Summer Kitchen kitchen
Its been a busy year, the warm season project of building a kitchen for the Summer Kitchen is finally complete. (At least as far as it will go this year (2017). There are still shelves to be built within the critter-proof food storage room and an insulated door to seal off the ice-box end of that space.)
The Summer Kitchen kitchen started by making a form into which a solid floor could be cast.
The form.
Iron and concrete.
Done.
Considering my enthusiasm for taking pictures while Jim, Ryan and I produced the slab, one would think that there would be more pictures of the next construction steps. Alas, I can't find any. If you happened to have come by and taken a picture or two, I'd be grateful if you would send them.
In September, our newest resident, Brian, came on the scene and has helped with numerous aspects of the project ever since.
Building the room on the foundation, along with the counter and shelves was particularly exhilarating. The entire structure was built from materials that grew right here at LEV.
Last Fall, Murray came by with his band-saw mill and cut up a bunch of logs that we had collected over the Summer. The resulting lumber was milled to consistent dimensions in our woodworking shop and we built with that material.
If the process of turning trees into useful space interests you, we will have a couple of places next summer to work with us going through the same process in the creation of a sauna/greenhouse.
That said, here is the finished kitchen facility:
The room with the door sits on the slab. The frame is covered with metal from an old above-ground swimming pool, some used heating ducts and miscellaneous other flat metal. The metal is sealed to the slab with a fine masonry mix and the various pieces are caulked together. Unless critters eat through the wooden door, none will be getting at our food when the facility comes into use.
Claire was relieved when the board and batten went on to cover the metal. She hadn't let on how poorly she viewed the patchy metal finish.
The window in front of the sink opens up in hot weather. Note the 23 inch board hanging from the roof support beam. It was the off-cut from a four inch plank that Murray milled down so we could make the several corner braces that we were short in the original roof raising. The hanging board, along with the smoke bafflel and other construction aim to slow breezes down to allow the smoke to go straight up from cooking fires.
Cement board covers the smoke sides of the baffel.
The side away from the fire is covered with the same board and batten as the walls.
Given that the shelving inside the critter-proof storage room will be a welcome Winter project, all will be in order to stage events and invite willing workers to come create with us in the gardens and on the sauna, greenhouse, root cellar and other projects designed to embody a sustainable way of living.
The Summer Kitchen is dedicated to eating and getting together with others. Eating, to the extent possible, the organic produce from our gardens and getting together to discuss community, current affairs, the future, eco-sensitive living, hopes, visions and concerns.
We hope you will consider joining us as 2018 unfolds. A viable world can be created. Help us to build a small example and to inspire others to see the possibilities.