The Mud Oven Begins

It's been a great big long while since I've posted anything, and that's partly because it's been a while since I've done much in terms of the Craft. But on the other hand, much of what I have been doing hasn't really lent itself to photos and reports. To wit: for many months I've been scavenging around my neighbourhood, locating material for our current project - a mud oven. Within 10 blocks in any direction from my house, I could tell you who has recently redone their patio or dug up their sidewalk, who has left over paving stones piled up in their backyard, and who has piles of gravel or brick sitting beside their laneway garage. On walks with my dog, I would hear a jack-hammer and smile happily, knowing that a great source of broken up concrete awaited, if only I could borrow a car and get it in time.  

While all this scavenging was going on, in June, Philip, his son, and I got together to make some test mud ovens, just to get the feel for the sand-mud mix ratio and how the "lost-sand process" would work in the big real version to come.


While we never really got a fire going inside them (they are just too small), we had a good time and were reminded of what we've experienced many times before: you learn this stuff by just doing it, as you go, and not really from reading or trawling the web.

And now it's July, and it's taken months, but my garage is filled with rubble, sand, bricks and paving stones, and we're ready to start building...