Starting the planning: First sketch shows radial lines of concrete blocks to support hearth slab - a radical departure from the squares preferred at the very useful Forno Bravo support forum. It doesn't help that my supplier, Darley Refractories in Melbourne, does not provide plans with its 'pre-cut' kits...
This kaleidoscope view shows the stations on the way to a cross chicken roast (or sourdough bread, for that matter). Needless to say, it took a while to get there, from the initial sketch of the foundation...
The site for the Pompeii-style stone oven to be, 'Il forno del gallo che canta', is chosen. Next to the big Hebel block shed I built 3 years ago. In the background Bianca's garden and the 'quarter house' that shelters the Huesch hugger-mugger...
Getting ready for laying out the site. In the background, twin 12,000+ Litre rainwater tanks, and the 'aquaeduct' I rigged up to take overflow away from the oven site...
Trying it for size: the beginning hole for a round footing slab. Nellie the Leghorn cross enjoys rich pickings...
Depth of 30 cm allows for a good thick bed of gravel and sand under the 12 cm double-reinforced round footing slab. Drain pipe trench is next...
Three days of downpours interrupted the work...
...but the new 'waterhole' proved a big attraction for our geese! An old she-oak next to the site meanwhile also bit the dust...
$25 bilge pump and $19 for 12V sealed lead acid battery soon put paid to THAT inundation! Small solar panel keeps battery charged.
Another 4 inches of rain later, I chase a bathing gander out of the foundation hole and put the bilge pump to good use again. In the background two of three vans I've ruined in my 35 years of weekend outings to our bush block...
Decided to enlarge the footing slightly so as to better utilise the 2m slab mesh without cutting it up too much. Can of $6 surveyor's spray marker delineates new circumference, shows path for 100mm agricultural drainage pipe...
Trenching shovel (abt $35 from Bunnings) sliced through clay loam without trouble but getting the angle of attack right was somewhat tricky - at one stage I had to get down on my knees to keep the trench level... Ag pipe (leftover from shed construction) will be covered with gravel tomorrow
It took four 600m round trips to the gate near the road to almost fill the drainage trench with gravel. Cut eucalypt rounds at rear await the fire... The day had begun auspiciously: Fazio's Jenny rang Bianca to advise that the firebrick hearth tiles had arrived from Melbourne. “They are in the yard”.. We dashed into town so quickly I forgot money and papers at home, were directed to the yard, foraged around until a truckie rang the boss. “Thanks Allan, see ya, mate!” It turned out the base tiles were on the Fazio truck, still on its way from SYDNEY! Ah, well, it's been a bit of a farce from start to finish... I wouldn't be surprised if my giant box of Guylian chocolates for the Darley 'support team', sent by overnight express mail on Monday, would arrive after Christmas - Third World, here we come...
A big eucalypt close to the oven site had to be felled - sorry 'bout that! (It was the largest I felled to date with my new Stihl Magnum 660 saw, about 122 cm circumference - and I admit to a slight jitter in my 70-y-o bones!
Four tonnes of gravel (abt $A55/t from Home Hardware) required two trips (cheap at $30 a trip!) by Charlie Sult (who also collected the steel mesh on the way, thanks!) and his 3-ton tipper. A bit much perhaps for a 2m diameter footing and hearth slab, but then you can use gravel anywhere around the place...
Some of the gravel went straight into the foundation hole; slab mesh is temporary guard against chooks scratching in the sand that is about to be tipped on top to protect the plastic under the footing
After three weeks of waiting - and amazing complications - the firebricks, ciment fondu, Insulfrax blanket and hearth tiles for my Forno del Gallo che canta are safely on our veranda...
Did I just say 'hearth tiles'? Not on this pallet there ain't, baby!
I rang Darley Refractories to point out the shortfall (25 base tiles worth $210 plus tax), but the careful Tonia made me unload all firebricks from the pallet to be sure. Still no hearth tiles...
