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.

We've got a bun in the oven...

In brainstorming ways to raise money for the new brick oven, we decided to have a party. Then we decided that maybe we shouldn't just have a party. Perhaps, we need to have a baby shower for our new bread oven, complete with a baby oven registry for all the little things that our oven will need to grow up and be happy and kind.

So that is what we've done.

On Sunday, May 10th (Mother's day), there will be a baby shower at 10:00 in the Hamline Church basement complete with food, games, prizes, and, of course, gifts.

Here is the very cool gift registry:  https://thankfulregistry.com/oven

It's fun to see what our baby has already received.

UPDATE: The baby oven shower was a blast with great food.  Look at all these happy people!

Unloading a ton of bricks

Firebricks are interesting little things.  Each of these little beauties are pretty dense and heavy (about 7 pounds).  The ones we bought are good to about 2200 degrees.  They also cost a heckuva lot more than the died concrete you get at the local hardware emporium.  According to the very credible website, Wikipedia, firebrick has Aluminium oxide, which helps it withstand high heat.

Today, we took delivery of our oven's firebrick.  By taking delivery, I really mean that we got our hands on a rockin' big truck and hauled it over ourselves.  The turn-out was great, and a dozen volunteers moved the brick up to the worksite in about thirty minutes.  We had planned on having some pizza, but we were done so early people just went home.  So, there will be pizza another time.

Here we are unloading the truck in all our merriment: