Project: Adobe Bread/Pizza Oven

Aim: Build a functional Bread/Pizza oven using natural materials and traditional techniques

Location: Central Portugal, Corga da Peirera

Date: December 2010

Reasons for Location of oven:
 Oven to be situated inside the covered outdoor proposed kitchen area. At this point it is only a covered area, no structures have been place there as yet, so deciding on where to locate future structures eg; sink and benches needed to be decided before building the oven

• Oven to be a focal point of area
• Possibly will have a circular bench around the oven for 'assembly line' pizza preparation or putting awaiting/cooked pizzas on to keep warm, or general bench with stools for a breakfast bar type set-up
• people can gather for warmth all the way around if it is not built touching a wall
• It's the only space in the area that can't be utilized by other things eg; benches around the edge, but just open space in the middle
• Although corner is better for space, good workbench space will be taken up, and area around the edges to gather and be warm will be lost

Equipment needed:

• Cob bricks made at least 2 weeks prior to allow for thorough drying. A clay straw mix is best, but adding soil and/or sand is also possible. Best mix is Clay:Sand:Straw 3:1:1. We made many test bricks to see which dried faster, crumbled less and were strongest. Make in a quadrilateral shape with one side shorter than the other *drawing*
• Level, shovels, rakes
• Tiles/gravel
• Rocks, smallish for the rubble filling
• Door, cast iron is best
• Long flat rock ie:slate for shelves
• If oven will be exposed to the elements, use lime in the cob mix

Process:

1. Broken tiles/gravel base a few inches thick
2. Layered rocks. Filled small gaps with gravel
3. Made cob mix, clay+soil+straw to use for mortar
4. Built ring around edge of rocks with cob
5. Laid pre-made cob bricks around 15 bricks in total for 1.5m diameter circle
6. Cobbed in bricks. Build up layers
7. Lit a fire inside to dry bricks, it was winter and wet weather. If in summer, wet each brick before you lay it, otherwise bricks will draw moisture out of mortar
8. Added a few slate shelves under where door was to be (for matches etc), and around other side for convenience
9. Once at correct height for base and once dry, filled with rubble/rocks
10. Smoothed a flat cob layer over top and let dry
11. Made a sand mound large enough to be the internal section of the bread oven
12. Cobbed over sand quite thick with the door attached and let dry
13. Removed sand via door

This was a workshop project run by Nuno Mamede. It took 2 weekends to complete with the help of 7-9 people each weekend.

Nuno chops some straw

Adobe mix

The brick moulds

Drumstick pecks away at the straw while we mix

Clay and soil

Drawing out the location
and size of proposed oven

after the layer of tiles and rocks, we started
laying the bricks

Lit a fire inside to help dry the
bricks. Level whenever possible!

Adding a slate shelf 

Ahh! Collapse!

More official photos from the completed workshop here  http://permaculturaportugal.ning.com/photo/162911475867609226683519226592-1/next?context=user

Project: Herb Spiral

Aim: Create and environment suitable for every type of herb, within easy reach of kitchen

Location: Central Portugal, Corga da Peirera

Permaculture Aspects/Benefits:

• Spiral is a common pattern of nature
• 2m round is a small area, enough to be watered within the reach of one circular sprinkler head, wasting no water or time
• All herbs are together in one convenient location near to kitchen, all within reach from the edge
• Suitable environment for all herbs, ie:
• Shade- North facing side eg; mint, chives
• Sun- South facing side eg; lemon balm, thyme, sage
• Top/Sun- Most heat eg; rosemary, oregano
• Half Sun- East/West facing sides eg; hyssop, mint, calendula, parsley, chamomile, watercress

Method:

• Chose location, measured out area with string and pole, leveled ground, decided on where to make a large planned pond to use for topsoil for spiral
• Worked out which is north and south facing sides
• Dug in tyre for small pond on the edge of spiral for aquaculture and watercress. Lined with old plastic lining. North/West facing for evening sun
• Laid rocks around edges
• Began filling with soil (found the only worms we'd seen on the property!)
• Laid more rocks as the soil rose
• Filled to about 1metre and completed rocks
• Planted herbs in assigned spots, many to still be planted in spring
• Mulched
• Covered tyre and sealed with cob mix (straw, sand, clay)

Digging the new pond to use the soil for the spiral

Aysha plants out first herbs

Spiral with a view!

 Final product, mulched and growing!

