Recommitment to Nature, Rocket Stove and Ryokan

By Jon Geiger

A huge positive for me this year was reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist, professor of plant ecology, and Potawatomi Indian.  The book gave me great perspective and deep appreciation for the teachings of nature from both scientific knowledge and indigenous wisdom. Kimmerer does a fabulous job weaving her personal life experiences in with traditional Indian stories passed down by the elders. The book raised my spirits and renewed my commitment to lead by example and preserve a large supply of clean air, fresh water, pristine land and nature.  The forests of Hull Island are recovering well from past logging. In the years ahead I'll do as much, or as little as possible to help nature return to an old growth state and create a small comfortable living environment for us to integrate peacefully.

While Don and neighbors in Canada have kept a close eye on Hull Island, I've worked on an updated design for a small ryokan to be built after the stone house, and a rocket stove with my great friend Neal Broidy.  

Neal and I first met in the early 90's through our wives and daughters who met at school.   In the early years up until high school, we coached our first our sons' then daughters' soccer teams.  Every fall and winter, we spent hundreds of hours at practices and games. As Neal lives close by we still get together by ourselves or with our wives to hang out, golf or take trips to the hardware store. Our time and experiences together built a close friendship and a lasting bond.  

A couple of days ago, Neal stopped by to say hello.  At the time I was unloading concrete blocks that he lent me as ballast to put in my truck to improve the traction in case of snow.  After talking about what to do with the blocks and where to store them, I suggested we build a rocket stove.  I had heard of rocket stoves about 5 years ago and always wanted to build one but never had the time and materials.  This was our time.  Can't get to Hull? No problem, we'll pilot the project here with concrete blocks and later build a more ergonomic design with local Hull stone.

After explaining to Neal what a rocket stove was I set to work arranging the blocks.  As I struggled to get the stove built with only 7 blocks, Neal sat quietly and watched.  Eventually the wise man spoke: "why don't you turn the blocks on their side and use the hollows of only half the block?"  It was brilliant!  Neal nailed it with a clever move that I had missed.  Teamwork.  We fired up the stove and it was a total success.  We now have a proven design concept for Hull.

Neal Broidy and 7 cinder block rocket stove.  

Quick boil rocket tea

The other design I've been working on started with a vision I sketched 9 years ago flying home from Japan and imagining a Japanese hot tub with a spectacular view.  Japanese have different names for hot baths based on their sizes and shapes, whether they're indoors or outdoors, naturally fed from hot springs or heated otherwise.  What I was dreaming about was a ryokan, a Japanese building that had a place to sleep, a hot tub, a changing room, small seating areas, art, and a place to wash before and after the tub.  Authentic ryokans have sleeping pads placed on the tatami mat (reed) floors, but I think I'm too old for that now so I expect to have a Murphy-style bed that can be folded up to make room for eating, drinking tea or just relaxing.

Although our ryokan may never be physically built, I've already enjoyed the sweet dream of it for many years.  Someday, maybe!   

Hull Island ryokan 2.0