We are having a bunch of visitors coming next weekend, which coincides with our Cornish crosses getting big enough to die of a heart attack. We like the skin on our chicken and so needed a way to scald the chosen one. We have a gas burner, but are always looking for ways to avoid buying things. We have cement block. We have a fire pit grate. We have brush piles. So now we have a rocket stove:

What you can't see are the bond beam blocks, which form the chimney.

Actually, this is the original effort, but it made us stoop too much to feed the firebox. So we modified the plan:

We heated the stockpot full of water from 70°F to 175°F in about an hour. It took three buckets of small sticks.

While I was puttering around, clearing out the space and running the weed whip to keep the tall grass at bay, our resident chipmunk stopped by and said hello.

He's cute when he's not busy building nests in Irene's car's engine compartment.

Michael spent the morning putting the riding mower back together after our neighbor welded the mower deck for us. Thanks Rick! Then spent the rest of the day mowing while I was playing with the rocket stove. Tomorrow we will mow some more!