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This page contains some newsletters of previous years, some videos and some publications. Some of them are only in German, sorry! In the future, I will do all the videos, newsletters and publications in both languages.
It’s a lot of work to make a reasonably good amateur video with a length of ten minutes. There has to be an idea, the texts have to be written, several hours of recordings have to be made and eventually the editing has to be done. This may take about a week, or even longer, since I am not too experienced in editing videos, as my most important field of work is the development of Finca Bayano.
So far, the video of November of 2015, was the best in English.
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I have published this report about South Africa in a German Forum in January of 2017.
In 1994, 5.5 million of the South African population were white, 25 million were black. Today, the official ratio is 4.5 million to 57 million. White people who had the possibility to leave the country have left a long time ago, whereas black people from other African countries are coming in by the millions. Many white people would still emigrate, but for economic reasons it is no longer possible. If you want to get out today…
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I have published this report about South Africa in a German Forum in January of 2017.
In 1994, 5.5 million of the South African population were white, 25 million were black. Today, the official ratio is 4.5 million to 57 million. White people who had the possibility to leave the country have left a long time ago, whereas black people from other African countries are coming in by the millions. Many white people would still emigrate, but for economic reasons it is no longer possible. If you want to get out today…
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”6761″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_section][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]This German video is about leaf cutter ants. It was made by a visitor and published in November of 2016. In the meantime, I have realized that organic farming helps best against ants. If the earth is healthy and if there is water, it harbors many worms that dig through the soil and preventing the ants’ unrestrained spread. The best example is our garden, where there are no more ants at all – but lots of worms. If there are no plants, the soil dries out for a lack of shade. Then, there are also no worms, as they can’t dig through hard soil. But then, there are lots of ants.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5931″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_section][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Im September 2016 a German television team visited us and made this 30 minutes video. In fact, their intention was to out me in Germany as conspiracy theorist. Most people who watched the film understood. Even if German is not your language, you may have a look at the landscape. There are some nice pictures taken by a drone flying over the area of Finca Bayano and our home. Once I have a little bit more time, I will translate it.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5938″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_section][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]This video, without words, was made in August 2016 and shows in two minutes how Finca Bayano has recovered from cattle breeding. By 2020, the last traces of cows should be gone. The Indios, who lived here had for thousands of years, had cows, too, but surely they used the land much more carefully. When it comes to exploitation, the last 50 years must have been the worst, however, the soil at Finca Bayano is getting better all the time.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5939″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_section][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]In July of 2016 we made a video about air potatoes. They look completely different but they almost have the same taste as Irish potatoes. I believe that this plant has a great future, because the fruits may be stored for months, just like the ordinary organic Irish potato. Hardly anyone is growing them nowadays as air potatoes are considered to be bitter. Anyway, people prefer rice, which is full of chemicals. Large amounts of air potatoes will be harvested at Finca Bayano in the future.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5941″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_section][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]This video was made in November of 2015. As I said before, it took us a whole week to make it. The video gives you a very good impression of what we were doing back then and how we laid the foundations for the natural development. Only this way will it be possible to produce organic food at Finca Bayano in the future, which will be the basis of both our nutrition and our income in the coming years.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5943″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_section][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]This short video was made by Marlon in October of 2015. Until January of 2018, the backhoe hasn’t really been used much yet. There are less than 1,000 hours on the meter, but that will change soon. It is very important for our company to have this machine. Moving large stones and large amounts of earth by hand is no fun, if not impossible, especially at tropical temperatures. It’s much more pleasant inside the air-conditioned cabin, with Beethoven or the Rolling Stones.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5944″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_section][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
The newsletter of March 2015 focuses on the “better way” of building a fence. Instead of cutting trees to make poles out of their wood, only the trees’ branches are cut off and used as seedlings. The “Cholo Pelao” tree is particularly suitable for this purpose. In the tropical climate, the trees are thriving so well that they develop new branches just after two years when they are being pruned again.
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The newsletter of December 2014 is about water storage. By then, we built a number of reservoirs but there was a major problem: the plastic foil is not UV-resistant. Otherwise, it was a good idea since the ponds were easily and quickly built. Most probably we will come back to this technique a bit later with bigger holes, made by the backhoe, and use a better plastic foil, which I will have to import.
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The newsletter of April 2014 focuses primarily on cashew nuts, star fruits, pineapples and coconuts. It’s also about the dry season, which usually lasts from the beginning of January until the end of April. Some pictures show how dry the land can become during this period. Since no cattle is grazing at Finca Bayano anymore, the grass has grown very high. If it is not being cut, there is an extreme risk of fire during the dry season. Hopefully, we soon will be able to irrigate.
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This publication of October of 2014 is about funny sicknesses. Asking whether Ebola has originated in a laboratory does not make sense at all, as there would be no answer. But the fact that a deliberate creation of such bioweapon cannot be ruled out, illustrates the crazy times that we are living in. On the other hand, the current Ebola outbreak might only be a fake. Maybe the reason for this hides behind certain companies that want to see their shares spike, when introducing vaccines out of the blue.
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In the newsletter of October of 2013 you can see how well Finca Bayano had developed after three years already. Unfortunately, not many people were interested in buying land at Finca Bayano until the end of 2015, so that only little money came in. For that reason, I could only work with a few employees for long periods of time and only certain parts of Finca Bayano could be managed intensively.
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In the newsletter of February of 2013 I introduced Las Palmas, were we lived from 2011 to 2015 in a small house for rent. Today, the village has some 2,000 inhabitants and as soon as I have a little bit more time – possibly by the middle of 2018 – I am going to make a small video to give you a better impression about our surroundings. As of January of 2018, a bank is being built and a gas station is being planned.
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The newsletter of January of 2012 is mainly about bananas and yuca. Both will always be of major importance at Finca Bayano. Bananas make a perfect contribution to improving the soil. The big leaves give a nice shade, the stem retains a lot of water, and since the fruits make only a tiny fraction of the whole plant, there is a lot of biomass that is given back to nature after harvesting. Yuca has the advantage of not having to be dug out directly after it’s ripe. Though the quality suffers to a certain extend, yuca may stay in the soil for a number of months after it has become ripe.
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The newsletter of August of 2011 is about some of our first experiments at Finca Bayano. Some of the photos clearly indicate how it looked like one year after I bought the land: there was only a little grass, because the ground was exhausted after decades of cattle breeding, and Finca Bayano still had a long way to go. I really enjoy looking at these photos comparing to what we have managed in the meantime.
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The first newsletter of January of 2011 focuses on the construction of the roads. By that time I didn’t have a backhoe and everything had to be built with shovels and wheel barrows, as we worked a bit like Roman slaves. Looking at these images today, I see myself reminded of some of my neighbors’ fincas where hardly anything is growing anymore, due to extreme exploitation of the soil. Soon, they will have to change.
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In 2010, right after I bought the property, I made two videos to introduce Finca Bayano. To be honest, neither did I have an idea of how Finca Bayano would look like some years later, nor did I imagine at that time how much work it would take to develop the land. Here is the first video. It’s a bit boring to watch it all, but that’s the best impression you can get if you’re interested in knowing how the land was, when I bought it.
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The second video is more or less like the first; A whole lot of nothing, with a lot of work ahead! The only trees that were not cut by the former owner were left as shade for the cattle. Both videos were made in July 2010 during the rainy season, which is why the land is very green.
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