Day 16

This weekend was a turning point for the construction of the BakeHouse oven. The laying of the oven's hearth bed has now begun and we are excited for you to see the baking chamber come to life. To think that Tom is now laying the firebrick that the BakeHouse breads will be baked on is just so exciting!

Our morning started with the reveal of the slab that is to become the shelf that sits in front of the oven opening. We were so pleased with the way it turned out - and it proved to be much more economical than purchasing real stone.

Notice the little bit of ice that formed - it was chilly in the morning!

The form and the slab. The slab slipped right out!
It's amazing what you can do with concrete!

Here you can see the support blocks in place. The concrete slab
is ready to now be lifted in to place. 

The concrete slab is now in place which allows for Tom to start
laying out the firebrick for the hearth bed.

The hearth bed is held in place with a simple mixture of Fire Clay and Sand. A slurry is mixed and used like mortar to set the firebricks in place. The use of this slurry allows for hearth bed bricks to be replaced if they break.

Fire Clay and Sand are mixed in to a slurry.

With a notched trowel, the mixture is spread on to
 the hearth bed and the bricks are put in place.

The brick is then tamped into the slurry to set it.

Tom makes sure each brick is not leaning.

The top of each brick is also checked
so that the hearth bed is flush
and level. 

The weekends work complete.

This coming weekend should find the hearth bed completed. The next step will be for the side walls to be put in place. Las Cruces is starting to reveal itself in that she's tired of winter and each day is deciding to bring the temperatures up to almost 70°. The mornings are still chilly, but by 9am it's already time to remove your sweatshirt - perfect oven building weather :)

Only a few more days until Saturday - we look forward to sharing our weekend's work with you. Thanks for taking the journey with us. We've heard from so many of you. It so encouraging, thank you.

Kath