Rocket stove

As I was browsing U-tube, I saw this "Rocket stove" from Survival Common Sense and Tinyhouse Prepper . I was curious, so I decided to make one too, just to see how it works. It's slightly better than the village stove because you don't have to blow or fan. The 5- 6 levels of bricks acts as a chimney and fire and heat comes up.

Rocket stove is an efficient and hot burning stove using small-diameter wood fuel.

In the Korean drama, I often noticed the traditional Korean using this kind of similar design. There was a stove where they cook and the heat from the fire is  tunnelled under the floorboards of the house, to keep it warm especially in winter. No wonder the Koreans like to sleep on the floor, because of the heat from the rocket stove👍.

It is true that the world is changing and everything is high tech but we need to save a little of our past  from these simple practices for emergency purposes, or otherwise😜😜.

How to build a simple Rocket Stove  and how it works

I followed this design from Youtube Survival Common Sense. It has a wire mesh for the twigs and sticks as fuel for fire.


 

                                                          Level 1                                              size 27cm x 28cm wire mesh

                             

Place a wire mesh as shown then the 2nd level of bricks over it.
a = Lower shelf : Air flows in this way, it breathes better and help fire burn better.
b = Above the wire mesh is the fuel shelf also known as the fire chamber. This is where I put wood, twigs etc for burning. Once burning starts, I can get very hot fire right in here.


 
Then stack up with Level 3, 4, 5. The higher the chimney, it draw heat out better. Minimum levels are preferably 5 to 6 levels. If too short levels, not enough chimney and it won't be able to draw air out properly.
c = Combustion chamber. What happens is, when the flame is down in there  ( center hole) chimney draw it up and heat comes out as shown in the arrow "c".

 
d = Insulation e.g. Ash
e = Outer shell e.g. Bricks


Feed twigs or wood chips into the chimney.

    

 Paper, dried grass or coconut husk as fire starters. Extra brick to hold the wood or twigs for burning.

 
 Burner grate helps to hold the pot and allow the gas and smoke to come out of the chimney while cooking

Sometimes it gets  so hot, it sucks in air from the fire chamber and roar like an engine. Thats why its called the rocket stove.

Fried Egg Noodles Ingredients

2 pips minced garlic.

Sliced pork egg rolls . You can used any protein - Dried shrimps, prawns, chicken slices etc

1 beaten egg

2-3 handful of noodles for two person

2 table spoon cooking oil, a few dashes of black sweet soya sauce and 1/2 teaspoon of salt

 (depending on your taste to sweetness and saltiness)

A few green sawi leaves - can use kangkong, spinach, cabbage- your choice

Method

Prepare the fire in the Fire chamber 

Heat a bit of  oil in the kuali. Get a Kuali without any rubber or plastic handle. Best is Iron, Aluminium or stainless steel because they get heated easily and easy to clean. The bottom of the pot will turn black but no worries. the black bottom can be removed using the cold ashes from the left over burning .

Fried the Omelette

When cooked , take out and leave aside

Sauteed garlic till fragnant and slightly brown

Add in pork egg roll slices, and green vegetables. Stir fried for a min

Add in the noodles. Stir fried for a min. Add salt, soya sauce

Cover for a min. By this time, my fire was beginning to slow down

Delicious stir fried noodles garnished with omelette strips

In conclusion, I find that Rocket Stove is easy and fun to build. It's interesting and economical. Using just old twigs from the branches of my plants, which are plentiful and for free. Very useful skills and knowledge for emergency, In case there is sudden power cut or gas tank running out of gas, cooking can still continue. It's a useful basic human survival skill😂😃

It would be lovely to eat in the open air once in a while in the late evening, when the sun sets.

I am going to try my next dish using this stove for Steam boat!!😜😜 Any suggestions you have, please let me know, so look out for more of my innovative ideas... you never know what next I will bring to this blog😜. 

References

https://permacultureprinciples.com/post/rocket-stoves/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_stove

Story of my bonnie, lost little dog.

It was New Year, the 1st January 2019. a little male puppy was found sleeping under the old hanger rack, next to the door of my garden house. It looked so exhausted and weak that it couldn't even lift it's head to eat. I thought he may have contacted a disease and was left to die. 

Poor puppy😢.  But, I didn't give up, I was thinking, even though it's dying, it should die in comfort and pain free. So patiently,  bit by bit, I tried to push the small tray of milk and rice for him but he refused to smell or eat it.

I sighed not knowing what to do with him but still didn't give up hope on him so I tried with Marie biscuits. I broke the biscuits into small pieces to feed him into  his mouth. It moved it's head slowly with weakness but I was glad, at least it started to eat. He ate at least 2 big round biscuits. That's good enough.

Marie biscuits

The next day, again I fed him with biscuits and milk. My daughter heard about the puppy and came with a tin of my son's special dog's food. My son's dog, Mojo was a rottweiler. Whenever Mojo was not well or lost his appetitle,  my children would feed Mojo this special dog's food.  True enough, the little puppy finished it all on his plate (half a tin). Then my daughter helped to clean and bathe the dog. I didn't have a dog's bath tub, so we made use of the wheel barrow as one. The little puppy was cleaned and smelt better with the dog's shampoo.

