marble earth oven

Marble I love marble and granite and because I get it for free I can build anything with it. I hate the thought that the stone itself will just get ground up and made into roadway bases when I know that the mining of the stone itself is horribly environmentally unfriendly. I have had so much fun making the patio out of marble and granite and I love the way that it is coming together there is one corner that I am still tweaking and another little bit that I also need to look at. I hope that my hippie patio makes other people smile cause it works for me. The building of the patio and using the ovals for stepping stones made me look at the beauty of the stone and made me really want to find more places to use stone which made me look at the firepit.
Which then made me think about a spit, and fire and mica and why not put in an earth oven. I
use a solar oven already, and now I am building an earth oven. I got the earth oven book from the library and have really enjoyed it. I have to send it back to the library so I need to make some notes. I love the idea of flames flickering on crystals, I also love the idea of baking pizza in about 2 minutes, and I love the thought of sitting on my hippie patio with my hubby looking at the flames and drinking a glass of wine.

Notes from "build your own earth oven" by Kiko Denzer with Hannah Field.
Soil
Find good building soil
Soil comes in layers, topsoil is a mix of organic matter decomposed plants and inorganic matter -rock sand silt clay. Especially when it's full of worms, compost humus and lots of organic matter topsoil is best for your garden. Below, however is subsoil witch may contain anything from pure sand and rock to pure clay that you could use to make pottery.
What you're looking for is subsoil containing enough clay so that it is hard and strong when dry, stick when wet. Dry, it should feel solid, fairly dense and tough a bit like concrete.

Characteristics of building soil
It is harder to dig, and doesn't crumble easily A shovel leaves a shiney cut mark. When it is dry it won't crumble easily. When wet, it grabs boots and tires and won't let go. Dry or wet, however, it will feel slippery and greasey the flat clay particles slide smoothly instead of rolling and grinding.
Having said all that, it's easy to mistake fine silt for a good clay building soil. Often however even silt can be sticky enough to use. The best thing to do is test some and see how it behaves
Shake test

This is what I accomplished last year well some of it at any rate. I have five of these raised beds all the same size which means when it comes time for chickens the base of the tractor will fit on all of my beds. I do want to make some changes to the wire lattice, but that is it with this design.
I now have a 500.00 budget for this year's garden, I am so excited. I will put in all the rest of the raised beds three more raised wooden beds, and two more corn blocks and one of the raised ovals in the front yard. My major expense was the soil.....200.00 worth of soil, 60 or 70 for sand and stone to fix the path along the garage or maybe soil mixed with my recycled stone and herbs lots of herbs in between the stones. I think I will ask Darrell to take me on a picnic down to some river where I can swipe a whole bunch of natural stone to mix in with my recycled stuff for both the bake oven area, the pond, the path and the raised beds in the front yard. Then the cost of mortar and a few pit bricks... there goes my budget but what a garden I will have.

Charlie loves this spot by Jay's tree, with Buddha and this past fall I planted a swack of tulips and a few ferns in there as well. I have alpine strawberries, violas, to plant in this corner all started in pots some of them outside and some in my mini greenhouse. Charlie the brat loves to climb the trees in this corner and with all his extra toes he just flies all over the branches sort of like he's part squirrel. He cheats too at least when he plays with other cats cause he uses his extra digits as thumbs and holds them down. LOL Benny just loves to sleep under the table under the stars all summer long. They love the catnip plants and I am planting an extra four hanging baskets of catnip for them and one more cage in the herb garden, with the honeysuckle, and valerian I should be able to make the two boys some pretty cool toys. I think the boys think they have pretty good humans.
I still have pemission to cut brush from the county ditches and i was thinking of a woven wood archway for that corner as well if I can this year but definitely next year. The lilac that is up in the front yard the poor thing needs to be moved to that corner with lots and lots of fresh soil and organic matter to settle it in to it's new home. There is already the comfrey with it's vibrant pink flowers along the foundation. I think it would be a lovely grouping right there at the gate and definitely a couple lavenders for luck, the silvers and light purples with the dark purple and white edge of the lilac with that lovely sun beam that comes through the houses and trees there and maybe eventually a clematis or some other vine up the woven trellis....be still my romantic heart.
The rain barrells are right there so I should figure out a way to camoflage them as well. I can put the rain barrels up the sidewalk slabs and railway ties and make it irigate the gardens better. With all the barrels that we now we can really put together a system. I also have split bamboo poles that might make interesting eavestroughing for the garage which would allow me to put a rain barrel by the compost heap as well. Maybe another woven archway with vines to camoflage the gutter so many ideas and now a budget. Life is really really grand isn't it.
I have a glut of garden stuff and I mean a glut there are pots, wall planters, fountains, birdbaths, patio furniture, and tools, lots and lots of tools. There are birdfeeders, whirligigs, and all sorts of stuff most will go in the garage sale but there are some really cool pieces that I need to work into the yard.

Hayboxes, solar ovens, and such

As part of my urban permaculture ideas I have been looking at ways to bring the kitchen closer to the food and reduce using electricity and making heat in the kitchen on summer days. So I decided to go way over the top with the firespit, and cob bake oven all made out of marble and granite scraps. I think the effect of the reflections of micas on firelight is going to be spectacular. I will also make sure that I can get a grate at a proper height as well which would open all sorts of possibilities for an outdoor cooking area.
But it is the solar oven and the hay box cooker that I find most exciting. I tried the solar cooker last year with the lowest tech I could find I wrecked the perfect box in the process and now I need to look at no frills for another couple that will work as well. I have more than enough cardboard to make the reflectors and still have enough for under the new garden beds. I would like to be able to start cooking in one in about May, they cook year round in them in Winnipeg this can be done here.
The haybox cooker is another great way to cook as well. Bring it all to a boil and then put it pot and all into the box tuck down the hay padding and then the lid. Done. Come back in a few hours to cooked food with no risk of burning it or anything. No fuss no muss.

window farming

Window farming, this has is cool. It's a commons project so it had me right there but what a concept for a commons project. Bloody brilliant actually. It will allow me as a person who lives in an suburban area in Canada to harvest fresh herbs and greens in the winter without greatly increasing the demands on the power grid. It will enable some one who lives in a high density urban area to be able to grow a portion of their fresh food year round with or without a balcony.
While the original idea was well concieved there are now plans for deep aquaculture set ups using aquariums as a source of nutirents for the plants that would drip filtered water back into the tank. Indoor plans, outdoor schemes, and just plain brilliant ideas of all types using all sorts of materials. It uses very little space since it is a verticle system in front of a window sometimes with supplemental lighting.
I think I will gather the supplies while I finish the projects so that this fall I can grow salad greens and herbs in the kitchen window. 1.89 for a scrawney cos lettuce from California this year...I think I can get 12 - 15-18 plants in the kitchen window or nine in our bathroom. The system should also improve the interior humidity of the house as well. Drawbacks are come spring seeding and I hope to have that also in hand by the end of the year.
Now to figure out the bottles and find enough to do the project, as well as the dribblers, tubes, pumps, etc and then piece it all together over the winter. Sort of like the solar project I have been procrastinating on I have cardboard and tinfoil and tape and paper to make the patterns, ....kick, kick kick.