Bianca's new 'el cheapo' conventional convection oven finally arrived (I hoped I'd have the stone oven ready first!) , and I provisonally connected it yesterday with a 15A HD cable and plug (couldn't wait for a 'sparkie'...). We promptly baked our first sourdough bread in more than three months, but the temperatures are somewhat different from the top&bottom-element equipped St George. Experimentation is the order of the day... I started on a MDF cabinet but the arrival of two grandchildren and a pain-racked mum disrupted that job
Spot the difference! The 25 hearth (base) tiles arrived on our verandah... At far left the twin Flymo lawnmowers we push every day or two - the 450-500 sq m of 'lawn' grow too fast in the hot, rainy season...
It's actually 7:30 pm when I take this view of the Forno del Gallo site (centre background) from our sleeping loft.
HELP! How does it all fit together? Who's good at geometry? Is it better to lay five rings of the steeper taper even though the keystone would then sort of slide out downward?
A side view of the first trial: 8 rings of flatter bricks, followed by five rings of the steeper taper. I've got 70 of the flatter bricks, 35 of the steeper taper. The Darley 'kit' specified 67 of the first type, 33 of the second type for a 1m ID dome - but gave no instructions on how to lay them...
Here I tried 8 rings of the 75->63 taper bricks, followed by four rings of the 75->57 taper, with another ring of the flatter taper in the top centre - this would probably work, but I'd have to shape the keystone to fit... Any ideas, guys?
Side view of the second attempt, using 8 rings of the flatter bricks and four of the steeper taper, followed by ONE ring of the flatter bricks in the centre. (All bricks, apart for the first ring, are supposed to be cut in half for building the dome, says the helpful team at Darley's...
An almost acceptable configuration arises from eight rings of flat taper, four rings of steep taper and one ring of straight firebricks - which leaves a neat little wedge-shaped opening to plug with cast Aircrete mortar or a specially cut keystone... Floor-to-roof distance is 18.5 inches (47 cm) in this case
Forno Bravo forum suggestion: start with the steeper taper bricks (left arch) - doesn't look right to me: right arch seems more cupola-like...
Fire weather - strong northerly winds, about 28 C: time to fuel the Honda/Davey Firefighter pump for a test run... works at first pull of starter! In this weather, work on the Forno del Gallo is on hold (and I wouldn't light it even if it were finished)
Finally, I got the MDF cabinet ready and the oven is now built in at working height. Finishing touches such as a trundle for the grill pan and racks are still t/c and will neatly cover the cutout at the bottom... Note the Italian tiles I laid 13 years ago with my sister (when we were both drunk...)
Making a circle out of the 2 x 2 m mesh was easier the second time round (first 'worksheet' is propped up by the stack of future firewood): all it took was a piece of oil-based marking chalk, a solid bolt cutter and a length of water pipe to act as a lever...
After several t&e (trial and error) runs with the bolt cutter, the twin mesh rounds are finally in position... I'll leave making and pouring the concrete until next year :-)
Didn't have a metal-detector handy, but this $A12 magnetic welding clamp from Home Hardware was the next best tool to sweep the site of debris that might later jam the blades of the push mower... Bianca got a fright when I showed her this strange 'animal' in the kitchen!
Piadina baked in a hot pan (without oil) - since these Italian staples spend at least 5min in the pan, each, you spend at least 40 minutes in front of the stove! There has to be a better way... can't wait to bake them all at once in the Forno del Gallo!
A course of flat taper bricks (75 -> 63 mm) on their sides, then more of the same but cut in half lengthwise? Don't know about the two full-size (no taper) soldiers guarding the opening...
Seven hours and ten minutes later (during a 31 C heatwave!) the slab for my Forno del Gallo che canta is finished! Bianca helped by filling buckets with gravel, sand and water and keeping them ready for the mixer. Old Faithful (my 35-y-o second-hand Leyland 154 tractor and the Teagle Tipmix attachment didn't miss a beat! I should mention that I drank two bottles of my excellent home brew (a 400 mL Real ale and a 375 mL Bavarian Lager) during the ordeal, scoffed a huge slice of my homemade Rheinisches Schwarzbrot with salami - and after I'd finished, restored my balance with half a bottle of Annie's Lane Clare Valley Riesling!
I think I've got it! Three rings of the steeper (75>57mm) tapered bricks for the base, then nine rings of the flatter (75>63mm) tapered ones for the rest of the dome. Roof to base height in this case is 48 cm (19 in) - less 50 mm (2 in) for the hearth tiles... What's your take on this variant, guys? (I'm indebted to Maver for suggesting it first!)
