I’m moving this blog to another address. I’m only one person – and a bit busy too – and it seems difficult to maintain more than one blog. So I’ve imported everything from this blog into my personal blog at:

http://blog.stephan-schwab.com

Please continue reading at the new address.

Thank you very much for your interest in the farm so far. The outstanding legal problem is being worked on and I’m still hoping to get good news from my lawyer before Christmas.

We explored several paths for the access road to the farm and we talked to our neighbords to hear their opinion. Our immediate neighbor Didimo recommended to use a path over his property and his neighbor Chano recommended the same route. The path is well traveled but is narrow and hence heavy equipment (bulldozer, backhoe/loader, etc.) would be required to move dirt and rocks. That can easily get quite expensive. The other issue is that Didimo would like to receive a one-time payment for the right to travel over his property. In the end we would pay for the right to pass and build him the access road to his property on our expense. Not a very good deal

Not only because of the other legal issues did we hold off on all of this but also because we remembered that we were told there were another path through the jungle and the mountains on the other side of the river that is our property limit.

But guess what … Nobody recommended that path and nobody was eager to show it to us.

So … Seeing is believing and based on that we set out to explore that other path ourselves. Equipped with a handheld GPS we drove on early Sunday morning to the place, got on our horses and with a local helper (a peon who works for anybody who pays him a day’s salary) we started off to find that path.

It turned out that this alternative path is actually the best access road one can imagine. The distance to travel is basically the same. In the end we have to cross the same Chuluganti river but the crossing is right there where the farm is located and that is about 4 km further upstream from the crossing of the public road. The river is much shallower there and gets much less water from creeks than further down. So on rainy days we may still be able to cross there while further down the water level makes it impossible. And … of course that’s for the mid-term future … we can build our own bridge or otherwise improve the crossing without going all the trouble that would take with a public road. Doing something just for yourself is usually easier and less expensive.

It got even better. About 70% of the path has no obstacles for a 4WD car. These days nobody drives by car there but a few years back someone drove a bulldozer through the first half to get to the top of the mountain on his property. As the path is on a mountain ridge water damage is no issue as it flows down on both sides and the road on the top stays dry. There isn’t much brushwood there either due to that.

The best part is that at the end where the path reaches the farm there is still the original jungle with a lot of old and big trees that make perfect construction wood. The person who owns that jungle has been clearing it step by step to make room for pasture, maize, and rice. We believe that he won’t oppose our intention to get our construction wood from there. We would be widening the last part of the path to make it a road and get wood for free.

In fact the wood aspect is really the best part of that all because we had been thinking about buying wood trees from neighbors around. We may not need to do that at all and the challenge of transporting the wood to the farm won’t be there either. We simply start cutting our way up the hill and hauling the wood back while building the road. One effort and multiple benefits.

The other type of land ownership is called Rights of Possession. With Rights of Possession you don’t own the land and it is not property. You own the right to use the land but the land itself stays property of the government. With the right to use it comes an obligation which according to the Codigo Agrario (the law governing land use) is that you have to put the land to good use providing a benefit to society. That benefit to society is performing some agricultural activity which provides work opportunities and food. In theory one can loose Rights of Possession, if one doesn’t perform any activity on the land but it is rarely challenged.

The land of the farm we are aquiring has been held as Rights of Possession by someone who has stopped cattle farming and any other activity about 4 or 5 years ago. Those 4 or 5 years is an estimate based on the growth of all the brushwood that has invaded the former pasture areas. Things grow fast in this climate and some of the brushwood has evolved into little trees taller than a man.

We did sign a contract with the former owner of Rights of Possession on the land in question back in June. The contract specifies rights and obligations for both parties and among these are two major obligations we have to fulfill. One is to pay money to the former user of the land and the other is to perform the land survey and all legal steps to title the land. We don’t want to hold Rights of Possession but instead own legal title to the land where we plan to do major investments into infrastructure. So unlike the typical subsistence farmer we made sure that in the end we own the land as property.

We paid the money and performed the land survey which in itself was quite expensive due to the size of the area. Unfortunately the former user of the land changed his mind and is trying since a few weeks to step back from the contract and retake possession of the land. Real estate contracts usually allow the buyer to step back and loose the downpayment. The seller on the other hand cannot step back from the contract and much less, if the contract forces the buyer to invest into land survey and legal procedures. For the interested reader I’d like to mention that in Panama there is actually a law which states that the seller has to pay back twice the amount of the downpayment, if he wants to step back from the contract. It applies to real estate contracts regardless whether it is mentioned in the contract.

Since we noticed that the seller doesn’t want to honor the contract he signed we have talked to the respective authorities and to lawyers to figure out how solid the legal ground we are standing upon is in our case. It turned out that I indeed own the Rights of Possession to the land because early on in the process the seller did transfer it to me. That transfer has been recorded and stamped at the government entity called reforma agraria which is part of MIDA, the ministry of agriculture.

