Pizza Oven!!!

Here is the entire story of the pizza oven.

We started it last year.  First, we found the right place and put down some brick to see how we felt about the layout.  At first we thought we'd make a pad for both the oven and the grill, but in the end we decided to use the whole pad just for the pizza oven.

Then we dug down and made a pit for the pea gravel.  Everything was smoothed and we made sure it was as level as possible.

Laying brick from the old labyrinth. 

We used cinder block for the foundation.

The kids manually split the cinder blocks in two for half blocks.  (This is Holden in June 2014.)

And with the addition of 4 concrete air conditioner pads, the base is done!

Then it was time to build the brick arch.  We first built a wooden support structure that can later be used as a door.  Here's Holden in June 2015 - 5 inches taller than last year!

Then we dry-fit the bricks with pebbles between them to hold the arch shape.  The test was to pull out the wooden support to see if it stands on it's own.

And it did!

Then it was time to put just a little mortar between the bricks for the arch.  Sydney had a great idea to use plastic bags to squeeze in the mortar like putting frosting on a cake.  This is the only place we used mortar as we wanted it all to hold well when things expand with the heat.  Unfortunately, a storm turned our direction and we had to rush to finish it in the pouring rain!  We got it done, though.

Then it was time to build a sand dome that would, eventually, become the inside of the oven.  It was tricky to get the right mixture of sand and water to hold up the dome.  Too dry and it wouldn't stick together to hold shape.  Too wet and it made a big sand puddle.  The back end collapsed on us three times before we got enough water incorporated to keep it together.

But we got it done!  Now we needed to work fast so the sand wouldn't dry out and collapse on us again.

More sand was mixed in with the dirt/clay that we dug from the garden and the pond area.  The mixing was done grape-stomping style on a big tarp.

We put newspaper and a wet towel over the sand dome to keep it wet while we worked.  The first layer of clay/sand was put on.  We made softball sized balls of clay and packed them together in rows around the sand dome. 

Then we mixed straw into the clay to make cob.  It's stronger for the outside layer and insulates the oven when heated.

And it's applied in the same way.

And the construction is done!

The door was removed and the sand was pulled out.  It separated nicely due to the newspaper that was applied.  You can see the ring of half bricks we put around the bottom of the entire oven so we wouldn't wear away the clay when we scrape ashes out of the oven.

After a lot of small fires to dry it out, we were ready.

Perfect pizza!