This came up on a different message board that I'm on.  Anyone do anything with solar ovens?  Someone there passed on this link:

http://www.solarcooking.org/plans/default.htm

I told my husband we need to make one just so we can use it to season his cast iron pots.  They need hours in the oven, which heats the house up terribly (plus all the electricity used) and they also stink to the high heavens.  We usually have to open all the windows AND leave the house for a while when they're cooking.  But I think a solar oven would do the same thing, and, mercifully, outside.  Just wondering if anyone cooks in them in the summer. 

I re-did some of my cast iron recently in my charcoal BBQ. My husband loaded up the bottom with briquets and got them good and hot, then I set my pieces over the fire and let them set until the fire went out and the pots and pans were cool. It beat doing them in the house and they got a good seasoning on them. Edey 

Years ago when my df would burn off a brushpile or such, dm would put her cast iron pieces into the fire and let them sit, sometimes for days, 'til the fire went out.  Liz 

TizzyLizzy:

Years ago when my df would burn off a brushpile or such, dm would put her cast iron pieces into the fire and let them sit, sometimes for days, 'til the fire went out.  Liz 

Mine did it that way too. Over a period of lots of use they would build up a crust on the outside and that is what got burned off in the fire. That is why I re-seasoned mine, almost 30 years of built up crust. Edey

I've gathered some of my supplies to make the Minimum Solar Box Cooker - I got the boxes (although not the exact sizes as was recommended in the past thread) and the black non-toxic paint (Tempura), foil and glue.  There's been other stuff I've been doing tho, and with the weather not being warm enough yet, I haven't moved forward with making it.  But hope to do so soon.

I've never cooked in a solar cooker before, so I look forward to experimenting this summer.  I saw somewhere, on a web site, where a guy baked bread in coffee cans or something.  Would like to see how that would work!

<<I re-did some of my cast iron recently in my charcoal BBQ. >>

 A good idea, but our grill isn't as big as most of my husband's stuff, LOL.  We do re-enactments, so dutch ovens big enough to cook a whole chicken in are more in the lines of what we have.  We have like the smallest gas grill they make. 

Maybe I should just make him reseason in the fire pit in the backyard.  Not like we lack for wood or a place to burn it.  He's seasoned his small cauldrons over the fire that way anyways. 

Having a fire pit would be even better than a BBQ. Edey

I live the desert life in az. solar panels work and rigged up to a type of a 2 burner stove top version of a out door life parents go in the trailer I live in a tent kinda geet use to it after awhile..

But solar ovens you have to exparament with I think the tempiture when cooking 110 to 125 please correct me if Im wrong , and from what I hear its wonderful for the outdoor stuff because its hot outside waiting for the house to cool down from a oven gets to be dangerouse but its great to use...

 After you do some solar cooking, please post the outcome.  It sounds interesting.

I did some solar cooking a few years ago....when I was home schooling . If you have a 4-H program in your area ..they have lots of printed material (or they did ) on solar cooking and plans for making  a solar oven. I am trying to convince hubby that a fire pit in the back yard would be fun ...and save money ..but so far he can`t see the big picture . My kids and I have done a lot of "outdoor" cooking . We loved to hike and would carry food in a back pack and cook on the trail ( our own land ) sometimes in the middle of the nite ...awesome memories ! We also always had a firepit in the back yard untill I moved to the city .