A Fiery Furnace…

Shalom brothers and sisters in Messiah!

 I pray that you are all doing well and that YHVH is using you for His glory!

This post is an exciting one as we are going to show you how to 

build an outdoor(Costa Rican-style) oven. Brother Eulogio and Sister Benilda used to

 have a bakery were they lived before they came here to the mountain about 4 years ago 

and they had wanted to build a new one so that they could sell bread and things like that again. 

 After talking to them about it, we decided to do it together. 

So anyway, on to the pictures!

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1 Kings 8:51

‘For they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom 

You brought out of Mitsrayim, out of the iron furnace.

 Psalms 12:6

The Words of YHVH are clean Words, 

Silver tried in a furnace of earth, Refined seven times. 

   

This is a basic, fairly easy to make oven that is inexpensive and will last

 for years(which is a plus when you live in the middle of the jungle LOL). 

In fact, the main ingredients (besides the top layer of concrete on the foundation

 and the broken clay tile) all can be found in your backyard(that is, of course, if you 

have some cows, horses, and a lot of really good black mud/dirt)!

Now, to make this oven, 1st you need a flat foundation, and preferably 

a raised one, that way when you are making your bread, 

pizza, pies, etc. you don’t have to crouch down all the time.

As the foundation is drying, you need to find some medium-length sticks

 about 1-11/4 inches thick that can bend some without breaking but have enough resistance 

to hold the mixture that will be laid over top of them. The holes where the bread and

 wood goes in is about 16 inches tall and about a foot wide on both sides

(front for the bread, back for the wood) and are outlined by pieces of old tin

 roofing that are cut into pieces about 4-5 inches wide and as tall as the hole.

*NOTE*

*Remember to put more sticks than what you think it will need. If you don’t it 

won’t be strong enough to hold the mixture and it will begin to fall before it finishes drying. 

We had to put more sticks after we began because we could 

see it begin to cave in in between the spaces of the sticks.*

Then you need to make a hole to put the mix in. It should be at least knee-high and

 2 1/4- 2 1/2 feet in diameter. Now, what exactly is this mixture? Well… that’s classified, 

it would be too dangerous to tell you…oh wait, you really want to know, 

don’t you… hmm… are you really sure?… well… OK, we’ll let you in on it, but don’t say 

we didn’t warn you. This mixture is made of a couple of ingredients, including mud, grass, water,…

COW AND HORSE POOP! …..

Well, we warned you, but you really wanted to know. But it gets even better. 

How do you mix this fine mixture? Well, you probably don’t want to

 know… ok… ok don’t make such a fuss, we’ll tell you.Well, a shovel may work 

for a while, but it won’t evenly mix everything because of how 

deep the hole is. That is why after a certain point you gotta use your…

FEET! It has to be very well mixed and very wet as you see in 

the pictures above and below, that way as it dries it will become stronger and more durable.

  

After it dries for about 7-10 days, it will be ready to use. Now, to begin

 making the actual oven part you will need to roll out the mixture. 

Yes, with your hands of course! You have to knead the mixture(like bread), 

and then shape it into an ovalish piece about a foot long…

    

 

Like this! Now it is ready to begin the building stage. You take one of these ‘loaves’, 

plop it down on the outside of the wooden sticks, and shape it to

 the mold of the oven, trying your best to make it even on top.   

 

Now, after every layer, you need to place some broken clay tile pieces 

so that it can hold each layer better and therefore make it stronger. 

   

Then it’s time to put another layer of mud ‘loaves’ on top. 

Then we add more broken tile, then more mud ‘loaves’, and we keep

 going and going and going, trying to make sure it stays in shape all the way to the top!

*Note*

*MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS IN FULL SUNLIGHT! We made the mistake 

of doing this during a very cloudy and rainy time. We got the first couple of layers 

done and then we had to stop because it began to rain. We covered it with some 

blue tarp so that it wouldn’t get so wet but after that began a week of rain and 

another 10-14 days of off and on rain, so that by the time we were 

able to continue building, it was nearly 3 and a half weeks after we first began! 

So remember, FULL SUNLIGHT!*

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Now here it is 2/3 of the way done. As it gets further up it becomes harder

 and harder for it to stay in shape, which is why we needed to put more sticks. 

 

 

Remember, this is supposed to be a family project, so enjoy it! 

It’s a lot of work but it will be worth it. Just think of all the good, fire-cooked bread 

loaves you can make… of course you might just want to make pizza

 or cake instead after all the ‘loaves’ you have already made(LOL)!! 

 

Now, once you get to the top, you have 2 choices to make. You can either just do

 the mud all the way to the top, or you can put a piece of tin roofing on the

 very top to make it a little stronger and cover it with mud. We decided to put

 a piece of tin on top. You have to cut it into a circle and shape it

 to the top of the oven, then put mud on it to help it stay there.

Now, once you are done that, the main part you have to do is done(YAY!). 

Now, there are only 2(or 3, depending if you want a roof to go over top of the oven or not)

 things to do. 1st you need to fill any indents or holes in with mud

 that way the oven looks better and cooks more evenly too.

Now, as the oven begins to dry, cracks will appear all over, like this:

 

This is normal and will happen. Just let it dry out and then there is 

a mixture you make of powdered limestone(called Cal here in Costa Rica) and cement

 to fill in the cracks and give it a very nice, finished look. We haven’t done

 that yet but will do it soon so when we finish it we will put some pictures up.

Anyway, here is the almost finished look! Brother Eulogio had a great idea 

and made a roof for the oven, that way you could cook in the rain too.

 This is a lot of fun to build and it gave us some time to talk to them more

 about the Word. Pray for them as they continue to learn and come 

closer to the Real Truth and unlearn the false teachings that they were taught. 

Until next time…

Shalom!

The Montanez Family

Servants and Emmisaries of Yahshua, Children of YHWH

HalleluYAH!