Sunday 8 August 2021

Messing About With Cob - Earth Oven Part 1

 For a long time now I've been saying how much I'd like to build an earth oven. The trouble with saying it lots, that doesn't mean it happens! 


So yesterday each of the children had asked to do something with me (eldest wanted to do green woodwork, middlest wanted to use my pyro pen to burn some pictures onto wood and the youngest wanted to carve some dinosaurs) So I thought maybe we should do something we can all be involved with. 

The day before I had started to clear an area for a proper clay oven with the digger. The trouble was I'd never used clay or cob as a building material. The book we were using suggested we make a small oven first (all the materials can be reused anyway) so we set about mixing some cob!

We started with some old building sand that had stuff growing in it to make a former for the clay. the girls were hard working in getting the sand up to where we were going to build it. 


Once that was roughly built the fun could begin! The boy didn't want to get his feet dirty, but the girls were more than keen!


It took so long to mix the clay in though - I was surprised that it wasn't slightly quicker! We might have to come up with a way of speeding things up when we build the proper oven as we're going to need a lot of building material! 



The girls had to be hosed down before they could even think about going inside! Bu they laughed the whole time. Unfortunately we didn't get to use the cob yet as the heavens decided to open and we had to get inside pretty quick. There will be other days though and I'm looking forward to this as a nice summer project we can do together. Should be good quality cheap fun! 


I'm still not sure how we'll build the base of the oven. Part of me knows it'll be easy to just use the concrete blocks we have here and build them up to waste height and cast a slab on top. But I think using some hardcore to make a base then building the base up in materials that are found here might be more fun (although more work) and more eco friendly. If we build it the slow way then the children can be far more involved as well which will be great. 


14 comments:

  1. what a great project! i can't wait to see how it turns out. your kids are learning so much and having fun while doing so!

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    1. They really did love it! some very low cost fun!

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  2. What a fun project!! Kids look like they are having a great time. Certainly put a smile on my face. Needed that, after all this time my eldest has just tested positive for Covid-19, so 10 days isolation for us!

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    1. Hope they get better quickly! Sending love.

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  3. On a grand scale? Invite all the neighbours.... build a community oven somewhere in return for getting your own one done.

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    1. We have some friends that are very keen to help so might have a day where we can try and build things together!

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  4. Great family project. Look forward to watching it materialize Kev.

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    1. Thanks Dave, I think it should be great fun!

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  5. the greening of Gavin blog he built one years ago have a look

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    1. I think I've watched that video, although he covers his with render in the end. I'd like to leave this as just clay and if we have to rebuild it every year then that will be part of the fun.

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  6. It looks like a great deal of fun (and some profitable labor) was had!

    I will be interested to hear how much "building material" it takes as you say you were surprised by the amount it took so far.

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    1. Well it seemed a lot when it was spread out on some plastic, but probably only about 4 trugs full. So two of clay and two of sand. We'll need more sand to finish it but it'll be a great way of using up some of the old building sand around here where things have started to grow in it!

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  7. Something we've discussed doing a few times! Looking forward to your progress. So wonderful to see the kids involved, learning, and having fun.

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    1. I've been talking about it for ages so its great to finally make a start with it. It seems perfect for children as well! They've been having a great time! Might take us a while though

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