Still the seller does not want to accept that fact and has been entering the property to perform work there. He is opening “streets” in the brushwood with a machete to prepare parcels for burning. Now in December the dry season has started. The old custom is to burn everything that has grown during the wet season and then seed pasture again for the next year. In the village he has been telling people that we want to steal the land from him and he were working there again to prevent that from happening.

So we had to go the legal route and make sure that the contract and the transfered Rights of Possession is being honored. We are currently waiting for the written decision and an official order that prevents the seller from doing damage to the land we now own the right on. Both should be released by the end of this week and then we can proceed with our own work.

Instead of filing a lawsuit which can take a very long time to be decided we went to the corregiduria (kind of Justice of the Peace) office and the mayor of our district to solicit a written confirmation of my right and to have them issue an restrictive order against the former owner and now intruder with a public notice. By the end of this week this should be done.

The first cut is done with the help of those rails.

And as you can see there are a few cants coming out of that log. The clamps get lowered to make room for the chainsaw to pass.

And we can take our poles off the stack.

Here Hairo, one of Luis’s brothers, takes away one of those poles. There is so much sawdust flying around that he decided to wrap his face with another T-Shirt. Looks a bit funny but sawdust doesn’t taste that good

But first a thick branch on the main trunk has to go. I like this picture because it shows very well how the sawdust flies around the operator. This is really hard work and Moises does a good job.

Now it is time to attach the Alaskan Mark III sawmill extension to our Stihl MS 650 chainsaw. This contraption is actually a very smart invention. There are many cases where you need sawn wood but the wood and the use for it is in a location that’s too remote to first drag logs out and then bring the sawn wood back in. There are portable sawmills but none of those you can put on horseback. Those devices are trailers to be towed behind a light truck.

With the Alaskan Mark III the chainsaw slides through the log creating a slab. For the first cut you use some rails to give it an even surface to slide on. All further cuts depend on the quality of the first one. We did learn our lessons and have since moved from a very weak set of rails to a better version. But for marker poles it was fine.

Luis is driving a small stick into the opening to help the blade not getting stuck.

The guys took turns driving the chainsaw. The guayacan is so hard that it takes about half an hour to cut just one slab.

In the end we got the slabs we wanted. They get put aside after each run through the log.

If you ask around for a good wood species for fence posts, the answer usually is “nispero”. Nispero is called bulletwood in English. But you have to find a tree first, because you cannot go into a store and buy a few ready to use fence posts or marker poles made of nispero.

We found an already fallen guayacan tree. Here you can see Luis and Carlos standing on the tree. Carlos is a friend and owner of the farm where the tree was standing. Guayacan is very hard wood. So hard that you cannot drive a nail into it. You have to drill holes and use screws. The wood is very dense and heavy.

It is said that guayacan is equally resistent than nispero and a few other species used for in direct contact with soil applications. So a few days later we came back with our equipment.

Rails, a tank of gasoline and our big Stihl MS650 chainsaw. The saw weights about 8 kg and Moises who is carrying it is a heavy guy – great chainsaw operator. He can swing that thing a whole day – 8 hours straight.

Luis brings the final piece of equipment to the worksite. This is an Alaskan Mark III chainsaw mill.

There is the other end of the guayacan tree’s trunk. It is thick!

Moises is filling up gasoline and oil and checking the chainsaw. Notice how he already sweats. It was only around 9:30 AM.

As a warm-up Moises is cutting off a smaller branch off the big trunk …

… and then moves on to the actual trunk. It is thicker than the chainsaw’s blade is long so he has to cut it from different sides.

After the trunk has been cut into pieces they get moved in a position where the rest of the work can be done easier. The logs have the length of the marker poles we want to make. As I said in the beginning guayacan wood is heavy – it shows.

Here Moises is cutting slices to find where the trunk doesn’t have this beehole anymore. You see that hole in the trunk. That’s called a beehole. Of course there are no bees in the trunk but as soon as it is exposed they do come and want to settle in there.

So what’s a cow to think about the world? Food… Pasture… Fruits… and water of course.

In this post I want to focus on the pasture that is left from the earlier uses of it. To start with here is a picture from the time we did the land survey. In the center of the image you can see a white object. That’s the antenna dome on the top of the pole the surveyer carries. It is taller than a man. Sure the terrain is low there too but still you can clearly see how tall the grass is. There is a whole section of this type of pasture at the higher grounds of the farm. The elevation there is about 500m.

The next image shows the view from that place backwards. Down there and around the corner to the left is where the rancho is located. Takes about an hour on horseback to get there. The trunks of dead trees were Nispero (bulletwood) trees. They are left from the time the former user of the place burned the forest to make room for pasture. Well … He did a thorough job. There are hardly any trees left.

