Let the fun begin!

After several months of planning and meeting, we finally broke ground Saturday on our first wood fired oven project! The summer months are difficult because everyone is busy with gardening, traveling, and a steady stream of visitors, but a great group of volunteers showed up at the Big Stone Apple Ranch to begin construction on my dream oven. The group was led by our fearless leader Don Sherman, and included Doug Holtquist, Nick Van Lith, Duane Ninneman, Maureen Laughlin, Arne Kildegard, Chuck & Steph Pelowski, Rebecca Terk & her son Martin, Bonnie Sherman and myself.

The first phase included a great deal of digging, root chopping, and a fair amount of teasing me for my choice of location ... I picked a spot with a nice pointy tree stump that had been artfully carved by the local beavers. I had assumed that the culvert that was to serve as the base could be placed over the stump & that it would eventually burn up, but for reasons that are still unclear to me, this plan was vetoed by the men. The following video makes it look like a piece of cake, but what it doesn't show is the hour or more of digging around the stump, and the chopping of the many large roots. As Arne so aptly put it on Facebook - "If only there were Olympic medals for hole digging & culvert rolling ...

The digging:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFaIjADi6XI&feature=youtu.be

And the stump pulling:

http://youtu.be/iNWNBCU0Qdk

I should add at this point that I am a bit intimidated by the task of recording this journey. Our group includes a professional photographer, an English major, and several folks that write professionally in their "real" jobs, so it seems a bit unfair that the lady that grows apples for a living is the one recording this. That said, try to keep in mind that this is not an instructional video, but rather a collection of shared memories, and that I'm much better at baking pies than I am at writing or photography!

While the men were busy with the digging & pulling, the ladies were busy in the garage screening the clay that was dug & delivered by Nick from Rosco, SD. Chuck constructed a great box screen for us to use, and we utilized a variety of methods to get the job done ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi_ExtZ8jwM&feature=BFa&list=ULwehDrw_qb0U

and finally ...

tired of using her brawn, Steph came up with the brilliant idea of using the Jeep to pulverise the larger chunks of clay. It worked extremely well!

Once the tree stump was removed, the men continued digging a hole large enough to house the cement culvert that will serve as the base of the oven, and for the platform that surrounds it.

Probably the most challenging task of the day was moving the culvert from the trailer to it's assigned hole. Part of the problem is that just beyond the oven site the yard the yard takes a steep slope, and if the culvert got away from us it would likely end up in the lake, the other part is it's  size & weight.

After a brief discussion a plan was hatched ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X56kXEvYW_4&feature=youtu.be

Then there was the task of wrangling the culvert into it's hole ...

There were a few failed attempts & equipment failures, but man prevailed against concrete, & the culvert gently slipped into place ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V30GtsUapKA&feature=youtu.be

Once the culvert was in place and leveled, a frame was dug in for pouring the concrete platform.

A layer of 2" foam lined the frame for insulation, and to avoid problems with frost heaves, and then the cement was poured.

Rebar was laid over the foam to reinforce the concrete

Cheerleaders were installed on the deck to encourage the workers as evening approached.

                                      

When all the cement had been poured Duane did an amazing job of finishing off

the surface, but by then the photographer had retired to the kitchen to get the food

ready for the hungry crew.

There are many more pictures, and I will eventually post them to Shutterfly so they can be viewed.

Chuck & Steph have also mentioned that they are planning on making a CD for everyone. All in all

I think we accomplished a lot for one day, and I want to sincerely thank each & every person that

had a part in the day's activities!

The next gathering is planned for Sunday, August 26th, and everyone is welcome to attend. When we have a game plan I'll let everyone know the details. By that date we should be ready to begin the construction of the actual oven!

Welcome Ovenbirds

ovenbird |ˈəvənˌbərd|a migratory brown North American warbler belonging to a diverse family that builds a domed, oven like nest on the ground made of mud.

Thanks for joining!  Bette is close to being ready for the wood oven building workshop.  She and her friend Nick have picked a site on her property and will be picking up materials in Minneapolis soon.

The oven in this photo is Bette's favorite.  She called it her Hobbit Oven.

Below are photos of her site and some materials she has.

 

 

Fiery Oven Workshop Plan

Bette’s Fiery Oven Construction Workshops:

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Workshop day #1.  August 4^th: 

Foundation and Oven Base Construction

·      Dig out and level 5x5’ square 6” deep in the yard where oven will situate and make a surrounding form for adding smooth concrete surface to foundation slab.

·      Dig postholes and make footings using the Sonotubes and ready mix concrete.

·      Add 3” layer of pea rock for under concrete slab.

·      Set 5x5’ concrete slab base, rough side up, & add smooth surface concrete overlay.

·      Center and set 3’x3.5’ concrete culvert tile on slab to support the 5x5’ oven platform concrete slab. Add the top 5x5' slab rough side up.

·      Make a wood form for a 2” wide x 4” high rail on the platform top  that will retain insulation for the oven floor. 

·      Center the wood rail form and mix, fill, level and smooth vermiculite/concrete mix in the form.

·      Once vermicrete has set remove form and  place 2 Duraboard 2x4 foot sections side by side in insulation retainer. 

·      Add sand on top of Duraboard, pack the sand, smooth and level it

·      Using thinned Airset refractory mortar, coat4x4’ firebrick edges and install bricks for the oven floor.

·      Cover the entire base loosely and let it cure for @ 48 hours.

 

Workshop day #2:  Cob Oven construction

Date to be determined – likely 2^nd or 3^rd week of August

 Making the dome oven chamber

·      Make plywood template  for shaping sand dome mold  diagram

·      Create sand dome with damp sand, finishing and smoothing with the plywood template

·      Apply latex/newspaper coating dome

·      From cob recipe mix/apply cob over sand dome

·      Build entry arch form and set in place

·      Mortar and lay bricks for entry side walls

·      Construct entry roof with firebrick set on 2 angle iron bars

·      Overlay entry with cob

·      Cover and cure structure for @ one week

·      Start small fire and begin heating oven for one hour to begin drying process.  Repeat over 4 to 5 days with slightly hotter fires doubling the heat and duration each time. Oven must be protected from rain and dampness with tarp cover.

Workshop Day #3 - Insulating and cladding the oven dome

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·      Cover the oven with loose chicken wire.  Warp the wire shape over the exterior oven so wire is irregular and not flat against the surface.

·      Mix cladding recipe of concrete, vermiculite, sand and lime

·      Apply cladding from bottom up to achieve a four inch thickness.  Cover the entry with cladding also.

·      Allow the coating to set up

·      Complete the surfacing work using the stucco cement by applying a one inch coat of  stucco over a stucco wire blanket . 

Workshop day # 4:  Exterior decoration and cooking utensils

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·      According to Bette’s ideas for using field stone, sort stone for relative size and positioning and lay up with mortar..

·      Have oven basic utensils ready for use;  (peel, shovel, broom, rake, oven door).

Workshop day # 5:  Final drying and firing to cooking temperatures.

·      Over a period of 3 days complete 3 firings, each one progressively hotter (@200, 400, 800 degrees) and of longer duration. 

·      Use the third firing for experimental cooking once 800 degree temperature is reached.

Bette's oven diagrams and details

  Workshop Day 1Oven Base 

Workshop Day 2   Side Cross-section

 

Workshop Day 3 Front Cross-section

 

Utube Video - Pizza In Oven

Pictures of Dan & Michelle Moberg's Wood-fired Oven

Michelle kindly provided photos of their in-home oven heating up for a round of pizza baking.  Sounds like we might be able to go see this oven and sample some of its pizza sometime in late autumn.