First course of the unorthodox hexagonal stand is mortared to the slab. Blocks leave escape routes in all directions for the red-bellied black snakes that abound here... even though Hendo has just told me on the Forno Bravo forum that there are no recorded deaths in Australia from black snakes! They are timid, but I think it's best not to make them feel trapped!
Getting there... slowly. Today in 31 C heat I managed another half layer (six blocks) after racing into town with a chipped tooth and cooling myself with half a bottle of an excellent South Australian chardonnay, a Lindemans Padthaway 2001. One more layer to go before I start on the hearth slab!
Making a stand: the last layers of blocks are in place, umbrella keeps work in shade and plastic guards further against rapid evaporation of the mortar. Next comes the hearth slab!
Photo shows one of the six 'escape routes' for red-bellied blacksnakes provided by the snake-friendly design of my Pompeii oven stand. Hearth slab is next on the construction menu... In the background, a tree I felled perhaps 25 years ago should make good firewood!
Two holes drilled in a stump with a spade drill bit take makeshift steel 'stops'...
... so I can bend 16 mm rebar with a piece of pipe.
Steel reo will tie blocks together every second core, to be filled with concrete. Reinforcing mesh will hold hearth slab together.
Occasional gentle sprinkling rain helps keep the new render coat from drying out too quickly. It also aids the proper setting of the concrete securing the first 12 reinforcing steel bars (16 mm) that tie the six block walls together. Forming up for the hearth slab and two layers of steel mesh covering the 2m round platform are the next jobs...
Most of the stand walls are rendered, so I've started to cut the 'formwork' for the hearth slab from 6 mm fibre cement board. The 16 mm rebar steel shows above. More steel reinforcement (two # 72 mesh) will be laid once I've figured out a way to produce round hearth boundaries from thin plywood and cut the fibre board accdordingly. Centre also needs a cutout of fibreboard, as do the block cores where I have no rebar...
Using an old strip of thin plywood (top right), I try to get a smooth curve for cutting the 6 mm thick fibre cement boards that will become the bottom portions of the formwork. The concrete for the hearth slab will extend down into each second block core with steel rebar - hopefully providing a very strong support for the heap of firebrick that is to rest on top... Oh, and the big magnets, you ask? Well, I sometimes dump a clamp in one of the cores...
Proof of concept: three 4 mm plywood strips are bent around the outside blocks of the hearth stand and held with a galvanised strap. Strap is tightened using a cargo strap adapted for the purpose. Tools in foreground were used to cut the plywood strips: it took me perhaps 1/2 hour to cut the first with the saw, then I went and bought a $A19.95 tungsten-tipped laminate cutter, which scored the plywood in seconds, allowing me to just snap off the sections...
Close-up of the 'adapted' cargo strap...
Form work idea works: next step is cutting the fibre cement panels to fit the round space... laminate cutter will hopefully help here, too!
Formwork in place, allowing for a 100 mm (4 in) slab. Offcuts of the same 6 mm fibre cement board used as 'lost' formwork cover alternate holes in the blocks that carry no reinforcement ties. Two rounds of reinforcing mesh will be placed next - and supports for the cement board built between the block walls - then it's time for the pour!
Height of form work brought to 125 mm (5 in) and temporary supports built under the 'critical' wide portions of the 6 mm fibre cement board. Work constantly interrupted by 'foreign orders': first I have play concierge for hours at the chicken coop to prevent brush turkeys getting at the feed, and goannas getting at the freshly laid eggs. At lunchtime there's the daily pest patrol at the bee hives, trying to fend off an invasion of Small Hive Beetles (perhaps brought to this country by another flying dutchman?!) Bianca opens the hives and holds up the combs, and I use a tiny surgical clamp to squash beetles and their larvae - we must have got hundreds over the past week! And at night, there's a quick upgrade of the main computer, stuffing in a new 250 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II drive...
$A6 can of surveyor's spray came handy here again to delineate round of #72 reinforcement mesh for cutting...
35-year-old investment finally paid off! This 24 in Stilson made from drop forged steel helped me bend the 'hooks' of the mesh in a jiffy - even though two passes were needed all round... First, I bent the steel to the shape shown at the right glove using the Stilson in the one direction...
