Declutter the Patio, Part II

patio before

So today I worked for 15 minutes decluttering the patio again. I pulled up some trees, picked up some trash and emptied some pots of their dirt. I'm putting the potting soil in one of the beds in my garden. The potting soil was a mix of commercial potting soil and good compost so I'm not going to waste all that good organic matter.

patio after, view one

So I've made a little bit of progress here. What  you can't see in the pics is that behind that old bookcase is a fire pit. I'm not fond of the way it is made, great for a big bonfire, but not too hot for actually cooking over it. I've given consideration over the years about what to do with this. I've thought of having a metal insert made, so I can control the draft better as well as having a better grill added in.






I've also given a lot of thought to closing off the bottom part and building a mud oven. I am intrigued by the idea of cooking in something so ancient as a mud oven. And of course I have lots of mud!  My favorite Urban Homesteaders added a cob oven to their homestead a few years ago. You can see the beginning of it at this post on their blog. Cobb is another term for building with mud.

A large portion of the earth's population live in buildings made of earth. Mud is a practical and plastic building material. All sorts of fanciful decoration is possible with it. Besides that if properly sited and designed a mud building will be cool in summer and warm in winter with much less utility use than conventional wood frame construction. It is very handy also in areas where there are not a lot of trees available.

patio after, 2nd view

But I digress; back to the patio. There is still a lot of dirt on the patio from the July 4th flooding. Along with a lot of pots and just plain junk that has accumulated.

patio, more to do

Then there is the strip of patio down the southwest side of the house, parallel to the kitchen. Lots of work left to do here.