Mark Reed

The laws of nature dictate that hot gasses, if left to natural forces will rise vertically. What in your design will negate natural law and cause it to move horizontally instead?

My experience with concrete is that it can work just fine. Upside is they are cheap and easy to work with. Downside is if used regularly they will start to crack in just a couple of seasons, but I've never seen one explode. If you want to throw something together quick and easy and that will only be used once in a while, they're great. For something nicer looking and that will last longer brick is the way to go. I don't think fire brick is really necessary but solid bricks, not the ones with holes, are good.

Mine is similar to all of those, but it isn't just for emergencies and it also isn't permanent. It doesn't take even five minutes to set up and there isn't room for it, the oven and the grill all at the same time, so I adjust according to what we are cooking. The whole fireplace is made of creek rock and some of them have cracked over the years, and the top of the oven is a bit more rusted than I like. I plan to tear it all down this winter and rebuild where the grill, smoker, burners and oven are all permanent. Now I use the lid to an old Weber grill to keep it working in the rain, but it won't be big enough for the whole setup. I have the lid to a large gas grill; it's made of nice stainless steel and plenty big but sort of heavy which is a bit of a problem if it's hot, so I'll have to figure a way to set it permanent as well. I'm thinking I might use steel fence posts as legs for that.

John F Dean wrote: I never could understand the three day thing.  I have had snow storms and tornados keep me in longer than that.

I don't either. Assuming I don't still have or work or something, three days is just a vacation. Lots of people might remember about fifteen years ago when a hurricane rolled up the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. I remember the remnants of it were all he way to Chicago way up north, but the sky here was beautiful blue. Then the wind started blowing, no clouds, no thunder, still blue sky. It lasted six or seven hours and then just stopped. By then the power was out in large areas across several states.  

That evening I went out and built a fire in the outdoor fireplace that didn't go out for six or seven days.  I built a wood fired stove burner out of a column of bricks so that it acted like a chimney, the top of which just fit a couple of skillets to fry or boil things. On the last day we had folks over for steak and chicken and crab and fish and everything else that was in the until then unopened freezer. Refrigerator stuff was already gone and so was some garden produce that might otherwise have been canned. Water didn't go off but we had plenty for that amount of time if it had. We hadn't eaten a big lot but some, of the dry and canned stuff from the pantry.

After dinner that last night I opened a couple bottles of wine. Overall, we had a great time, the whole time. Just as it was getting dark on the last night, sitting on the porch with the windows open we started hearing all these little clicks and whirs. Electricity was back; the mood was ruined. My first feeling was disappointment even though a hint of dread had been creeping in as we ate all that stuff that night. I didn't say or admit it, but I was glad to hear those little noises. We could have gone another couple of weeks on much less enjoyable meals but after that it would have become a serious problem.

I ate pears today and yesterday and the day before that and I'll eat them tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. It was a very good year for pears.

We have a lot of deer in the neighborhood, but they mostly stay away from the gardens and yard. I'm not really sure why as my fences are not tall enough to stop one if it really wanted in. Occasionally, if one seems to be getting too comfortable, I put a 22 bullet in the ground under its belly so maybe overall, they just don't feel all that welcome.

They still go the food thing around here too but not as much as back then, I don't think.

I miss when you just got in the car and drove on over to a friend's or relative's house without an appointment. If they weren't home, you just snooped around the place a little to see what might be different, visited with the dogs or horses a bit and left what you probably brought with you on the porch, or you just got back in the car and went for a ride, or fishing.

Wow, your corn project sounds pretty much like mine and been at it about the same amount of time. Mine is pretty much settled on large heavy kernels and I also favored fewer rows of kernels as well as a couple other things. This year I have around thirty ears that meet all the criteria and overall, the diversity is wide enough that these ears can start a new semi-stable variety. Is yours a single heirloom that you have been preserving or is it also a mix up of heirlooms?

Pressure canners probably existed sixty years ago but my family did not have them. Canning beans or anything else was done the same way it had been done in times before that. I never knew until now why those beans that had already been boiled hard for three hours had to be cooked at a boil and simmered, three more times, before eating. I don't know it they really knew about botulism, they just had some unbreakable rules about canned goods.  

My mother and grandmother canned green beans in boiling water, sometimes on a wood stove. The rule was they have to be at an uninterrupted hard boil for three hours. If the fire dies down and boiling stops, you have to start over. If you need to add water, it has to be boiling when you pour it in.   I don't recommend it, keeping a big tub of water boiling hard on a wood stove for three hours in July isn't fun at all. I'm glad I know how to do it and really glad we don't have too.