... then I turned it around to attack the mesh from the other side to complete the bend as shown on the left glove. Don't ask me why I have such a tool! I don't want to admit that my wife coveted a public park bench at Balmoral Beach in the early 1970s - and as it was secured to concrete pads with huge nuts I eventually bought this massive tool for $A11 to undo the screws... Never did, though, honest injun! Instead the Stilson got 'hidden' at the farm, where I re-discovered it totally rusted some years ago...
The first layer of reinforcemernt mesh is in place. MTC (more to come) tomorrow (we need a break - see next slide...)
We relax with a drop of wine at our “Bar jeglichen Komforts” = which translates roughly to 'bereft of any comfort' but because of the operating word Bar strikes this old sub as rather funny.... Bianca and I normally take three days to finish a bottle, sometimes two days - but in the case of this Ravenshead Adelaide Hills 2005 Merlot Rose (of which I foolishly bought a case) we drank the lot! Behind the bar is the chookhouse...
Our latest additions to the flock, Rosie (left) and Morena. They are the funniest chooks alive: walking like ballet dancers, always running together, 'rolling' across the lawn (that's why we call them 'die Kugeln' - the spheres) and bumping into each other.... Morena likes to pluck her companion's neck, so tonight we put on some French shaving lotion that will, perhaps, deter her. These two, like most of the other hens and two roosters, learned to recognise and react to their own names within perhaps 10 days! All of our chooks have names, and come when called by name, or at least acknowledge the greeting with a brief comment when addressed - I've never believed this was possible. My whole concept of chooks has changed completely!
That's about it for reinforcement! In foreground a stack of CDs and DVDs containing the family history, accounting data from my former consultancy TechTrak, e-mails and other documents that I'll immure in one of the hollows under the hearth slab - for the 23rd century, or whenever a developer decides to 'redevelop' our piece of coastal bush!
The deed is done! Today we poured the hearth for Il forno del gallo che canta, so if nothing goes wrong, I may be baking pizza and bread on my 71st birthday (I still have a month to finish this amazing project)? Bianca kept the buckets filled with sand and gravel, the rest was up to me - and our Old Faithful, the little Leyland 154 tractor with PTO-driven Teagle mixer...
High-tensile chain serves as the catenary to delineate the ideal curve for my dome oven...
.... as can be seen in this mock-up of a central dome segment. Given that there is between 1 and 3 mm of mortar still to be added to each joint, it looks as if I've chanced upon the perfect fit. Interior diameter is 1 metre, dome height will be 52 cm once I've added a course of straight firebricks lying on their flat side.
El momiento de la verdad: form work is stripped, all is well - well, almost. Blemishes will be covered by cement render :-)
A lick of paint (Dulux Tuscan Effects) never harmed an oven stand... Fire bricks are laid out dry to see how they'll stack up
After spending two days casting a 1.2 m diameter pad on the hearth slab from a mix of LaFarge ciment fondu and two bags of No. 3 vermiculite - as recommended by a Forno Bravo forum expert, I spent today chipping off the outer portion that would have extended under the dome wall.
This is the remaining portion of 5 cm thick insulation - covered by a thin skin of mortar - that I'll use under the 25 mm thick calcium silicate board and hearth tiles. The dome wall will now rest not on the crumbly insulation, but on a ring of 215 x 115 x 75 mm insulating firebricks. Makes a lot more sense to me!
Today I cut the 25 mm calcium silicate insulating board to fit the dome walls of the oven AROUND the insulation. Next step is placing 75 mm thick insulating firebricks I bought in Sydney for $A3.30 a piece around the periphery as the first course. Since my $A8/ea hearth bricks are 50 mm thick, I've decided to lay another 75 mm layer of straight firebrick on top of the insulating firebrick, before I even start on the angled bricks for the dome. The 'experts' at Field Furnace Refractories impressed on me the need to build the hearth platform first, then construct the door chamber and flue chamber, before even getting into the dome walls. I also bought an 8 inch (200 mm) stainless steel flue with chinese top hat for $A138, and a stainless steel peel for only $A37! And because it was cheap at FFR, I took home a second roll of insulating blanket for only $A60 - about half of what I paid for the one from Darleys (theirs is a slightly better grade though)
Went down to Sydney last week to stock up on refractories, refractory mortar and insulation, now back to the task of trying to fit it all together... this odd curve for instance is to work out how to lay the new bricks for the door arch (borrowing some 345 mm long ones intended for the flue arch because I haven't yet dared to use my brandnew $A250 Makita 230 mm dia., 2400 W angle grinder with a $A100 refractory-cutting blade to cut some short bricks in half!) Don't tell Bianca, but this Forno del Gallo che canta is getting dearer by the week - and I haven't counted little extras such as diesel for the 800 km trip!
