What I did this weekend

We don't get alot of weekends off (which means to go away to a different location) but this last weekend we packed the camping stuff and headed to John Day, Oregon to the SOLWest fair. I was very interested in learning how to build a cob oven, and Terry was interested in how to update out solar hot water heater.....Here are some of the pic from the fun weekend.

DAY ONE
We started by making a matrix of clay soils and sand....always mixing with our feet. Until it was like pie dough.


In order to mix it thoroughly we used the tarps to turn it over.

Terry had the camera at another workshop so some of the steps are not going to be in picture here.

This is John and I getting cardboard and newspapers wetted to make a layer on top of our oven to provide a "void" for insulation and inhibit heat transfer.

I am not taking a break and reading the local paper, I am separating sheets to get wet before being applied to the oven.


This is Sue, Lew, John (the other John) and I placing the paper layer on the oven.


This is John (no hat) and Kiko (with hat, also the presenter and expert!!), after the first stage of the cob oven is constructed. We had applied the clay/sand matrix over the sand/rock "void" for the inside of the oven and have applied a layer of newspaper and cardboard. We are discussing what happens next


More mix is required....this time the clay/sand is mixed with wood shavings. This produces an insulation layer to inhibit heat transfer out of the oven so all the heat is kept in the clay "battery" for baking.


This was the most fun of the mixes....it felt really great on the feet. My pedicure didn't hold up well but I did get the exfoliation treatment from the mix!!


Here we are applying the mix we just "stirred up" onto the oven.



This is what the oven looked like after day one. The door is constructed, the void is still full of sand and the cob mix on the outside looks like mud with shredded coconut in it (the wood chips)



Patricia and Sue are enjoying the shade and a break to discuss the artistic touches the oven will have. Patricia is a local artist that had painted many of the murals you will see in and around the John Day area.


DAY TWO

More mixing....now our matrix is clay/sand and straw. This pic shows Terry, Sue and I dancing on the straw trying to incorporate the slurry of clay and sand. This was the hardest mix to do.
Sue is showing you her "cob sandals"!!! Boy did we meet some fun people during this fun weekend.

John, and I along with more eager hands placing the straw cob mix on the oven. This is the final structural component to the oven.



It looked like a beaver dam, or a giant kiwi fruit when we got the straw mix on.




DAY THREE

Time to add the final layer on the oven. This matrix is clay/sand and manure!! Yes, it did smell a little but it wasn't terrible. Your hands smelled a little like a feed lot after you were done, but it washed off. This is Sue applying to the top and Sarah applying to the front. Sarah is the spear-head of this project. She is a community member who has volunteered her time, energy and lots of space in her garage to buckets of mud and clay for this community project.




We are just about covered.



Ta-da, now just awaiting the artist!!!


Patricia arrived and began drawing on designs for us to follow as we "colored" them in with a colored plaster mix (clay/sand/manure).



This is Patricia beginning the coloring process.





And this is a pic of me with the final project completed. Awesome huh!!