Rocket Stove or Starship Earth?25thFebruary
Recently we got a visit from the Wilderness Awareness School's Full-Time Anake Outdoor School to the Trackers Homestead. Together with Trackers Full-Time Wilderness Immersion Program we worked with them on blacksmithing, nutria trapping, artisan cheesemaking, bear tracking and charcuterie.
One of the coolest things we did was build a rocket stove mass heater in the Homestead's basement. "What is a rocket stove mass heater," you may ask? It's a super-hyper-awesome efficient woodstove. One where you need only fuel it with small diameter wood such as twigs; yet it burns so efficiently that it yields a tremendous amount of heat. To boot, we trap that heat in a thermal mass of cob (a natural building material of clay, sand, water and earth). What this thermal mass does is build up, hold heat and radiate it throughout the day. The stove does not need to keep burning. We used nearly all local materials for cob mixing powered by human feet and even the metal barrel was recycled. It's great to be able to burn wood such as small sticks to heat the entire room throughout the day and night.
Here's a video made by Jade, our videographer and a full-time immersion student...
Join us...
Feb 28 For a day to celebrate the Homestead This "taster day" is for those interested in our full-time Immersion programs. We transport you to our beautiful homestead in Sandy, Oregon. You help finish a hand built rocket stove, track animals and learn the arts of wilderness survival. Try a day of TrackersTEAMS
For a term or one year The TrackersTEAM program teaches permaculture and village skills for spring term, sets off on 10-weeks of expedition learning for summer term and offers 1-year of living and learning in Portland, Oregon or Costa Rica from fall to summer.
