Category Archives: Uncategorized

Memorial service and all night ‘pungwe’ at the Mabvira homestead, Nyatate

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One year since grandfather – Sekuru Bowden – passed away. He was remembered during this memorial service held all night in his honour:

 

Here we are about 40 km on the dust road north of Nyanga:

 

From the homestead looking North

 

Looking back over the homestead

 

Pungwe: speeches

 

Reading during the night

 

Singers during the night

 

One of the wabvuwi

 

Singer from Rusape

 

Service the next morning

 

150 lining up for food after the service

 

and there’s always washing up – nice location though!

 

In honour of Bowden Mabvira

The Boxing Day Space Shuttle Re-Build

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First tear down the existing Shuttle

 

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Go!

 

 

Meals were provided during the 4h 45min marathon build

 

 

Construction of the ET (External Tank) backbone containing liquid Oxygen, and liquid Hydrogen

 

Looking good with the addition of the two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB)

 

The nervous driver takes a wrong turn

 

Astronaut

 

You better read this warning!

 

 

 

 

 

Turning Bacon into (Parma) Ham

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Almost by accident …. this bacon joint has hung in the tack room for the last 2 months (along with the soon to be real Parma Ham … in another 9 months) and low and behold on Christmas Day we could slice it and enjoy it raw as ham.

 

Bacon joint dried into ham

 

Bacon joint dried into ham

 

 

Bacon joint dried into ham

Pizza Oven Build: Drying Out and Test Firing – Otherwise Known As ‘Being Patient’

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Our semi-finished oven with thermal mass, insulation, doorway and chimney

 

Taking a look inside the doorway and the bottom of the chimney

 

 

Moving through the doorway arch towards the oven

 

 

Inside the pizza oven!

 

External finishing

 

The helicopter view

 

 

Our first ‘drying out’ fire

 

 

Lighting our first fire

 

The chimney works!

 

 

Looking good

 

 

 

Thermal layers

 

Great thermal layering –  cold air is sucked in below the hot exhaust

Pizza Oven Build: The Doorway

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We used bricks carved from sandstone for the doorway arch.

 

 

Base walls of the doorway

 

Strengthening the arch and support for the chimney

 

This took some discussion

 

 

Pizza oven doorway in progress: added abutments

 

 

Starting the arch and strengthening the abutments

 

 

Arch in progress

 

Carving our own bricks

 

Brick carving

 

Kept under wraps!

 

The semi-finished pizza oven