Bekki in the Garden

Tama Eden

Making fish-hoops

The farm

Seen from the less photographed angle

On the boat to Tama Eden

The boat picked us up directly at the farm, and crossed the lake.

Collecting rocks in the lake

Thomas looking for the large rocks deeper in the lake in order to bring them to the shore to build the new embankment.

Purba showing his stuff

As far as rock tossing goes, Purba was the winner.

Bekki does a good job too

Coffee break

Asim, Purba and the family taking a break from wall building.

Power tools

Bekki planing a board for the the new shelves we were putting together.

Mimi and Flore making compost

We emptied the pond in front of the house of water plants, which will be made into compost in order to eventually fill the pond and make a new house... By the way, this pond is really cool as the water plants purify the water, making the pond cleaner than the lake. Much of the runoff from the house goes here and is therefore naturally cleaned before mingling with the water in lake Toba.

Off to the farm

Mimi, Bekki and John on the local bus from Tomok to Silimalombu. We had no idea where we were headed or what we were getting into. We had just decided to show up, and ended up staying ten days!

Cleaning coffee beans

After harvesting coffee from the plantations on the mountain above the farm house, and removing the skins, Thomas and Bekki take a few minutes to clean the remaining beans before drying them.

Her majesty, the queen

Working harder than anyone else at the age of 81!

Tiger tooth

Tooth belonging to a tiger that was unlucky enough to meet the late king of Silimalombu.

Ducks and chickens

There are really a ton of these guys around here...

The pups

They arrived about a week before us, and were yet to be named. some of the possibilities included Oreo, Michael Jackson, Black and White, Dogs etc.

Coffee preparation, step 1

This is how you remove the fruit from the beans. This cool tool uses a bicycle wheel and gear to function.

Silimalombu

Just past the farm and down the trail, you reach the actual village.

Coffee preparation step 4

Ratna removing the skin from the coffee beans. The stone she is using has been on the farm for over a hundred years and is really well made. They do not make them like that anymore!

View of lake Toba

Return hike from the coffee plantations to the farm. We just had to drop a couple of hundred meters down the hill behind us, through razor-sharp elephant grass, over boulders and through jungle, down to the lake side to get back...

Purba

View of the farm

View of the farm from the water

Preparing herbs