time, you will be able to find earplugs and headphones in the area where the guns are sold.  You should also ask an employee what they recommend when it comes to hunting and protecting your hearing.  Certain headphones are more suited for hunters because they are camouflaged or are easier to remove when you are wearing gloves.  Your sporting goods store will carry any and all of these types of items for you to choose from.

As stated before, hearing loss is basically irreversible.  You should always have the best types of hearing protection products on hand every single time you go out hunting with friends.  You should also make sure that you bring extra earplugs for your friends if they forgot to bring some of their own.  Being a good hunter does not only entail being able to catch game.  You also need to know how to be a safe hunter and to keep those around you safe while firing your gun.

Note from Rodrigo: This post was written by fellow blogger John O'Connor, and although the topic is a bit different than what I write about, it is very relevant to all hunters and shooters.

As a consequence of Menière's Disease I have tinnitus (that disturbing ringing in the ears), but luckily no hearing loss. You will find earplugs in the pockets of most of my jackets (including the ones I use to work). I use earplugs every time I fire a gun, both at the gun club and especially when dove and waterfowl hunting. If I am shooting a high power rifle, I will use both earplugs and ear muffs. I even use earplugs on commercial flights, particularly the overnight ones. Earplugs sell for under one dollar, and that small investment will have a big impact in the quality of your life.

The Books of Guy de la Valdène

Robust reading & a Robust shotgun

There are certain people that I just wish I could meet and share a good meal and better conversation with, and of those people is Guy de la Valdène.

A war baby born in New York city in 1944, Guy de la Valdène had the opportunity and privilege of not only being educated both in the United States and Europe, but of being exposed from a relative young age to some outstanding bird hunting (as well as fishing) in both sides of “the pond”. But most important, he took the time, and also the expenses, of putting down in excellent writing a lot of those experiences. And he does so in such a beautiful way that I can only admire.

Mr. de la Valdène’s books present a substantial more cosmopolitan view of hunting than is generally available from less enlightened writers. He provides a zesty mix of natural history and ecology, a lot of cooking and some drinking, great dogs and enticing women, hunting and poaching, and a passion for wild birds, with an emphasis on the wild.

If I remember correct, the first piece that I read from Guy de la Valdène was an article published in “Garden & Gun”, that was the foreword for his latest, and I hope not last, book, “The Fragrance of Grass”. I was immediately hooked to his writing and storytelling style, and as soon as I could connect to internet I ordered that book. Later I was able to order “For a Handful of Feathers” and “Red Stag” (his only novel) from used bookstores.

Just about two months ago I decided to order the prized “Making Game – An Essay on Woodcock” and I should say that my decision to buy a new home in Traverse City, MI, was in no small way influenced, or at least reassured, by this book.

Through much of his works Mr. de la Valdène questions the ethics of hunting and the killing of wild animals, in the same way that every true hunter should do, but recognizes the urge and need to continue hunting in order to maintain the importance and relevance of wild places and wild things in our lives.

You could have a hunter’s or poet’s heart, but as long as you love nature you will love these books. I am listing them in chronological order, and presenting a small quote from each.

Making Game - An Essay on Woodcock (ISBN 0-944439-14-4), 1985, 1990

"Of late, these feathered things have been settling on the souls of those who poison the sky and foul the seas. In the not-so-distant past society beheaded such people. Just a thought."

For a Handful of Feathers (ISBN 0-87113-618-X) 1995

"A la pointe du fusil means at the tip of the gun, and implies freshly killed game. Faisandè means pheasanted (if that were a word) and suggests game that hung until the germs of its intestines invade the balance of its tissues, decomposing and softening them while strengthening he fundamental taste of the meat, which in the case of pheasants, wild turkey, and quail is bland. Three days on the gallows will relax muscles and fibers as surely as the sun loosens the reserve of young women, allowing the wild flavor of its nature and the environment it lived in to be released."

Red Stag - A Novel (ISBN 1-59228-134-6) 2003

"The brown paper hid a leather gun case, inside which lay the stock and barrels of a box lock, sixteen-gauge side-by-side Robust. The set smell of gun oil that stained the felt lining rose to greet him. The wood was scratched and the gun barrels had lost most of their bluing, but when he put the gun together and closed the breach, the sound filled him with delight."

The Fragrance of Grass (ISBN 978-0-7627-6414-3) 2011

"'Cochon!' exclaimed the young maid, reddening. But after a little while, encouraged by the wine, the presence of large, sated men, and the wood-burning warmth of a nearby stove, she made a production of licking her lips. To the cheers of the men, she flashed the table a lovely, well-shaped, pink breast. It was my first party."

Maybe one day I will meet Mr. de la Valdène, be it in the woods of Northern Michigan or in his farm turned bobwhite quail heaven in Tallahassee, Florida, or any other place that holds some wild birds, and at time I would like to have my sixteen-gauge side-by-side Robust portrayed above, just to shoot a couple birds for a meal that would take several hours to prepare, and that would make it socially acceptable for us to share one or more bottles of good red wine.

Sunset

Saint-Exupéry flying?

It took me a long time to start to appreciate sunsets.

The first book that I read where sunsets were an integral part of it, almost a character was “Le Petit Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French flight pioneer that disappeared during a recognizance flight over the Mediterranean in 1944.

Some years later I read Monteiro Lobato’s “A Chave do Tamanho”, one of the many stories that compose the Brazilian classic “O Sítio do Picapau Amarelo” where the author tries to find a solution for a World War II that is devastating the planet and mankind. In the opening paragraph the main characters are watching what Emília – the rag doll – calls “um por-de-sol de trombeta” or a “trumpet sunset”, when the Sun plays a trumpet to call all the colors, specially the reds and yellows and coppers to build a fantastic show.

I used to think that sunsets where melancholic, but now I recognize that they are another component – beautiful, grandiose, emotive – of what we call a day, and that is must happen otherwise how could we appreciate the moon and stars, or the sun rising the next morning?

I really attempted to capture the pelican flying over Marco Island beach while the sun was setting over the Gulf of Mexico. Afterwards I started to think that the lonely pelican could represent Saint-Exupéry still flying.

“On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.” – The Fox