First Fires in the Oven

It's VERY important to not fire the oven very hot to begin with. In the first place, the oven is still quite wet. When you get it too hot too fast what do you get???? Steam! What does steam do under pressure? Explode!
The very first fire needs to be mostly paper with just a bit of small wood slivers right inside the door. This first fire is sooo exciting. All that hard work and you finally get to build a fire!
Believe me....all I wanted to do was LET IT GO! But....hold on....be patient, small fires. So I built the first little fire as soon as I emptied the sand form. Here's a pic of the smoke coming out of the chimney:

VERY FIRST FIRE IN THE OVEN

Why are there bricks in front of the door, you ask? Because I want to make sure the HEAT stays inside the oven. Remember, this is a DRYING fire...not a cooking fire.
The outside dome of the oven got nice and toasty warm. OOOO felt sooo nice! Wonderful for drying.....not so good for baking. Remember, you want the heat to stay IN the oven for baking.
The sun actually came out a bit on Sunday.

adding the insulation layer

The next step was the insulation layer:
Notice the blue canopy.....it was raining....again. See the grills and the bag of clay (Lincoln Fire Clay) and the level? Looks like I know what I'm doing....right? Sooo professional. Actually it's JUST like making mud pies.


The insulation layer consists of clay, sand, pearlite, water (of course) and wood shavings. (I got a large bale of pine shavings from PetCo....yeah....I know. But it works beautifully! Under $10.00). You can see the back of the oven and where the grill is going to be.

Me, coaxing the little fire to burn. Burn, baby, Burn!

Go...little fire....you can DO IT!

The next step was building a small fire....mostly paper and some wood sticks. NOT an easy job. Remember...everything is W-E-T. This is the little fire that COULD.....but it barely made it.
I pushed it back to the back of the stove once it got going and warmed/dried out the back.
Notice the bricks around the outside? Those are to support the wet insulation mix so it doesn't slump and keep the sides vertical. Plus, the bricks act as a good wick to evaporate water. They'll come off as the outside dries.

The good news, the chimney works, the oven is drying....although S-L-O-W-L-Y and by this weekend we should be cooking!

Built another fire (#3) tonight when we got home tonight. Bigger with bigger pieces of wood. Burned nicely! Pushed the coals to the back of the oven, placed some relatively wet but seasoned wood (remember...it RAINS here this time of year) near the door then blocked the entrance with brick. This will allow the wet wood to dry out overnight making it easier to start and maintain the fire tomorrow when I get home. Temperature goal for tomorrow....400 degrees F.

I'll also add to the chimney, widening the base and making it taller to accept a stove pipe in the future.

I went outside to check on it later.....guess what???? It was really going! There was very little smoke and the little fire that could had become the little fire that DID!. It was dark, no pictures. All was well....See, I just have to be patient. (life lesson for me?)
The last of the support bricks around the outside came off tonight....things are drying nicely. Cross your fingers for sun tomorrow.

Next Steps:
1. Earthen Plaster layer.....you know what this means.....?  Manure.......from cows or horses..... along with clay, very fine (sifted) sand, fiber of some kind, and wheat paste. This is made by cooking flour in water...about 6 cups. Some people call it GRAVY! Plasterers call it wheat paste. We'll see....this one is going to be hard for me. Pooo!
2. Building the grill. Design still undergoing modification in my head. Stay tuned. I'm thinking about expanding.
3. Cooking the first pizza! (this weekend?)