Project: Outdoor Shower

Aim: Re-build collapsed shower to be functional and efficient

Equipment provided/found/available:

• 'The Dragon'- fire heated cob outdoor water heater
• Green mesh
• Eucy poles, cut/found- long and straight
• Bonfire
• Lime, buckets, wheel barrow etc

Method:

• Leveled ground
• Worked out direction of spiral and laid it out with hose pipe
• Lit the bonfire to clear land (clear felled pine covering hill), used some half rotten poles and newly cut poles (from areas needing to be cleared) and burnt 1 to 2 metres along the bottom to avoid rotting
• Rock base foundation. Collected rocks from nearby
• Dug holes around edge 30cm apart using spike. Fit in poles, sometimes using wedges so they remained sturdy and vertical
• Mixed lime with sand and clay (1:5:2) in wheelbarrow
• Covered rock flooring with lime mix, smoothed then sponged off
• Attached plumbing from The Dragon
• Attached green mesh as screen
• Attached bark/cork as shelf, made bench/hooks for clothes
• Dug swale below to catch water run off

Permaculture Aspects:

• Waste water irrigates tomatoes/herbs planted in gutter around shower
• Swale retains grey water run off
• Next summer's plan is to attach black pipe as roofing to solar heat the water and asd shade.

floor is complete, now inserting poles



Digging the swale below



The Dragon water heater, with the shower and swale.
House in the background



Finished shower with plumbing attached



Project: Rocket Stove

Date:            November 2010

Location:     Corga de Peirera

Aim:             Use as an efficient thermal mass heater  to warm cold cellar\basement room directly below main living area

References:  We used designs and advise from the book Rocket Mass Heaters by Janto Evans and Leslie Jackson http://www.rocketstoves.com/

Benefits and reasons for choice of stove:

• Able to be built with few materials, cheap\free and readily available
• Fast to assemble (a few days)
• Best fuel efficiency, small twigs\sticks which are in abundance on this particular farm as the neighbouring fields are used for pine\eucalyptus plantations and are felled often. Both woods are fast and hot burners
• Only needs to be actually burning for a short time and heats thermal mass via flew quickly
• No\little heat is lost and all is used for thermal heat
• Multi-purpose, able to cook\heat water on top of stove
• Easy to control from main living space upstairs, can fill feed tube with say, eucy branches about an inch width and put on lid, sticks will burn and gravity feed, so you could possibly leave it for 45min-1hr before having to re-fill. If the thermal mass\bench is cold, it would take several hours to heat, at 1 inch per hour. The more often you light it the better, for the mass we used, it would still be warm for a few days
• Seating created, makes room more hospitable
• Easy to maintain, using inspection tubes at various points  
• Know success rate and desire to try it out!

Disadvantages:

• Must maintain fire while burning, but can be loaded up and left

Problems Encountered:

• Costs and locating parts, ie; fire bricks, elbow and T-junctions
• Not all heat is used, smoke comes out warm, not enough time or space to run flew back and forth under the bench, but in future bench could be extended along back wall to utilize the heat
• Spring line-water flows under house through that room, stove now in the way and water will build up behind. Not too much of a problem luckily, seeps down below and runs out holes on other side of room under flooring.
• Should have left a gap all the way around the barrel foundation and the heat riser as only just had correct surface area to release the hot gas out into the flew, luckily!









under the floor boards, placing the granite



laying out the firebricks to align
granite and ash hole



Benji cuts the lid off our
55gallon drum



cob under the granite as  a base

Benji mixing cob

Nigel angle-grinds the
granite for the ash hole

getting measurements and levels

fire-brick foundation is laid
and cobbed in

fire-brick base, feed tube, tunnel and
heat riser

Andy cuts the wire mesh to  hold in
the Lekar around the heat riser

Filling the gap between the mesh and the heat
riser with Leka, small balls of clay, and then
cob to keep them in. This will act as insulation
for the hot gas rising from inside

Leka insulation finished

trying out the drums for size! Feed tube and main barrel for hot gas/smoke to pass through

lining up the flew and the inspection point-
using a sawn off paint tin so that it has a secure lid

Building the foundation for the barrel

Making a hole out for the flew

Andy, Benji and Nigel discuss alignment



top view with level



 



finished cobbing the feed tube
and foundation of the barrel,
now working on the flew through the wall



45 and 90 degree elbows on the flew

testing testing..





Test lighting... not a speck of smoke, works perfectly!!



We've done it!!