back to it

We are back to it after a short hiatus. My shoulder is improving, but still bothering me considerably, so we have enlisted the help of friends to get us caught up on construction. With the help of Christy's Dad and our friend Patrick, the roof decking is all in place and fastened. The plywood and other roofing materials are being delivered tomorrow, and hopefully by the end of a small work party on Sunday, the roof will be ready for the roofer to apply the torch-on. Oven parts are on order, and we will get back to that as soon as they arrive.

quick update

We haven't managed to put much time in working on the building lately. Last week we spent a day going to a bakery auction in Nanaimo, then pretty much two days bringing our purchases back to Gabriola. We did buy a few things that we really needed for the new bakery, so it was a success. We found a fridge, sinks, baking trays, cooling racks, tray carts, a table, a great mixer, and other assorted items. Just baking enough to keep the stores stocked is taking up a lot of time as well. August has been very busy so far.

In other, more nerve-racking news, I was involved in what ended up being (thankfully) a single vehicle accident last Sunday. I was responding to a first responder page for the fire department, alone in a pumper truck, when a minivan pulled out in front of me at an intersection. After making sure the other lane was clear, I was able to swerve around the front of the van, missing him completely. With the weight of all the water on the truck, the back of the truck started to slide, and the truck ended up across the roadway, then rolled over once, stopping back on its wheels! In mid roll, the back of the truck took out the bottom of a power pole, and one of the power lines snapped, starting 4-5 small fires in the bushes. Once the truck had stopped, I got out, called dispatch on a radio, and tried to find a fire extinguisher. By the time I had, the fires had put themselves out, and there wasn't much to do except wait for the other emergency crews to arrive. To everyone's amazement (especially mine), I made it through the incident with only a couple of sore spots! As lucky as I was, I strongly suggest to everyone to take extra care while driving... You can never trust that another driver will do what you expect. Here are a couple of photos of the ruined truck.The large metal unit in the front is the water tank that used to make up the bulk of the rear of the truck. In the foreground you can see a piece of the power pole. Most of the rescue equipment on the truck was ejected as it rolled. A huge thank you to the rest of the Gabriola fire fighters for cleaning up my mess. And thanks to whoever it was that was looking after me, and allowed me to walk away from the incident.

roof building, roof burning

We had a great day today at the bakery. We arranged all the rafters in their proper places. We'll spend the next day or so attaching the rafters to each other and to the purlins. Every time we get a step closer to completion, the bakery gets a little more impressive.

Shortly after the end of our work day at the bakery, we got a page for a roof fire. We don't get many structure fires, so it was an exciting way to end the day. I made it home just in time to eat my catered anniversary dinner before someone else did.

walls

We have some walls. Partly. In most of the places they need to be. Braving the last few days of hot, hot weather, we've managed to get the exterior portion of almost all the walls up. Only the front right corner is left. Both front corners will be filled with windows above the short walls. Doing a bit of framing feels great... it goes so quickly. On Monday we will start spreading out and securing the 34 rafters. It is really starting to look like a building now, and it is very satisfying.

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.

it's that time again

Today is the day before the Farmer's Market. It seems that I now measure my week by the market. Sunday is "recover from market day", Thursday is "start resting for market day", and so on. It's lunch time, and it's raining. We got two more rows of dome bricks layed out, but we need more mortar. This afternoon will be spent prepping for tomorrow morning. The dome only needs a half day of work to be finished, then we can clad the outside of the dome with a layer of refractory fondu cement mixed with some more stainless steel needles. After that, the first fire won't be too far off!

growing a dome

Our wood oven dome grew by three rows today. It is amazing the difference a few bricks can make. It feels like we are making some progress again, now that the dome is going up. Paul and i figure we should be able to finish the dome with one more solid days of cutting and mortaring. The lower photo is the view through the bake door.