Hey Everyone!!!!!!
My time here is getting shorter and shorter...35 days! I'm looking forward to my cousin, Melissa, coming the middle of November. I'm excited to share with her all that is happening here, and to have her work with the people.
The last week has been very busy; not only have I been teaching classes, but Katie and I have been researching how to build earth ovens. One of the major issues here is sustainability, so Katie and I have been looking for ways in which the girls at Dorcas can continue baking even when they return to their homes. After many Google searches we settled on an earth oven. They are inexpensive to make and all the materials can be found locally.
After reading many websites on the subject, we set out to create our own earth oven.
We had a lot of help from the boys at Home Again and from Kolby and Logan. First we mixed soil and fresh cow manure together as the mortar for our brick base.
It was really foul smelling, and even after many washings our hands still smelled like manure.
What a nice looking base (Yeah Dad, I know you taught me better than that)...Hahaha. After we completed our base, we piled a heap of sand and covered it with paper.
Then we covered it with a couple of thick layers of mud mixed with sawdust to help it stay together.
TA DA!!!!!!!
Now all we have to do is wait for it to dry a little more so that we can cut out the door and the chimney....or not...
Shortly after we finished, it started raining (Did I mention that it's rainy season???), and it's rained everyday since. It's so wet that we're still waiting to cut out the door and the chimney. So it might not be the ideal time to build an earth oven, but we did, and I look forward to baking breads and pizza in it...someday...I hope. Hahaha!
If all goes well, we'll be teaching the girls at Dorcas how to build these in the next couple of weeks, and maybe I'll build one at home...when I get there.
Talk to you again soon! Thanks for all your prayers and support.
Love,
Joyce
La Gringa
Hey Joyce! That is pretty cool. We have very similar ovens here in Honduras. Except instead of a solid base it is empty beneath and people store their fire wood for their ovens there. oh, and we use cement. I don't know the cost of that where you are, but here it is constantly used and crucial with 2 rainy seasons that range most of the year. I hope your oven works out! It looks good!
ReplyDeletegreat stuff!! So creative! Love it!
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