On the other side the pasture extends to where a huge stretch of still virgin forest begins. This is the second part of the farm. It has been estimated at 160 hectareas but based on the experience from the real land survey with GPS I feel that it might turn out to be 200 hectareas. We don’t intent to do any damage to this forest at all. It helps us to have water all year around and feeds the river.

Elsewhere the grass grows quite high. I’m not really sure about the nutritial value of that particular grass. I think it has invaded and destroyed the real pasture that was there before. The horse still grab a bite. We’ll have to see what the cattle thinks. In the end we have to create many small segments and let the cattle feed in a controlled fashion. The former user had very large division but that causes the cattle to feed here and there a bit roaming large areas. We want to feed intensively in one area and then move on the next. That way we can control better what they feed on and hopefully achieve our performance goals.

Before it all started to grow over this large area had certainly beautiful pasture. Needs some cleanup and cattle starting to graze there.

We are preparing to buy more cattle in the coming weeks to have a first herd of about 20 animals at the farm. The pictures in this post show mostly areas located at higher elevations than the areas close to the entrance and the rancho. Pasture close to the rancho is in better shape than further away so we going to start there building some additional fences and prepare it for the arrival of more animals.

During the survey we had to climb uphill following a quebrada which was used to simply determine the limits between the two segments. I got to shoot a few interesting pictures and here they are:

This is “grillo” – the land surveyer. He is talking on his cell phone, which is kind of a nice detail given the location and surroundings. The farm has great cell phone coverage despite its remote location.

Do you believe me that his guy is 67 years old? Over three days straight he was walking to and from the farm and all around it carrying this heavy battery pack and the pole with the GPS computer and antenna dome. No sweat. No fatigue. And always a smile or a joke.

Now comes something that explains well what it means to be in a real jungle. Have you heard stories about indigenous people appearing and disappearing before one’s very eyes? I know now that these stories must be true.

See here. Now you see the group:

And after a few steps they are gone:

Impressive – isn’t it?

Nispero is a very strong wood and it is resistant to fungi and insect attacks. You can cut poles from it and stick them into the ground. They will last for more than 20 years without any treatment or protection.

The next picture shows what I found after going up the hill. In the lower half you can see two barb wires and a stretch of pasture on the other side. This is kind of a plateau and there the former user created a subsection with that fence. Due to that I could not pass so next time I have to figure out a way to get on the other side without cutting the fence. We want to use as much as possible of what’s currently there and improve later after more of the area has been weeded. Either by machete or by the cattle feeding on it.

Up on the mountain I cut myself with the machete a path of about 20m through a lot of brushwood. Sorry – no pictures of me swinging the machete. I was there alone.

What I found is that all these trees grow on the edge of a quebrada. Somewhere in there water flows out of the mountain and downhill. This has to be the same water that passes by the rancho. Down at the rancho the water is a bit muddy but up there it has to be crystal clear and fresh. Maybe we can take it from there and build a few bebederos in that section. A bebedero is kind of a tub with a roof on it. You add something to store salt and minerals and that’s where cattle should go to lick on the salt stone and drink water. We don’t want our cattle to make the long trip down to the river.

Speaking of the river. After we were done up there on the mountain Toby and I went to the river so he can drink water. I also wanted to see the flat pasture area next to it.

The river flows around an edge and forms a nice swimming pool. I don’t know whether Toby was thinking about taking a bath

When I got back I found Rigu cutting down brushwood. It’s important to cut down all those little trees that have grown in about four years so that the pasture gets light and nutrients to grow.

Around the corner Luis was doing the same. Our plan is to clean the pasture of all the brushwood but leave enough young trees for shade. There are areas where fruit trees have been seeded by birds and cattle in the past. Those are very important. Not only for the shade but for their fruits. Cattle likes some sweets once in a while as well.

Weeding manually with the machete takes some time. We can’t do it all ourselves so our plan is to hire local guys to help us with that. That area left and right of the quebrada should be cleaned so that we know how the terrain looks like. I have the feeling that we should fence off the steep slope that we certainly will discover there. Cattle likes to roam but we don’t want to loose any due to accidents.

Actually one of our neighbors, Chano, lost a cow that way. The animal walked into the wrong place, slipped and then could not get up anymore. So the blood circulation in its legs got cut off and it was too late once they found it. In that case there is no other way than to kill it. Chano was quite sad about the unnecessary loss. It was a cow and would have given him a few calves over the years. They killed it and butchered the animal right there. The meat got loaded onto the back of a 4WD pickup truck and by the time we left Buenos Aires we saw people in taxis going up to buy the meat.

Swinging the machete makes thristy. So Luis and Rigu got themselves oranges that grow right next to the rancho.

There are a few coconut trees as well. With all the weed gone it is easier to see what grows where. Kind of paradise. You step out and find coconuts next to oranges within three meters distances – don’t you think?

