Winnie keeps herself out of trouble by playing in a play pen. The older girls have been making a "garden." They've discovered that if they pull up the plants under the trees by the root, the root sometimes looks like a tiny vegetable. Squeaky has rhubarb, radishes and carrots in her garden. Both girls look forward to snack time, when I clean their little paws as much as possible and hand out cookies.
Anyway, the building! We started on our stove today. First, poles had to be set in the ground to provide the support. Larger poles were duct tapes to those. Then small one inch thick poles were set on the bottom.
Next, medium sized poles had to be layered on the back and sides and cut to length. These posts are held in place by twine. We also finished up attaching the plastic on the roof (that is what you see Dennis doing in the background).
Then a piece of plastic was placed in the stove cradle, and a thick layer of dirt packing in on top of that. Dennis finished up filling in the dirt last evening. We are going to start on putting a layer of clay all over it this morning. My friend is going to babysit the girls this morning. She said that I probably wouldn't be too useful as a parent with my arms covered in clay up to my elbows. Thanks for all the tips and help, Angie! :)
I've been trying to explain that our stove is made from a metal barrel, but here is a picture which will help you see what I'm talking about. The bottom part is pretty self explanatory- a door on the front for our fire box, a plate above that with two burners. I guess the plate is out in this picture so maybe it isn't so self-explanatory. The top part is where it gets interesting. The left side has a metal bucket jutting up, see it? That is a hot water holder. We will put water in that to heat throughout the day. This will be used for dish washing and showers.
The metal bucket you see jutting out on the right side is our tiny oven. Inside is a little oven rack. It is roughly the size of a toaster oven. Six cookies, six muffins, or a small casserole dish will fit in there.
There is a little space on the top in between the buckets. I think we will try to put some tile in the clay on the top to provide a little warm spot to place the tea kettle or coffee pot.
Our water will be coming from a water truck that will be filled up at least once a day. It is placed at the top of the hill and gravity will bring it down to our homes via black hose. You can see our sink in the background of this picture. We'll have that cold water piped in directly to our sink. Drinking water will be obtained directly from the water truck to ensure its cleanliness.
Well, off to work I go! .
5 comments:
One picture is worth a thousand words.
Interesting- is this style of stove more efficient than a big kettle on an open fire or a pit fire?
Did you have to carry the sink and stove into the camp site by hand? They look like they might have been a bit heavy.
Thanks for the detailed posts I'm getting a real clear idea of all the work.
Aunt Jean, I think it is more efficient because you can control the heat and flame better. The stove will also have a thick layer of clay all around it (not on the burners) to insulate the heat. The heat can be regulated depending on what kind of wood is being burned. Certain woods will do fast and hot fires while other woods will burn slow and steady at an even temperature.
We did have to carry the stove and sink in, but Dennis did it and it was really only about 50 yards down the hill to our house from the storage shed. We had it easy!
Looking good! I am glad you have help close by! Also glad the girls didn't end up coming as buddy is now running a fever and snot is everywhere!
Love you guys
Hey Valerie you mentioned your girls being scrappy. I remember my children being the same way. They probally are feeling the stress in your life. Building weeks are very hard on the family. Give them grace and focus on their behavior once you move up to Jungle Camp. If they continue up in JC give them the words they should use. I'm always telling my girls it would be nicer if you said this instead of.......
I hope this helps. We'll be praying for their attitudes.
Ang
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