Cast Iron

Our new earthbag home will be heated with wood in a rocket stove mass heater. We will be using a wood cook stove for cooking. We managed to pick up a used stove in really good shape for $75. It came from a lady that had been using it since the forties. It's sure hard to find anything that is made with such enduring quality anymore. Pretty much the whole thing is made of cast iron, so it is pretty heavy. The picture shows the dome that will be our kitchen. It's one of five domes that will make up the total structure.

Even though we won't be in the new house till next year, we've started dramatically changing our lifestyles already. Preparing to live off grid. We've started purchasing and using some cast iron cookware. The first pan we bought was a complete dud. Cooked with it once and a big crack appeared. The next one we bought was obviously better quality. Cooked with it a few times so far and no problems. It is a Lodge Logic and we are quite happy with it.

Now it';s kind of crunch time though. Winter is here and there is still much left to do. The weather may still be mild enough for the next few days to get some work done. We have to finish plastering the bags that are in place (first coat), place a few more bags on the entrance walls and place a temporary roof on the two larger domes. In the end there will be no roof as such, since the structures are domes. The temporary roof will allow us to do some work inside the domes over the winter and keep them from filling up with snow.