Now it looks nice. Before we had very high grown weed right there at the door step. The trees left and right of the rancho are Mango trees. I’m looking forward to hundreds of tasty Mangos – and the horses too. They are most definitely fruit lovers as we could observe earlier. Who will say otherwise. Mango is a great fruit.

A few young coconuts. They are ready to be planted but we have to figure out how to protect them so that horses and cattle won’t take a bite.

Now Luzero’s and Toby’s saddle and other tackle are stored in the rancho instead of in Didimo’s old house. The other stuff is left-over from the person who used to work the farm several years ago. We have to go through that stuff and clean it out. We don’t want to light a fire and burn these things to avoid the pollution. So we need to take it out on horseback and get rid of it the proper and clean way.

Speaking of fire. In remote areas it is still very common to use fire for everything. These people burn the brushwood and don’t care about any trees before the seed new pasture. They burn waste. Whatever is in the way gets burned. Panama has an agency called ANAM that exists to prevent these environmental sins but what they don’t see or what’s already done …

At least we won’t use fire for anything. It’s just wasteful and does more damage than good.

As this now our rancho we put a padlock in place. Luis is happy to show that this is now ours!

Have a close look at this picture:

It was taken from one of the higher places on the farm. The altitude is a bit more than 500m above sea level. Right in the middle of the picture you can spot two cellphone towers and further to the left another tower can be seen. The two close to eachother are operated by Telefonic Movistar and Digicel. The one to the left is for television.

So we’ve got 5 bars up there. I have to bring some 3G device to check whether Internet will work with high speed (3.5 mbps) or just the regular EDGE service is available. Even if it is just EDGE, it is still useful and an upgrade is certainly just a matter of time.

These trees can grow up to 30 m in height and this one looks like it was quite tall. When it fell it took a few smaller trees with it.

This Sunday we took the chainsaw and started to break it down. First the roots and then step by step the trunk in smaller pieces that can be moved by men.

Then the first piece of the big trunk got attacked. This “jobo” tree has some glue like fluid in their sapwood that together with the sawdust requires the operator to constantly clean the chain of the saw.

The trunk was also thicker than our 30″ blade can cut so Luis and Rigu had to use some tricks to get through.

After a while Jose, the son of our neighbor Didimo, returned from the farm further up the trail. They had intented to bring our two bulls early in the morning to the farm while we work on the fallen tree and do other work. Unfortunately these two animals decided not to go all the way to the farm. They threw themselves on the ground short before reaching the farm. So we will let them stay with Jose’s cattle for a few days and then bring a group of Jose’s together with ours to the farm. It will be easier to form a larger group than to make two angry bulls go where you want them to go.

Everybody was helping and even Jose’s son (10 years old and acting like a grown up man) wanted to help pushing this piece off the trail.

It turned out to be too heavy so Luis cut a small but iron like tree and made a thick stick out of it.

With that the piece finally moved and rolled down to the river.

The remaining pieces were cut and thrown downhill as well.

“jobo” trees don’t have any useful wood for construction or furniture. They are fruit trees and their wood is highly receptible to insect and fungus attacks. Before Luis and Rigu started cutting the trunk into pieces Luis stood on the far end and jumped a bit up and down. Although the trunk is very thick it moved easily. Throwing the pieces downhill towards the river is no loss at all. We cleared the trail and that’s what counts.

There he is close to the rancho. He has a lot of open space to roam and enjoy great pasture on the way to the river.

After about 3 hours total travel time they arrived at the village of Buenos Aires and got transfered to another pickup truck with a four wheel drive. We got great help from a lot of people who just showed up and got to work without even asking. That’s how the communities in those little villages work. You help them and they help you.

Those young bulls have been quite angry. They are strong animals and it’s kind of impossible to control that power. One could put a rope around their neck but then they might easily strangle themselves. So that’s not a good idea. A better solution is to shove the rope through a hole in the nose. The bone is strong enough and the animal doesn’t want to break its nose to come free. The picture may not be for the faint at heart but it actually is less cruel than it looks.

It takes all hands to keep the beasts still and allow the procedure.

Even the kids want to help and do it just like their older brothers and fathers. Those two are 10 years old and they act as they were already grown up.

Beast #1 got off the truck and is now trying to beat the rope tied to a tree. It slept the night there to calm down.

Beast #2 tried to escape. It jumped from the back of the truck and at the moment I snapped the picture it made a run for the fence. With brute force it went through the barb wire fence and was brought to an abrupt halt due to the rope that was tied to a strong tree.

The rope got tigthened up …

… and this one too had to surrender and calm down over night.

Those four are the neighbors who helped to tame the beasts.

This was the story from Saturday. As you can see in the pictures we were caught by nightfall and some fog that develops at this time of the year at the end of the rainy season. There is more to tell about the events that occured on Sunday.