Farm day #2

click on this photo!

Cellar master and apprentice.

Cheap labor

what would farm day be without a real farmer!

Farm girls

step 1 in the process, bubbly cider in December or later? to follow

Giner!

Thanks to Geoff Smith for the cool photos!

Farm Day!

Our bread firing went pretty well. The timing and oven temp will improve next time. We could get the oven a tad hotter now that I got timid out of the way. Beautiful! notice the bean pot. Beans, bread, cheese, salame, wine, and more soup.
Durum and farmhouse Swiss bread!

monkey in a tree!

Jam!

Tiny plums in brandy for Christmas!

Straight up juice

from the bean pot

Hard cider for the New Year!

There's an Oven in our backyard!

Beautiful! We finished up on Monday, capping off the top with drain slot, adding the marble shelves, and grout to the tiles. We of course had the inaugural fire and pizza, but as you can see the oven was not quite hot enough to burn off all the soot from the inside of the dome. There was still a lot of moisture in the fire bricks to dry out. Around 600 degrees will be a good start for the next firing! I just need to build some sort of door for baking bread. The party will be sometime after the STP ride in July, weekend of the 19th? Got any hardwood.

An inch from the finish!

Monday we will fire up the oven so that the dome and insulation layer on top can expand a bit, then we will pour the concrete cap to seal the top. There is about three bags of perlite 4 cu. ft. ea mixed with portland cement and filled in around the dome as insulation. Got anything to roast?

The Village Baker

Today we finished the chimney, and added the finishing touch to the face. The tile (The baker) and the mini stone tiles still need to be finished with grout. We'll probably use the gray color grout. I built up the wall another layer and added several batches of the perlite insulation. I have one more layer of the wall to go, then the dome will be completely covered with more perlite. It will be quite well insulated. The cement cap on top will pretty much signal circus time!

La Ciminiera, and regal beauty

We are closing in on the finish with just a few things left to complete. The bricks will continue up to the top of the flue and the blocks will lay up a couple more rows. The inset on the face of the chimney is for a few special tiles to be added soon!

smokestack rising

The bricks are slowly but surely being build up the face and around the chimney. The blocks are also being built up a few more layers with a minimum of about 4"of insulation poured in the gaps. Looking good!

burning down the house!

Fitting in the last of the very custom cut bricks we completed the dome. Sanded, shaved, and sawed our way to a finish. We lit a fire to burn out the ribs and to check for any possible leaks.

igloo, beehive, and lazio gets a kiss!

Click on this one for the romance!

The shape of things to come.

First the inside arch was built, then the outside. The chimney flue will be in between and atop the two arches. The dome frame is built out of plywood cutouts and door shims. The fire bricks will be built around this to create the actual dome. Then, the plywood will be burned out when it is finished!