Mudfire /// steaming

Steaming, yes, and agrifying my phlanges
Having mud-caked hands all week has produced the inevitable dry, crinkly, skin-too-tight-for-simple-movement effect. 

 

I kept at it today (Saturday) until I was able to put a lid on it.  Along the way I did take time to add some fun bits.

The vertical fire hole kept filling up with coals and ash.  Draw was weak and smoke got in my eyes. Fuel for today is mostly long-dead plum branches. These guys are The Most Aggravating branch that doesn't contain actual thorns.  I get revenge/pleasure watching them burn but they do leave lots of ash and coal behind.  So I pulled the end out of the vertical fire hole and extended the sides. No point in extinguishing the fire during remodeling.  Notice that the sticks that extend past the edge of the burn tunnel are now burning into the Mudfire ///. Yay.

Prior to flipping the fire hole to horizontal there tended to be smoke coming out the exit. Now there's just steam. Later on, after this photo, there was approximately nothing visible coming out the vent.
So far I've not heard any rocketry.  Maybe this is just a masonry stove, not a rocketry stove.
Tomorrow I'll take the lid off and see what's happened inside.  Plus I'll mudsulate the upper third of the inner chimney.

Tomorrow:

New mud ring on the top of the heat riser (its inner chimney).

Knocking the end out of teh firebox made the other sides all wobbly so a re-build is in order, trying the vertical box again.  First burn shows two things: it draws well and the ash pit fills up way too quickly.  The four un-mudded bricks are a "door" to be removed at ash clean-out time.

Wallace making sure the cats don't eat too much of his food.