Larro goes underground

[Larro Darro]

I got over to the camp yesterday and had a look at the Fox stove. The tarp was holding water in the hole, so it wasn't drying out too fast.



All the cob was still in place.



Here is what I came up with to reduce the size and increase the height of the chimney.



I did mix up a small batch of cob and put on the chimney, but I was running late for work and didn't get a picture.

 

[Larro Darro]

I made a few passes with the dirt slip this afternoon, but the ramp is getting too steep for the 3930. I have a small grader blade that I will try on the B75, and see if I can move some more that way. But for now I'm working around the corners and edges with the shovel.



I did go ahead and replenish my cob supply.

I bought a 4X8 pup tent at the thrift store this week. Last night I pitched it and spent the night down there. Pup tents are designed for younger folks.

 

[dragoneggs]

View attachment 446385View attachment 446386

I made a few passes with the dirt slip this afternoon, but the ramp is getting too steep for the 3930. I have a small grader blade that I will try on the B75, and see if I can move some more that way. But for now I'm working around the corners and edges with the shovel.

View attachment 446387

I did go ahead and replenish my cob supply.

I bought a 4X8 pup tent at the thrift store this week. Last night I pitched it and spent the night down there. Pup tents are designed for younger folks.

Where the heck are your rocks??? I can't imagine working in such conditions... you haven't lived.

 

[Larro Darro]

Where the heck are your rocks??? I can't imagine working in such conditions... you haven't lived.

This morning when I was shoveling, I saw five or six pieces of {what we call} sandstone. It's really just big clumps of clay that looks like rocks. They will break up if you apply enough pressure.

 

[KevT]

Where the heck are your rocks??? I can't imagine working in such conditions... you haven't lived.

The only rocks you find down here is lumps of over spilt concrete.

 

[Larro Darro]

I'm down to five foot in the Northwest corner. Now I just have to get the rest of it down to that level.



I worked on the Fox stove again today. I used some old wire to form a structure to support the cob needed to bring the chimney up. I filled in mud around the base, and brought it on up to the top of the wire. There was some major cracking going on right as I was leaving, but it was too dark and I had run out of mud, so I'll work on that in a week or so. Hard to see in the picture, but I laid two lawnmower blades on edge in the cob at the top of the chimney.

 

[Duwop]

Larro it's been awhile, so how is the camp coming along hopefully you haven't abandoned the campsite?

 

[Larro Darro]

I've been doing lots of camping, but not too much digging. My tarp shelter has grown until it looks like a family of Gypsies could live in it. I hurt my back about a month ago, and that put a hold on shoveling for a while. I have worked on it a little, but I have a cousin with a backhoe who would help me if we could get our days off to line up. What I really need to be working on is getting the rest of the block walls taken down on the old corn crib. But with me right in the middle of Christmas season at work, I don't have much time for anything. That said, I'm camping again tonight if I get off work at a decent hour.

I've made a couple more rocket stoves, one of which I kept. Glad cob can be recycled, because my first cardboard box stove had bad posture. The next one with a lot more bracing held together, but I put too much duct tape on the pipes. By the time I had them pulled loose, my burn chamber and chimney were no longer level, or in the center of the stove. I may add to it to make the burn chamber level and the right length. {Or I may start fresh with bigger pipe for the holes. You can't use very big wood like it is} It burns good, but the coals roll out on the ground. I don't have a recent picture of it, but this is from two weeks ago, right after I got the pipes pulled out.

 

[Larro Darro]

Looking back I see I hadn't posted pictures of my addition to the original Fox stove, or the first cardboard box stove. So here is a picture to rectify that.



I don't have the right dimensions on the original stove, so it isn't as rockety as I would like it. The feed tube, burn chamber and chimney should be 1-2-4, or each one twice as long as the one proceeding it. I can fix it by cutting away part of the base of the chimney to make the burn chamber shorter, but I've been thinking about all the years I will be bending over to tend to my cooking, and I'm leaning toward starting over with an all above ground stove. As much fun as it is to shape cob free hand, building forms to pour into seems to be the smartest way to go.

Edit: sorry for the double picture. My work laptop often gives you twice as much as you ask for. That can't be bad, right?

 

[Larro Darro]

For the first time in weeks, my back let me tear down some block from the old corn crib. I worked at it for an hour this afternoon.

The south wall is about all down.

The north wall doesn't have that much more in it either.

Here is today's stack.