Poppy sat obediently while having a bath

Poppy in his bath with a dog shampoo

The next day, it seemed to have improved, but still weak and walking unsteadily. I took him to see a Vet and was given deworming treatment and some Vitamin injections. According to the Vet, it was just exhausted and lack of nutrition, that's why it was so weak. I continued giving him the dog food which he liked. I thought someone would come to claim this cute puppy but no one came. It began to get attached to me just by the 3rd day because when I came back ,  he would run to meet me happily as if it recognised me as his saviour. I believed  it must be a trained dog because it knew how to do its business in private at the backyard. And it seemed to understand "Sit, Stay".

Vitamin into his food twice a day

I named him Poppy because he popped out of nowhere.

On the 4th day it was pouring heavily and I was out in town. The sky was so black with thunder and lightning striking among the clouds. The first thing came into my mind when I was in the shop, was "Poppy". I remembered my son told me before how Mojo used to be scared of thunder. I was worried about poppy while driving all the way back to my garden home. When I reached my garden house, Poppy was nowhere to be seen. It was still raining heavily. With an umbrella I kept calling it's name. Then I could hear the faint barking sound from the other corner of the house. He was hidden inside the unwanted tyre, all wet and shaky. Poor poppy! I brought him into my little home and dried him with a towel which became his towel in the end. When the rain stopped completely, I opened the door and poppy ran out. It seemed to know that it shouldn't be inside the house.  The rain was so heavy that his space which was under the old hanger rack was filled with water.

The next day, I decided to build a temporary home for him, using the extra left over wood and plywood. I attached a plastic cover over the little plywood roof, so that it will not be blown away by the wind and rain will not get into the wood. Then I added 3 pieces of the 2feet x 1foot tile on the base so it's heavy enough not to topple, even though there was strong wind. Lastly, I added a soft pad big enough to cover the whole base, so that he could be comfortable inside.

Poppy's home made of left over plywood and wood from previous construction.

Soft pad inside the dog house for Poppy's comfort

Plastic cover over the plywood roof to prevent rain getting into the wood.

On the 5th day,  he seemed to have recovered because he was getting mischievious but cute at the same time. When he got a scolding from me for being naughty, he would look at me with his puppy eyes...ohhhh... how could anyone not like this puppy😍.

He started to steal any slippers or shoes at the door step. When I scolded him, he would give that pitiful look, so I softened, but when my back was turned, there he goes again messing up all the shoes and slippers. I could only shake my head😵😵. I was trying hard to figure out why he liked to mess around with those shoes and slippers. Next, I found him biting my gardening tool😳! It must be his teething problem. That was the only reason I could think of. It seemed his gum was irritating him and biting seemed to provide relief. So, I bought some toys and teething relief stuff for his teething comfort. The teething chewing snacks and toys seemed to be the right thing for him to chew because my shoes and slippers had not been out of place again😃.

Poppy's gum discomfort and the need to chew, a gardening tool 😱!!!

 Teething toys - the rope and a colourful ball. These had been his favourite.

These toys are tough yet soothing to Poppy's teeth. 

Milk Dental Bone help to ease his teething irritation while giving nutrition for the development of teeth and bones

Right stuff for Poppy to chew-Strawberry Dental chew

another fancy snack- cheese and ham

Pro balance Lamb loaf Rm 7.20

Chicken and Lamb to add into his rice

Chicken to mix with his rice

My husband said all these fancy food is better than he has.😂😂😂😂

Rewarding tibits for behaviour modification

 costing Rm18.90 per pack

Poppy seemed happy living at my garden  house for almost 2 weeks when one day, I heard a dog howling away. And poppy howls back. It seemed to look sad. My instinct told me, maybe it's the mother dog looking for it's puppy. True enough, my neighbour said she heard a mother dog looking for her puppy.

So, I brought little Poppy along with me and we passed about 5 houses from the back of my garden.

Then I saw a white mother dog with breasts that looked like it's been feeding her puppies. When I let go of Poppy, it ran immediately to the mother dog and straight to the breast suckling away. That's how I knew, she must be poppy's mama and that howling must have come from her. I still don't understand how Poppy ended up at my door step in the first place.

It's hard to let him go completely because after a while with me for almost 2 weeks, somehow, a bond had develop between us both. At the same time, it's like a lost child found its mother and I can't keep a lost poppy when it's poor mama had been looking for him for weeks. It was exactly 10 days when poppy was missing from it's original place and yet it ran to his mama without even looking back. Anyway, its for the best. I am sad but happy, that he is where he should be, with his mama.

Memory of Poppy's home with its toys and feeding plate. This little dog house were left as it was.

His favourite toy was the ball which makes sounds as he bite on it😂😂😂.