Countryboy build in SC, US

[BackyardPermaculture]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Is that Australia including or excluding Tasmania?

[countryboy]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

LOL!

My biggest problem with the first pie was not that it was shaped like Australia but that Alice Springs was missing!

In stretching/shaping the dough, my son didn't bother to tell me that he had torn a hole in the middle of it and there began my problems... Cornmeal may slide off the peel, but exposed tomato sauce acts as a decided brake. I mistakenly double clutched and then... well, you know the rest of the story!

Operating the peel has to be a strong decisive move whether going into or out of the oven... Hesitation or indecision is seriously penalized.

[BackyardPermaculture]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Any sauce gets on the peel and you need to immediately clean it, dry it, and flour it! I've had similar things happen when sauce got on the peel - the olives fly to the back of the oven while the pizza piles up...

[griz]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

what size were the fire brick that you found for that low of a price and where if you dont mind.

[countryboy]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Worked hard today trying to shorten the honey-do list... really did not have the motivation to attack the fireplace. I did add another bag and a half of vermiculite to the inside of the enclosure, but it looks like I need another two or three... Cavernous!!

I did cook a bit...

I had some peach halves drying, so I pulled them and set them aside to finish after this cycle cools a bit...

Fired up the oven around 2 PM and pulled the coals and fire as soon as the average temp was in the 700s. At 6 p.m. the average temp was right at 500? so I put two loaves of bread and four chicken halves in the oven and closed it up for a half hour...

Once they came out I threw together a blueberry cobbler and slid it in...

Then, I toasted some tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, olive oil, salt, pepper and basil under the broiler in the indoor oven. They would be great in the WFO on a tray if the temp was right, but best to do right before serving and the temps in the WFO were too low.

Ate dinner and pulled the cobbler out... Mmmmm!

Recently, put the peaches back in.

I did buy an IR thermometer at the auto parts store this morning... (Actually, it was on sale and I bought it yesterday at the shop, but it didn't come in until this morning.) It cost a little more than some of the ebay models, but I have a local shop I can hold accountable if it gives me trouble, and I don't have to wait for shipping. A side note, the first one they showed me had a max temp of 750?. I had them search their catalog and this one reads to 1000?.

Best part of dinner, beside half of it being from the WFO? We raised and butchered the chickens and grew the tomatoes and basil. The blueberries came from my brother's homestead... Doesn't get much better than that!!

Pics follow in this and next post... (Gotta figure out how to cover the bases with five instead of six pics!!)

[countryboy]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Chicken, tomatoes and basil, and blueberry cobbler.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Wow! Nice!

[KraemerBAC]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

All beautiful things...

Peter

[Millstone Man]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Beautiful job. Congratulations on the speed as well. Enjoy!

[countryboy]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Thanks, guys. Much appreciated kind words.

Frankly, I am a little bored now that the hard work is over, but will enjoy the cooking...

Starting to ponder how to build a small fireplace in my greenhouse to store heat and heat water... Much that I learned in this build will translate into that little endeavor. Since it is functional and does not need to be pretty, I can scrounge and use scrap cement blocks and non-firebrick bricks.

Likely I will use firebrick where the fire is, but concrete and cement blocks for the rest...

[dmun]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Starting to ponder how to build a small fireplace in my greenhouse to store heat and heat water.

I'm thinking a masonry heater would be ideal for a greenhouse: you could fire it once at sundown, and the retained heat could carry it all night, until the sun took over in the morning.

[countryboy]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Used the wrong terminology.. Masonry heater is what I meant as I picture a small fire box with the smoke routed through channels that will extract all heat before it vents out the end of the GH.

I have searched and had trouble finding plans that I can modify. Will keep looking. I know they exist. My thought is to have a couple layers of 4" concrete that have copper or steel pipe networks through them that I can cycle water through to extract some of the stored heat into my fish tank. (I have a 1200 gallon fish tank with 230 tilapia in it in the greenhouse... See mu aquaponics project previously mentioned in this thread...)

My biggest concern is making sure it vents properly so it will draw...

Ideas and input readily accepted!

[countryboy]

Oopsies!!! and some good food..

I made my outer door as a pretty close fit... Really close in places, actually.

So, last night we had pizza and then I sealed up the oven. Early afternoon today I was called in to work for a while so I put my eldest son on the job of baking cookies in the oven... Good experiment, right. Only, I forgot to give him some really careful instruction concerning the outer door.

After a while at work I get a call telling me how awesome the cookies are coming out!!! Perfect!!

Then I get 'the call.'

"Honey. uh, your son broke the oven."

"What??" (I'm thinking, 'Not possible.)

"Yeah, he knocked some rocks out of it."

"You mean bricks, right?"

"No. Rocks."

"There's only one big rock in the front."

Anyway... long story short, I was a bit confused, but careful to remain calm!

Once I got home to survey the damage, I recognized immediately what happened and why...

The outer door can expand in the heat and he got it in the tapered arch too far then must have yanked on it to try to free it so he could "rescue" the cookies in the oven...

All considered, not too bad a damage. And, a good lesson on why a bigger hammer isn't necessarily the best solution.

Took an hour to mix some mortar, clean up the brick and replace the pieces he managed to pry out of the outer arch. Went back together easily, though it was tough to get it to set back as far as the original brickwork because I couldn't remove all of the original mortar from behind... When I mortared it back in I did away with the earlier thermal break between the chimney support arch and the outer arch. I figured the additional support would be preferred.

Following are a couple pics of the damage and the repair.

Next post... FOOD!!

BTW! I have trimmed up the outer door for a looser fit and instructed him on when to use and how to insert/remove...

[countryboy]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

Wow!! I have been singing the praises of the WFO!!

Two armloads of wood and we are rocking!

Pizzas last night for us and a family we invited over. Had a ball!

Sealed up the oven when we finished and mid-day decided I wanted to see how it baked cookies. I assigned my oldest the task of making cookies, which we do often with fresh ground whole wheat, etc...

I was called in from work and got home just in time to test some of the last ones out of the oven. Heavenly! Maybe the best we've ever made. My son could get three cookie trays in at a time and ran through four cycles finishing over eleven dozen cookies!! Pic is of the last batch cooling and the two counter cookie jars filled!

Interestingly, the oven was hovering at about 375? when he started and had crept UP to 400? by the time he finished.... Learned something new: Last night I pushed the coals to the back and after pizza never removed them. The door seals well enough that they really slowed down, but with the door opening and closing for the cookies the air movement reinvigorated them and the temps actually rose while he ran through four bake cycles. Interesting note for future temp maintenance...

Later, I put some steaks on a rack over a baking pan and cooked them for 30 minutes. They were good, but not great. Will have to re-think how best to cook them.

Next I whipped up some beans and a roast for tomorrow's lunch... Haven't put them in the oven yet, but will have after pics if they turn out well... My last meat experiment when horribly wrong, but that is expected with the WFBO learning curve.

[countryboy]

Re: Countryboy build in SC, US

The beans and roast turned out great!! Sorry so slow getting a pic up!! The beans might be some of the best I've ever had!! They were just delicious and I am not a particularly big bean fan...

Besides a pic of the two completed dishes, I have below a pic of the wall-mounted oven tool rack I whipped up today. Details of how/what I did are posted in the DIY Oven Tools thread.