The last layer before the firebrick

It was another great Saturday morning with a crew of church folks, friends, and neighborhood folks who gathered together to mix and pour the final layer of high temperature concrete before we lay the firebrick and start building the oven chamber.

Just to recap, we mixed and poured a layer of vermiculite and high temperature concrete (calcium aluminate). It needed a few days to set and harden, and now it was time to do a smooth layer of level high temp concrete to finish the base.

In order to prepare the form, we put down some good old fashioned aluminum foil and rebar.

Then the crew started mixing, and we had a solid crew on hand working two big wheelbarrows and one mini.

Then it was all about hustling those wheelbarrows up to the oven site and shoveling it into the form.

Look at that nice smooth top! We're ready for the next phase.

Pouring the Concrete

Well, Thursday morning we passed our city inspection.  He looked at our concrete forms and compacted gravel and declared it done.

After that, we had to make a decision as to whether to go forward with the concrete pour the next day.  The weather experts were predicting light rain all day. I was told that drizzle is fine for pouring concrete, hard rain is not okay.  Early Friday morning, our local weather geek, Paul Douglas, stated that the heavy rain will "pinwheel" to the south and Weather Underground stated that there would only be one tenth of an inch of precipitation.  So, with that, we green-lit the pour.

At 3:30 in the afternoon, the masses of volunteers assembled.  It was a phenomenal turn-out of Hamline students (thank you Dean Sickbert and Coach Rogosheske). We also had church folks, neighborhood folks, and friends.

Prior to the arrival of the concrete, we moved a lot of the concrete block and bags of concrete (the stuff we will use for the oven, not the concrete pad) very quickly.  I think we moved over a ton of materials in about ten minutes.

The concrete went in quickly, celebrations were had by all, and the bulk of our volunteers headed home. Then the rain came....and it was not one tenth of an inch.  My faith in Paul Douglas has been slightly shaken. He will need to work extra hard for me to trust his forecasts again.

A tent was erected.  We got cold really quick, and the slab was saved.

Checked it out the day after.  It survived the night.  Hosed it down, and then we'll start building the oven base tomorrow afternoon.