Out of the blue one day I got a phone call from a guy named Ian Miller. He said he had built a few ovens, baked a fair amount of bread, was married to an Austrian and (among other things) interested in translating Build Your Own Earth Oven into German. With that began an adventure that is now resulting in a new (German!) edition of the book, published by Stocker Verlag, out of Austria (they also publish Austrian permaculturist Sepp Holzer, which makes it even more of an honor). Very interesting to let go of the book and let someone else take it all apart and put it all back together again in a . . .
A yurt of sticks and mud
2011 has been a year of yurts, w/two opportunities to try out this simple design of sticks and mud -- a more permanent adaptation of the traditional, portable, Mongolian design. One was for a friend and neighbor. The other was a workshop at Aprovecho Institute, as part of their sustainable shelter building series. Lots of people helped! Both were made with locally harvested bamboo and fir poles (arranged reciprocally to make a self-supporting, conical roof w/a central skylight, which I'm still trying to figure out how to cover cheaply...) If you click on the photo below, you'll go to a little . . .
Heat your masonry oven with a clean, top-down fire
Heat your masonry oven with a clean, top-down fire The top-down fire works well for masonry ovens, stoves, and fireplaces, as well as outdoor fires. It's simple: dry fuel, small sticks (plenty of surface area), plenty of volume where fuel and oxygen can mix -- and kindling on top, so the fire burns down, clean and hot. Think of a candle: the flame on top pre-heats the fuel (wax) below, as well as the incoming combustion air. The wick burns hot, bright, and clean, so all you get is light and heat -- a perfect fire! If you use it in your oven, your neighbors won't have to breathe your smoke . . .