Insulating firebricks finally laid using Field Furnace Refractories' high-temperature mortar. I floated the bricks in water to soak them a bit, because the first one, laid 'dry', sucked all the moisture out of the mortar and had to be relaid (fourth from bottom right).
The first chain of straight 230 X 115 x 75 mm firebricks is in place: today I cut some corners (front) with my new angle grinder and diamond blade - like a knife through butter! But the dust gets into the machine's air passages, and I may have to spring for a separate dust extraction guard. Hearth tiles placed to assess positioning and best way to cut with least effort...
When I start shivering (it's around 17 C these days, 7 C in the morning) I chop up some old pieces of timber from trees I felled perhaps 20 years ago...
Makeshift jig for cutting door arch bricks in half: floor cramp is heavy enough to hold brick while I have both hands free to hold the angle grinder. Taped some 'dust deflectors' around the machine's air outlets at the rear which somewhat alleviated the problem of dust streaming into the vents...
'Borrowed' one 51 mm taper brick from the flue arch to make up shortfall in the door arch... hope Andy from Field Furnace Refractories will put one half of the 230 x 115 x 75>51 firebricks in the mail for me!
Mixture of 50/50 sand and fireclay under the 25 mm CalSil board and on top to level the hearth tiles (t/c). At right a beginning door arch...
The door arch is taking shape, but some finnicky cuts will still be needed at the junctions with the first chain of dome bricks - and the junction with the flue arch to be built in front...
On top of the slab you have a 50 mm thick layer of vermiculite/concrete mix, then a thin screed of mortar, followed by a mix of fireclay and sand to level the calcium silicate insulation. More sand/fireclay will be spread thinly on top to level the hearth tiles, awaiting action (e.g. cutting to fit curve) behind the first chain of firebricks already mortared to the chain of insulation firebricks...
After reading Maver's exhortation on the Forno Bravo forum that you can't have too much insulation, I decided to add another layer of calcium silicate boards...
Then I added the 50 mm (2 in) hearth tiles back on top - knocking off one of the 3/4 door arches off its perch!
Getting organised: I've discovered that you only need to cut the front face of the brick say 15 mm deep, then score the sides and back with a tungsten-tipped cutter and whack it on one side with a brickie's bolster - pronto! You get the neat front edge where the brick halves meet in the inside of the dome, and save on expensive refractory-cutting blades...
Close-up of saw cut and scoring tool
Clamp holds brick in position when I step on the end of its galvanised pipe tail...
Days of downpours brought work to a standstill...
...and kept bricks to be cut nicely soaked!
Trying out the shape of the flue arch. Two of the straight bricks are already in place in front of the door arch fragment... This exercise in experimentation and perhaps futility stems from my decision to marry the frontend of a barrel oven with a dome! Will see how I'm going to achieve this...
After cutting all but two of my 75->57mm tapered bricks with my new technique, I just had to assemble them in place to see how it would all work out. And apart from some minor issues, such as having to avoid continuous vertical joints and the like, I think this might well be the right way ahead!
This is the view from the back: insulating firebrick, followed by straight firebrick, then the three chains of loosely stacked 75>57mm bricks I just cut all in half. Tricky problem: how to marry the dome chains into the door arch, seeing that they will recede from its vertical plane after a few more chains...
One-metre internal diameter oven ends up 54 cm ( 21 1/2 in) high in the chosen brick configuration (3 chains of 57mm taper, 9 chains of 63mm taper, first chain straight 75mm bricks) - is that still acceptable? Or is it too high even for a Tuscan oven? Correction: dome height will be just about 48 cm above hearth tiles! I forgot that the 75mm straight firebrick will be BELOW the hearth level...
