 Today, I'm going to introduce you to a really inspirational and lovely couple. Their names are Hinako and Tsugu, and they are located in Japan. And they're going to introduce you to how to build an earthen oven out of natural materials and second-hand materials for free. This is a way to cook sustainably using resources that are growing locally and to get out of the technological system and live sustainably off the land, so I'm really excited to introduce you to them. Here they are. Hi, my name is Hinako, and I'm currently living on a tiny island in the southwest part of Japan. Together with my partner Tsugu, we've been gradually transitioning to a more sustainable lifestyle since last summer. One of the big changes we've made so far is this as an oven. We used to bake homemade bread in a little oven before, but we feel like moving one step forward to be more self-sufficient, especially on the energy use by making you so nearby fire oven. So today, we are going to share with you how we created this wonderful asen oven for free without buying anything, with all the materials found from this island to be as environmentally friendly as possible. So what we used was basically soils, rocks, and water, which everyone could easily find just around you. We also used repurposed materials, such as broken roof tiles, which we got when we repaired our old Japanese style house, and any kinds of bins that were once used and were about to be thrown away. The most essential component is this soil. It says that a mixture of 60% clay and 40% sand is the ideal for strong and heat-resistant ovens. To find out good soil, we did two kinds of tests, soil inspection and fireproof inspection. In the first experiment, we put collected soil and water in the bottle to get and left it for a day. On the next day, the soil was separated into layers of clay, sand, and sand from the bottom, so we knew how much clay and sand were in there, and luckily, we had the almost ideal one. In the next experiment, we made a little double with the soil and water, dried it and fired it for half an hour to see if it struggled to high heat, and it didn't make any cracks, so we ended up finding out the ideal soil at a nearby mountain, where a tree was followed from its root. Let's move on to how we built it part by part, foundation, first layer, and second layer. For the foundation first, we made a one square meters of square wall with the rocks, slightly from a beach just behind our house, by filling our spaces with a mixture of soil and water. Then, we filled the center space with broken roof tiles to make a stable and heat insulating foundation. You could use anything for this filling, such as stones, sand, or even scrap materials as long as it could fill the space. Lastly, we covered up the surface with mud, and this would be the floor of the oven, so make sure the mud is smooth enough without stones or whatsoever to prevent it from cracking. In order to build the first layer, we made a wet sand castle with a garden sand in soil first. We decided the size that was large enough to bake a pizza in, but as for the inner height, the height here at the dome should be 63% compared to the inner dome height, so that the heat can effectively circulate inside and rapidly warm up the oven. We also placed the wall at the door and covered the surface with wet newspapers, so that the castle would stay in the same shape and it would be much easier to take the sand out later since it wouldn't stick to the first layer. Now it's the fun part, stepping on and mixing the soil with water, until it became a nice and firm consistency, which you hold together well but still moldable. Once the mud making was finished, we shaped it into bricks about 8 cm wide and built them up. It's important to make no air spaces for less future cracking. Also, making riddle holes on the surface with fingers helped the next layer to stick to it much better. On the next day, we continued on building the second layer. This time, we needed to add some binding materials, such as straws or dried grass to give this carved layer a lot more strength than the inner layer. However, we decided to use just the roof soil since it already had straws in, so again, same as the inner layer, we mixed it with some water, shaped it and built it up. By the way, it's not something you have to do, but we created an air layer between the first and second layer with the bends to create a better heat insulation. We also placed a chimney here, which someone gave us, not only for letting smoke out but also for boiling water with a kettle on. We decorated the surface with beach glass and did some drawings as well. After letting oven dry for about 2 weeks, avoiding direct sunlight and rainwater, it's time to take the wool and sand out. We added some more cob at the door to make a rounded opening for a stronger oven. Once we checked the oven was far enough, we started warming up the oven gradually from low heat to medium heat. I think we fired it about 6 hours on the first day and 5 hours on the second day. And it's a day when we had a pizza party with our community friends. The first pizza baked in this oven was just so amazing. One of the great things about this oven is that we can easily repair it. It's normal that a club oven gets cracking after several years. We just need to apply a bit of mud, let it dry and it's ready to be used again. Also, even though this oven becomes super hard and durable like a rock at the end, it's still water soluble and needs to be protected from the weather with a roof over it. So how do we use and cook in the oven? Well, we start with a small warming fire with leaves and sticks right inside the door. Then add some more thin wood and push that to the back inside. And gradually add more thick wood just like building a tower. We usually use 8 to 10 thick wood at one time bake. When the oven gets hot enough, we see less smoke coming out and the walls will change from black to white as the suit becomes ash. Then we close the chimney. Till then, it takes about 1 hour or so depending on the wood and weather. The drier the wood, the easier to be get ready. For pizza, once the oven is heated up, push the coals to the sides, clean the floor with a wrung out towel and start baking. A P.U. makes it easier to put the dough into the oven. Turn around the door about 30 seconds or so, a crispy pizza is ready to go. As for bread baking, once the oven is heated, take some coals out, clean the floor, close the door and wait for about 5 minutes to let the oven cool down a little bit. For smaller bread, we put and bake them on a small metal plate, though usually we just bake our bread on the floor directly, and there will be no sand on the bread. For better bread, we spray some water on the dough right after putting it in the oven. Depending on the size, the bread is done after 10 to 20 minutes of baking. During the time, we turn around the door once for an even cook. One tip though using the oven efficiently is to start baking with something that needs high temperature, such as pies and pizza, then shift to bread or cookies, and you can also dry herbs and fruits at last. We hope you enjoy creating your own as an oven, and happy bread baking! I find Hinako and Sugu to be a really lovely and inspirational couple, and it's so inspiring to see all they're doing to live a more sustainable life. I really hope that you found them to be inspiring and that you learned a lot out of this video, and if you did make sure to subscribe to their channel. The links to follow them are in the description, and make sure to subscribe to this channel as well. If you haven't yet, I have a lot more educational and inspirational videos already filmed, and many more to come. And if you want to spread this message, make sure to share it, to like it, and to comment to help get this out to more people. I love you all very much, and I'm looking forward to seeing you again real soon!