rocket stove cooking

I love my Rocket Stove.  I’d seen them here and there before, mainly home made affairs, cobbled together with old baked bean cans and old oil canisters and I’d had it in mind to build one of my own one day.  In Dorset I was caught with my guard down, at the Scythe Fair, where I saw a professionally forged, easily transportable, robust affair which I bought it without a second thought.  

How right I was.

Since getting back to France I use it most of the time for cooking meals, not just for myself but for four or five people at a time.  Mainly pot meals that require simmering for a while, but also fry ups and dishes that require a proper amount of heat.

Lighting it was tricky to start and then getting the burn temperature right.  I’ve since improved my wood drying technique and shan’t ever need to cut down another tree to cook with it.  It’s a joy to gather those fallen twigs and small branches and know that they have a serious role to play and also to be able to cook on free, easily gathered material at almost a moments notice.  I’ll need to be more prepared for when the weather turns and keep a good supply of well dried twigs available for cooking.

Thinking about how much wood I would use on a traditional fire, or the gas I would burn to achieve the same result is absurd.  A small bundle of kindling is enough to cook dinner and provide a nice cup of tea to wash it all down.  I’ll be heating my shower water with it soon and filling my hot water bottle with it when the nights get cold.  The gas stove will always be a welcome alternative for when the weather is foul, an oven is needed or speed is of the essence, but ongoing, my rocket stove cooking is becoming an integral part of my daily routine.  

The wheelbarrow in the photos is a makeshift wind deflector, self standing, easily positionable and has many other uses.  Ideal

dinner in the making

the twigs are burning within the metal tubing

a mini furnace

a near complete burn with no smoke and hardly any ash

MMMmmmmmm  lentil, tomato and nettle stew nearly done

clay render on a straw bale house

Anaig is a specialist in clay renders and I have worked along side her on a couple of straw bale build projects.  Here was slightly different, it was her project.  For years she has put her time, energy and expertise into building houses for others and now it is her turn.  I wasn’t sure how the experience was going to unfold.  Either there was going to be stress, angst and aiming for perfection or else a very laid back attitude.  Thankfully it was the latter.  A great team of volunteers, mainly there to gain experience before their own builds and some just for the sheer heck of participation and in return for the great work they have already received.  I think that once you’ve done some clay rendering there is always a hankering to do a bit more.  It gets into your blood so to speak.

I’d missed the first week, where they’d concentrated on rendering the outside of the building and arrived just as the interior was commencing. There had just been raw bales of straw at the start, which need to be promptly covered to protect them from the elements and rodent attack.  We worked at an unpressured pace, achieving a huge amount of work within the allotted time.  Just a small section upstairs to complete at a later date and a couple of patches that needed quiet, undivided attention to get right.  I got stuck in to some of the more challenging tasks such as corners and getting the two sides of doorway and window openings to match.  It was great to be given the opportunity, wonderful to have advice and guidance of a professional within the field and a proud moment to be told that my work was ‘superb’ by someone as exacting as Anaig.  

The week flew by, we never left the building site, dining in the adjacent barn or outside when it was fine, showering in a makeshift shower room with camping showers hoisted up by a pulley system and spending the evenings discussing our various projects and plans for the future.  

I’ll have to pop back again later in the year to see how work is progressing.  The site stops and starts as Anaig is still working on other projects to fund her build. 

what a beautiful setting

waiting for windows, doors, cladding and a roof

core render complete

straw walls before render

now that's a picture frame

some of the tools we used

leaves and bin bags

How do you fill bin bags with leaves easily when there is no one to hold the bag open?

Here’s how....

find a cardboard box that fits inside the bag whilst in the shape of a box

pop out the bottom of the box, flatten and fold the box to get it inside the bag, then reform the box
fold the top of the bag over to keep the box open and in shape

fill the bag with the help of 'big hands' pieces of scrap wood that are used as large tongs to lift
large quantities of leaves at a time.
Fill the bag, allowing enough spare to tie off, remove cardboard box and start
all over again

one tidy village.  Thanks for the leafmould Vieuzos

improved facilities

I have guests coming.  Well, now that I write a family of five have just spent a great weekend with me, they camped and we ate, drank and had a great time  around and about, including two great evenings in the comfort of my new garden shed/chalet.  Facilities were needed, something better than a chair with a hole, a bucket and a windbreak.  Thanks Dad, it was a brilliant start and will remain an emergency second, but things are moving on quickly in some departments and a better dunny is called for.  So I set too:

a collection of pallets and salvaged wood awaiting inspiration 

a path in the woods with no destination

I checked on the ground to see that the pallet base fitted

but not in the trees above.  The structure had to be moved to fit the walls and roof

a round hole in some planks to provide a comfortable seat

With a bucket below and a well fitting lid to keep everything where it belongs.  An old enamel saucepan to keep the sawdust and toilet paper dry and when I find one, a little brush to tidy the seat.

I finished the main construction with four hours to spare, the driveway had preoccupied me somewhat during the last week or so and I used a sheet of groundcover plastic as a temporary door.  Got a real one at a local junk shop over the weekend but haven’t had time to fit it yet.

It works like a dream, is comfortable, private and won't blow way in the breeze.

roundhouse straw bale walling

No, not another holiday trip, though it has been quite a change of scenery.  I have been helping my friend Matty with his roundhouse.  It’s already something rather special and is going to be stunning when finished.  He has built it all by hand, mostly on his own, with the help of a few knowledgeable friends and that is where I come in.  He asked me, a month or so ago, if I’d be available to give him a hand with placing the bale walls.  I jumped at the opportunity to learn more as it will stand me in good stead for my own construction project and it’s always good to give someone a hand when possible.

Hence, for the last ten days we’ve been flat out preparing for and building the walls to his roundhouse, I think the photos explain most of what we’ve been doing, though not life around where we are building.... read the next post

Matty arriving with the first of many bales

foundation wall and baseplate for straw bale walls

spikes to hold bales in position next to doorway

second row of bales in position, window frames installed

hand made window frames

view from outside through one of the windows to the domed rooflight 

straw bale walls from the inside

initial straw bale work completed.  what a team

and she's up

moving a house

 Two weeks in for me, the rest of the team have spent much longer preparing the foundations and much of the wood that we have been working with, and the framework is completed and ready to put up.  It all appears to be a bit fast, but the woodsman is sure it’s all OK and is keen to get on.  Each section is loaded onto a trailer and ferried across a field and down a country track to the building site where it is reconstructed.

ready to lift

The tractor then hoists each frame upright and it is temporarily secured in position with numerous cross braces.  Sounds easy, but with each part weighing a good eight hundred kilos, it is no mean feat to get each one in exactly the right position, ready to receive the rest of the precut timbers to complete the framework.  A centimeter out of place and the whole building will be compromised, there isn’t much room for error.

keeping the posts in position

adding temporary support

a little mechanical help

 Two days later and it looks like a house, well, from certain angles at least.  The frames looked tiny when they were lying on the ground in a huge field, but now, upright, they’re massive, much larger than the house itself, as it has a rather interesting design.  You can see from the photos, the roof extends way further than the verticals that will eventually become the walls.  The idea is to have a wrap around terrace that circumnavigates the house, allowing shelter from the sun, rain or wind on whichever side provides the most comfort.  

With the timbers it looks a bit top heavy, but I imagine that it will evolve into something rather stunning.  I’m part tempted to copy.  I won’t, but will certainly develop some of the ideas, isn’t that partly why I’m here?  To learn, discover and improve on the ideas that I already have, before I start on my own.

all up and secure

nestling into the landscape