Building a Rocket... stove

I've been meaning to build a rocket stove for a while now.  But there has been a decided lack of enthusiasm but I think that all changed after building our first one!

The first way of building a simple one was doing out of existing materials and when I saw the 4 Besser block method it tore down the barriers in building one...

Because we had besser blocks at Howes Valley!  And it looked simple enough to build.

But we made something better (but without the fantastic grate that is in the video above) out of materials we had on the property.  We had left over flue from our fireplace extension and we had clay / mud and besser blocks.  Because we didn't have the "H" style block (that's the one you can't see in the image above) we just shored it up with pavers and mud.  If you were to do a more permanent solution you would want to insulate it but as a test run this was perfect.  And took us about oh.. 3 minutes to build?  Maybe 5 by the time we went back and forth from the dam with some clay.

Here's our attempt:

Yes we made the kettle boil!

Really don't need too much in kindling

It was fairly smokey at first

This was early on when I could take this shot.  After a little while (esp after we filled the gaps) the flames would get to the top of the chimney!  

So with some measly twigs we could make this simple 'stove'.  I'm now thinking how we can incorporate it as a mass heater and build it somewhere (neatly!) into our home -- once we have one of course!

Chilled out dog in the sun

Sprocket enjoying the sun at Howes Valley

Cob…

I’ve subscribed to Sustainable World Radio as a podcast feed and came across an episode about building and building in cob.  So of course now I want to build one in Howes Valley.  I want to start small (more likely to be achievable!!) and will learn from building a “pizza” oven (earthern oven) first.  I’ve been using Spool to download a number of YouTube and Vimeo videos to see how others have been building them.

At this stage the pizza oven has to come first.  The base is the interesting component and I’m wondering if I should use the legs of a table I don’t like… and just build more stone around it and mortar it in with a cob/cement mix mortar.  And I want to expand on it by building some benches or sitting area for the BBQ/Pizza oven.  So I’m picturing a layout something like this:

The middle will be workable height (using my table legs possibly?  or some sort of block work to build a BBQ and Pizza oven area) and then on either side facing both the house and the view – this may change and maybe I will do two inward facing horse shoes instead like the below or some combination or one big conversation pit facing the pizza oven and view... The oven first!! But it’s good to have an idea of what to do next   The benches I’m thinking will be built using straw bales to form the bulk of it and then covered with cob and plastered.  So the seat will be one strawbale high and the ‘back rest’ another strawbale high.  Based on that I’m thinking each side bench would be 12 strawbales plus cob.

The conversation pits seem quite cool too.  We’ll have to see when we have the oven in place what feels better.  I’ll probably still build it out of strawbales and cob as it should be faster than cob alone. 

Now I want to get some cob books from Amazon and it is Black Friday… oooh so tempting!  But I should also check out Booko.com.au to see where I can get the books cheaper…

And a couple of pics of cob ovens I like:

Progress on the house

In the past year, we have just been finalising the fit out.  Recently it’s been visiting in most cases just to relax!  It’s been fantastic!  But now it is time to get back to work.  Spring has sprung and we really need to get cracking in getting the outside in some semblance of order.

The most exciting thing about the house has to be the Nectre Bakers Oven.  I had identified the oven even before the house was built.  I’ll put another post up at some stage with just the progress of putting in the Bakers Oven as we built the hearth ourselves from 5 pavers purchased from Amber and some coloured grout.  It has made a huge difference to the house as it can get very cold there.  The fire warms the house and allows cooking and warming of food both on top and in the oven part.  If we really wanted to be sustainable we could have also put in a wetback and heated our water with it.

Our ex-neighbours (before they moved out) were throwing out a BBQ so we souvenired it for Howes Valley and Will spent some time putting it together to ready ourselves for the Summer season:

Once we buy the gas bottle we should be ready to sizzle!

The dam is looking good too with some of the lotus / lillies popping up and I’m now ready to invest in some silver perch so we can grow out some fish. 

The weeds are going a bit beserk but a good ‘mowing’ of the weeds seems to make the place look a lot better even if it’s not quite a lawn.  The plan is to grow some native lawn which hopefully will improve the appearance.

