slow rise bakery and baked potato emporium

Today we began laying cob around the base of the oven. Our friends, and cobbers (?) extra-ordinaire, Paulin and Margo are teaching and helping us with the process. The three piles outside the bakery are the ingredients: clay, sand, and straw. The oven dome now has a full layer of insulation, and is almost dry. The oven is already holding a much more constant and even heat. Tonight we baked a bunch of baked potatoes to go with dinner. They turned out very nice. Tomorrow may see one or two small loaves of bread baked in the oven.

interior update

Yesterday we finished installing the tiles in the bakery, and here is what it looks like after a bit of cleaning up today. Tomorrow morning will be spent putting on the grout. The painting is just about done as well, with probably just one more coat left to do. We will also be filling in some of the spaces between the walls and the posts, and the notches at the tops of the wall posts with some cob most likely, while we are cobbing the outside of the oven. We picked up some beautiful stones today that will form a ring around the oven for the cob to sit on. The photo of the oven shows a partial layer of vermiculite/cement insulation, which will be completed during the cobbing process.

done shingling

Today we finished the last section of exterior wall that needed shingles. We installed the rear door trim, then put up the last few shingles. We also removed the cracked window and replaced it with the new one. Tony came over and installed some of the interior front door stops.

Now it is time to start on the walls, and on the next oven layers.

happy new year

A great way to end 2007 and begin 2008. Today we reinstalled the front doors (with the glass in them), and installed the two opening windows (top front). With the oven going sans insulation, the bakery warmed up very quickly once it was enclosed.

We hosted a few friends at the bakery for New Year's Eve, and baked a few flat breads and one little loaf. They turned out quite nice, and I think everyone had fun. Getting to this point has been fun, difficult, educational, exhausting, and exhilarating. Hopefully 2008 brings more of the same minus the stress, difficulty, and exhaustion.

let there be light (and doors!)

Another big day in the history of the Slow Rise Bakery. Our gorgeous front doors were mounted. Tomorrow we will be putting the glass in the doors. We also installed our back door. We also installed temporary lights on the boxes (until we can find/afford some fixtures we like). The oven continues to reach higher temperature each day as the moisture is driven out. Soon we will start applying the insulation layer to the dome.
Stay tuned.

more fire

Today we had a small fire going in the oven most of the day, then the plywood forms and 2x4 supports under the slab lit up. Not such a small fire any more.

fire!

Well, today ended up being a big day. We've been waiting for some chimney pieces to arrive, and managed to get the final one today, and had the chimney fully assembled by late afternoon. So we lit a small fire in the oven.
There is still a lot of work to do on the oven, but it felt great to light it. We plan to light a small fire in it each day to help dry it out a bit before putting on the insulation and outer layers. It should also help keep us a bit warmer while we work on the bakery in this chilly weather.

windows etc

My brother, Ollie, just left this morning after a week long visit. He gave us a hand installing most of our windows, and here is the result. We are still waiting for the windows that will be able to open, and the doors will hopefully be hung this week. The process of shingling continues, but is almost done. Most of our chimney pieces have arrived, and should be installed soon. We can then start lighting small fires in the oven to dry it out.
A quick tip to those of you that have never installed windows before - they don't take kindly to being hammered on.

the oven's new clothes

Well, we finally got around to putting the cement cladding on the oven dome! We spent yesterday repairing the cement mixer, and glopping the special refractory cement on to the dome. It really changes the look of the oven. Today, we pulled the dome forms out of the oven and used some child labour to clean out the bake chamber (although I don't think we can call it "child labour", since technically, we didn't pay anything.