Micro Pocket Rocket Marshmallow Roaster

This is my first construction of a rocket type heater. It's more of a concept piece to test out how the draft works. It's a fairly simple design just a couple pieces of pipe that has some turning ability to it, and one of those metal trays that are used to keep food warm. The stove pipe is the middle of the tray just rolled so the one side would be longer than the other to allow for the proper draft to happen.

This is it dismantled. To put it together you just have to push the pipes together one side is textured so they interlock pretty tightly which is important that it be as air tight as possible around the joints.

To get it started take a small amount of newspaper light it and shove it as far down as it will go without getting burned, then lightly blow into the lower side to encourage the draft to pull it up the higher side. Take some dry twigs and place them on top of the paper, and it'll burn quite nicely.

**IMPORTANT** This metal is very thin and heats up to be very hot very quickly! Make sure it is stable BEFORE you start it. I made this mistake and a gust of wind almost knocked it over while it was going so instinctively I tried to grab it to stop it, and this is the result

 It didn't so much as burn my finger as it melted the skin currently I don't have a fingerprint on half of this finger still, so lesson learned.

Here the draft is working perfectly there was no flame coming out of the bottom, but a good amount of heat coming out of the top.

When everything is going the way it is supposed to this tiny pocket rocket generates almost no smoke, and burns very clean. Now with that being said because of its small size it is very finicky, one second things are burning nicely no smoke is coming out the next it is puffing like crazy. The draft once established usually holds on its own, and I've found that usually if it is smoking it is because a stick either fell the wrong way, or I put too many in and blocked too much airflow.

Total cost for this project was $8.99, and could easily have been free if I had the patience to gather the materials from recycled bits. Total time for the construction was 10 minutes the trickiest part is getting it a stand which I shortcuted which led to the melted fingerprint, which I don't recommend.

As with any craft idea that involves fire or tools I assume no responsibility for any injury or damages sustained by building, or using this contraption. Just use your sense with it, don't burn around flammable things, and have an extinguisher, and/or water nearby when trying it. You'll want the water anyway to cool the metal down when you're done.

I'll be posting more soon

Just wanted to take a second to say I'll be posting some more soon. I work a weird schedule so every other weekend I work Thursday-Sunday 5am to 5pm so not a lot of time for much else.

What's in the works is: better pics of the trellis,  micro rocket stove marshmallow roaster, and if I can get my hands on a metal coffee can a pocket rocket space heater.

Thanks all

Simple Scrap Wood Trellis

Last weekend I had to trim up the Japanese Maple that is in front of our friend's condo, because a lot of it was dead or dying. 

This is it post trimming, I'd say about half of it had to come off or risk losing the whole tree.

We had also started some cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers in our little indoor greenhouse. I know the cucumbers and tomatoes are climbing plats I think the peppers are too, but not %100 on that plants are more my wife's area of expertise. Either way we needed something to for them to climb up so the local animals did't eat all of our food when it grows.

I was in need of some kind of trellis, and had thought of just going to a hardware store and getting a small section of fencing or a cheapo alternative to save time, also I had never built a trellis or anything like it so I really didn't have much to go on except some vague idea of what they are supposed to look like. But I had the rest of the day off, a bunch of pieces of wood now, and not much else to do that day so I figured it was worth a shot.

Keep in mind I think the last woods project I did was sometime in middle school in a classroom with the most hard ass teacher I had ever met so I'm not very experienced in word working.

So with a little bit of imagination, a pair of bolt cutters I used for trimming small branches, some twine, and a saw this is the result.

 Not the prettiest trellis ever, but it works. The main bit I got pretty lucky on because it was all one piece that came off so its got a pretty stable skeleton. The cross sections are just more branches that I tied onto the skeleton.

This is a close up of the joints. I'm not too well versed in knot tying so I just wrapped it real tight and tied a bunch of double overhand knots. After a few blisters that are still healing they are on their pretty tight.

That's all the pictures I have of this one in retrospect I should have taken more of them to show the process more in depth, and I'll try to do that in future projects.

But basically the process was taking the skeleton and stripping off all the extra bits to shape it into what I thought it should look like. Luckily it was fairly triangle shaped to begin with. I didn't really measure anything or have too much of a plan just kind of winged it, and made many small adjustments after I cut way too much off one leg. You can't see it , but I left a little bit under the base so the feet could dig a little into the ground to add more stability because it doesn't quite sit flat. The cross sections are just parts that I trimmed off the main skeleton or whatever piece was close to the width or length I wanted. A bit more trimming and it fit together fairly well.

That about wraps that up I'll post some better pictures if it because I realize now that there was way too much direct sunlight in the ones I have. I'll also update on it when the plants begin to grow on it.

The Beginning

I guess it all starts with a hello, or is it an hello...not really sure grammar's not my strong point. My name is Mike and I have begun a grand journey that's destination is building my own house and living off the land with my Wife. I promised her not to put too much of our own personal lives online, but I wanted to share my experiences.

I've spent the better part of this last year studying different building styles and power options. After much debate and thought I plan on building a Cob house with solar and wind power generation somewhere in Oregon. I'll go into more detail about what cob is and why Oregon in other posts.

My main goal of this blog is to catalog and share my successes and failures so others can learn and share with me. It also will encourage me to continue to tinker with different ideas more frequently, and maybe help keep me on track. So in some ways this blog is as much for you as it is for me.

I guess a bit of background on who I am is in order. I am a Paramedic who has worked in Detroit MI for a little over three years. I just for offered a new job in the Plymouth area that I am quite excited about. I have been with my Wife for around four years and we have been married for two. She really is my inspiration for wanting to improve our lives. One thing most people don't know about EMS is it does not pay that much so we've been scraping by for quite some time, but she's stuck with me so I'm guessing she likes me a bit. I'm a 26 year old male, which means, by default like video games, though somewhat less and less as I am finding that making things is actually more fun, and that is a weird thought for me because I have spent most of my life as a gamer.

I am a minimalist by nature, I moved in with my wife with only a suitcase, a backpack, and a cat. I to this day don't have much more than that. I just don't seem to grow attached to many things, and go through periodic purging of my possessions.

I chose the title of  Modern Odyssey not to try and rip off Homer's work, but because an Odyssey is a journey that is long and wondering that is marked by many changes in fortune, and something tells me that is a good description of things to come. Also Odyssey is a cool word and I like the way it sounds, and always wanted to use it to describe something in my life.

I'll do my best  to try and keep this organized in some kind of fashion, as well as having updates in somewhat regular times. It will be a mix of things I have made, am making, or what I plan on making or doing.

If you're interested in learning a bit more about Cob houses right now you can check out http://www.cobcottage.com/ they have a good number of pictures there.