I’ve been continue to work on the ‘paving’ using rocks from the land.  Whilst I started small on the southern side, on the northern side of the house I was feeling ambitious so now I’ve started something I need to finish but it’s slow going.  I think Sprocket is a bit tired of watching me pave although he has been very good in following me to the dirt pile, watching me shovel dirt into the wheelbarrow and then pushing it back to the paving area and then spending time to Tetris the rocks into place.

Wow, long time no post.

Hmmm... looking at the dates, it seems as if my last post was in May last year.  I suppose we haven't really progressed much since then but then, maybe we have!  I haven't feel much in the way of updating this blog after Batman's passing.  He's now at Howes Valley permanently looking after it.

In case you are wondering, we did end up adopting another dog from Blacktown Pound, Sprocket.  He's been with us for a little while now.  We suspect he's an alien disguised as a dog, as he doesn't quite behave the way we expect, but he's been great at Howes Valley.  We just need to watch out for any fox baits :(.

I wanted to post today as I'm very excited about the Nectre Bakers Oven being installed!  It'll be installed in the nearish future once we organise the last bit for the 45 degree pitched roof!  I'm really looking forward to being much warmer there and in front of a wood fire where we can cook on it and in it as well.  I think the easiest and quickest thing we can do is pizza... but I can imagine roasts and all sort of goodies coming out of that oven.

In terms of progress, we have since that time have finished all the floorboards (and sold the excess on ebay).  There is still 1 strip of skirting left to go but we need to purchase that.  I've painted the front door... Will has installed 2 antennas --  one for FM radio and one for the TV.  Oh yes, we have free to air TV!

AND we have internet (Telstra NextG).  I suspect we'll have another antenna soon as the reception on what we have is terrible and drops out a lot.  But internet is still goooooood.  We went with a 10Gb which lasts for 365 days.  That should last us a while on light usage.  We purchased the modem/router thing from ebay which accepts a NextG SIM card.

The other thing Will installed is a set of security cameras.  This is after the breakin we had at Kellyville Ridge. So now we monitor both houses to some extent.

Outside there has been quite a bit of work, with fruit trees installed and watered using a rain water tank (which we fill up using our main tank), some 'paving' being done -- you'll see the photos in another post I'm sure!, a BBQ site set up and lots of mowing!  The rain water tank had some drainage piping installed so the overflow goes to the dam.  Thanks to Chris, Susan, Ben and Jenny for helping out on that one!

Bonfire night

We hosted a bonfire night and had some friends over-nighting in the house as well as some crazy people decided to pitch a tent and camp outside. 

Some highlights from the weekend:

- the bonfire

- marshmallow antics and the marshmallow dessert challenge

- Ciaran’s mulled wine

- Batman growling at Adam

- Adam and Sheetal on the hammock

- Spud doing support from the campfire

- Adams box of documents being burned (all his MBA notes and assignments!)

- the Tent people (Spud, Pauly, Cathy)

- Jonathan’s snoring :)

- Pauly’s squeaky voice (after her snooze)

- Spud’s Chocolate Pavlova (and trying to whip cream with a) a spatula b) shaking it in a small bottle c) chopsticks or d) all of the above)

- Jenga on a plastic picnic table on uneven ground

- Will’s BBQing skills (and the previous pit digging)

- Jonathan, Will and Adam’s attempt to outdo each other in finding a ridiculous piece of wood for burning

Shame File:

- James

- Evelyn (and Nigel)

(We ate your share!  mwahahaha)

Some other photos:

Progress Photos (May 16)

Will and Batman catch some rays on the north eastern steps.  It’s now pretty cold in the mornings.

Polytech plastic wrap has now been removed and the floorboards in the kitchen completed.

Looking back from the kitchen the floorboards look pretty good!  I’m concerned that we have ordered way too many boards.  All those boards seen in the photo below are yet to be used and there is only the bedroom to go!

Mirror is now up.  Note for next time: porcelain tiles are not good to drill through.  (not sure why we can see a circle in the mirror). 

After the work Nikki helped on to move the bed and put down the silver underlay, I had to reconstruct the bed so we could sleep on it… and we didn’t get around to finishing the floors in the house so the bedroom was de-prioritised.

 

But the corridor was completed!