posts & purlins

As planned, the crane arrived this afternoon, and in just under 2 hours, transformed scattered posts and purlins into the structure of a bakery! As usual, there is still lots to do, but it is a wonderful feeling to have this step done. The crane will be back on Tuesday to lift the 34 6x10 rafters up on to the purlins, then we will space them out and begin attaching them. Everything went very smoothly, and all the pieces fit together nicely - proof of a great job done by everyone involved.

t-17 hours

Today was a great day. Tomorrow promises to be even better. The beautiful weather is supposed to hold through the weekend, and we ended today with 10 of 16 posts standing. Tomorrow morning after baking we will help prepare the remaining posts (and arches), and drill holes in the slab for the brackets to help hold the posts. Then, in the afternoon, a crane truck will arrive to lift the purlins up on to the posts, then place the 34 6x10 rafters up on top of the purlins for later placement. By the end of tomorrow afternoon, the bakery structure will basically be in place!

done, done, done, done, dome!

The dome of the wood oven is finished. Now all that needs doing is the chimney, the cladding, the insulation, the facade, etc. Some of these things won't get done right away, but we would like the oven usable fairly soon. The second photo shows the vent in the back side of the dome that will join with the main exhaust pipe coming from the side of the oven below the slab. We placed three thermocouples in the dome to help us when we are learning how to operate the oven efficiently.