Cob Oven

Today I officially started building the cob oven. The foundation, which stands about 35" high, is made with sandbags filled with concrete. They were being thrown away after being in use for about 30 years on our local water system, so I snatched them for free.

Next step, I filled the centre with about 15 wheelbarrows full of the really rocky subsoil we had trucked in 2 weeks ago. Again, got that for free. Tamped it all down as I went by stomping on the subsoil. I'll let it settle while I figure out what the next step is. Actually, I already know... I need to make some clay slip or cob and level out the base and then make a ring of bricks, put a bunch of empty glass beer bottles in it for insulation, and then more sand... probably silica. Level it off, and then I think I'm nearly ready to place the fire bricks down for the hearth floor and then we can proceed from there. I'm hoping to coerce someone into helping me mix cob for the next step. LOL

So far the oven has cost $50... for 2 yards of road-base which it is sitting on. It made a good level ground on which to build, and covered the salmon berry roots which will shoot up through pretty much anything (except 6" of roadbase, I'm hoping).

Alright. The computer says 30 seconds left.
Namaste
~n~