Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

[Mitchamus]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Wow - I think enclosing it will spoil it...

sorry - but the rocks behind it look awesome.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Wow - I think enclosing it will spoil it...

sorry - but the rocks behind it look awesome.

Gudday
Sharkeys build is basically tucked in a sandstone cave in a sandstone cliff.
I would like him to give us a pic of the view away from the oven and possibly a longer view shot of the oven and surrounds.
Would you mind Sharkey ?

Regards dave

[Sharkey]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Wow - I think enclosing it will spoil it...

sorry - but the rocks behind it look awesome.

Gudday
Sharkeys build is basically tucked in a sandstone cave in a sandstone cliff.
I would like him to give us a pic of the view away from the oven and possibly a longer view shot of the oven and surrounds.
Would you mind Sharkey ?

Regards dave

Daves right. The oven is built into a big rock outcrop with an overhang that is right next to my house. There will still be plenty of rock visible.

Because it has been built into a cave (as Dave puts it) it needs an enclosre to keep the water out. When it rains the water seeps down the rocks and gets under the floor of the oven. I need to catch all the water and divert it away from the cave.

I will take some photos, but it could be a couple of weeks before I get a chance, so here is one from early in my build thread that shows the extent of the rock and the location of the oven area next to my house. The oven is located against the vertical rock that is behind the tree on the left. The enclosure actually won't hide much of the rock at all.

[mirassou]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Beautiful oven and location!

[yorkshireknight]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Hi Sharkey, I just want to add my admiration for your build, from start to finish it just gets better.

I intend to copy your vent and flue which I think is great.

Not many builds on here have use of a jack hammer, you must the have patience of a saint.

Well done, your an inspiration to us lesser mortals.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Gudday Sharkey
Been hearing of the fires in the blue mountains, and from what they say it will not get any better yet. Just to let you know your all in our prayers . Stay safe . I'm sure that the blue mountains community has really come together to help each other
Regards dave

[Sharkey]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Thanks Dave, we are fine so far.

The major fire last Thursday started about 10km north, north west of our place and there was a very strong west, north westerly blowing that pushed the fire very quickly all the way to the edge of the mountains and across the Nepean river. 193 homes were destroyed in the suburb of Winmalee, which is only about 6km from here through the bush in a straight line. We have friends who were lucky to save their houses but know of many people who have lost everything.

I was working from home that day and because of the direction of the wind I couldn't even smell smoke. However, the sky looked ominous and there were constant fire brigade sirens and helicopters.

The daunting thing is that it is only the middle of spring. It is going to be a long, hot, dry summer so we have been working on making our house more fire-safe for the last couple of months but have really ramped up the effort now.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Gudday Sharkey
Good to hear you and yours are good. You right, it is early for fires and such intense one too. We might get some fires as well. It's been a wet winter and the fuel loads are there,now a dry spring. The worry is that we don't get intense fires here in the south east, so it could really prove to be tragic if it happens.
Regards dave

[Sharkey]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I haven't done any work on the oven since the last update, however we have been doing lots of cooking. The oven never cooled down over Christmas and the highlight was a suckling pig.

We managed to source a 16kg suckling pig from the agricultural plot of a local high school. Their sow had 14 piglets and they were basically giving them away.

We cooked it for about 4 hours in a low oven then took it out and heated the oven back up and put it back in to finish it off at a high temp. It was sensational.

[Sharkey]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

We had 24 people to share in the piglet. We just pulled all the meat off and let everybody serve themselves up pork bread rolls with caramelised onion and cold slaw and crackling.



Whilst I haven't done any work on the actual oven for a long time I did spend yet another month on the jackhammer extending the pizza oven area - adding nearly 2 meters to the left hand side as you see it in the picture.

And here is the area set up for another dinner over Christmas. Table settings for 22 people in an L shape leaving plenty of room for cooking.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Gudday Sharkey
Lucky bugger .... You don't know how much I've tried to hunt up a small enough porker to get it in the WFO
Glad you had the good luck
Regards Dave

[Sharkey]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

It's been quite a while since I have worked on the pizza oven. It gets a lot of use but I have had a lot on my plate lately. Anyway, I decided to get things moving and get the area finished, so this should be the first of several updates.

The first serious project was to put something over the dirt floor. As all materials have to be carried by hand I decided to build a timber deck on the ground. Also, there is enough rock, so paving would have been too much. Because we live in the bush and have termites the best option was to build with H4 treated pine.

I spent 4 or 5 weekends back on the jackhammer levelling the area. A lot of it is on solid rock so it was hard going (as usual). I built a bit of fall into the entire area so that water will run away. When I built the rock stairs (about 5 years ago) I built some fall into them too.

The structure is 4x2 H4 treated pine sitting on the ground with 6x2 boards used for the decking. The top edges of the boards were chamfered.



It was critical to get the levels where the deck meets the stairs right.




Every board had to be marked and cut at a different length and angle at each end.



The last board needed some serious reshaping to fit it in.

[Sharkey]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I had a team of helpers. We got enough of the deck completed on the Saturday to use it that night.




We finished it off the next day and then the following week we gave it a bit of a sand and a coat of oil. I think it looks pretty good and it is a huge improvement.

[mirassou]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Sharkey it looks awesome! Love the space and the lighting as well glowing on the rock.

[hodgey1]

Re: Building Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Sharkey,
This is the first I've seen of your build, its awesome. I love how you incorporated the oven and dinning area into the natural surroundings, very, very well done. Having those surroundings would greatly enhance a evening of drinks and wood-fired cooking.