After a week or so of massive rainfalls, the dome-building continues: today I managed to lay 4 (four) of the flue arch bricks, which needed a bit of fiddling at the rear junction with the door arch...
Flue arch vs. door arch: flue is catching up!
Rains and five days of an exceedingly painful foot injury (bursitis) caused by weeks of schlepping around in heavy-duty gumboots and very thick insulating socks brought work to a halt once more... But today I got up, limped to the site and laid two more flue arch bricks! (Then limped back to bed :-)
My wait to get rid of the Big Toe joint inflammation was well spent: I checked out ebay Australia for non-contact IR thermometers and came up with this Fluke lookalike from AJH Systems trading as Gastools. It landed on my desk this morning for $147.45 including Australia Post Express delivery, came in a soft pouch and hard case package and has no visible manufacturer's markings. Specifications are heaps better than the Fluke/Raytek MT6, which sells in Oz for more than $210... Thanks, Adam!
Half of July gone, and still the arches aren't finished! Laid two of the flue arch bricks yesterday, one of the door arch bricks (at top right} today. Of course I bumped my injured foot again on the ladder, so tomorrow may be another slow day :-)
I'm glad to see the back of it :-) Note the hearth tiles in place and proud of the base chain of firebricks - this is why my dome will still have the recommended height...
Laid two more flue arch bricks today, then tackled the door arch and laid two more 'heterogeneous' firebricks and secured them with a temporary 'keystone'... Of course I just HAD to bump my injured big toe joint on one of the metal stakes I had placed to make the job of fixing a tarpaulin easier - absolutely essential in this period of frequent and massive winter downpours!
There's the stake in the left bottom corner: of course I put the yellow safety marker on it only AFTER the little new injury to my bare foot that made me let out a 120 dB scream...
Keystone event - even though I had to fudge it a bit, with two 75 -> 63 mm stones and a specially cut wedge. But once it's all loaded from above, she'll be right!... as we say in Orstralia
Here's the door arch keystone in close-up. The flue arch awaits further work to fit the 200 mm (8 in) stainless steel flue from Field Furnace Refractories. But first, I'll get stuck into the dome proper! (The transition between parabolic dome and 'flat' door arch is still a bit unclear to me - but, as usual, I'll muddle through with some trick of my own...)
After much hesitation - the Airset mortar is 6 months old, after all - I took the plunge today and started placing the first two chains of steep (75 -> 57 mm) firebricks. The first chain is mortised into the door arch already (centre), the next course still needs a carefully cut firebrick to clasp the door arch...
Another view of the day's work: here the first chain still needs a brick to fit the door arch, and the second chain isn't quite there yet... I tried to smooth the small overhangs over each perpend with a little mortar, but most likely this will spall off during firing. Ah, well - at least I bumped my foot only once today (Bianca and a neighbour have decided I have gout, so red wine and pork crackling are off the menu!)
Failing light and a threatening thunderstorm made me stop short of the finishing line for chain Number Three today. Note to Darley Refractories: make sure you add at least five of the steep tapered firebricks (75 -> 57 mm) to each of your kits! When you need to cut some to fit for example an door arch, you risk ending up short...
With a chilling southerly whipping me and freezing my bare feet, I managed to fill the outside gaps between the firebricks with 'Densecrete 135F' from Darleys Refractories. The triangular gaps between the insulating firebricks at the bottom will be filled with a vermiculite/concrete mix of 5:1.
Harley Huesch 'tests' the oven - but it's far from done!
Another day, another chain - this is the first of nine chains of the flatter taper (75 -> 63 mm). The black stuff in the outside gaps is Densecrete 135 F - I've nearly used up my one and only 25 kg bag...
Does it remind you of an IBM Golfball printhead? Perhaps you're too young... At right my attempt to tie the chain into the door arch - more black Densecrete. I have yet to master the required composite angle cuts to use firebrick in these spots!
Another chain of firebricks goes up in the “golfball” - with a couple of quarter bricks to limit vertical joints overlapping... Work on Forno del gallo is slow in part because the fruit trees need pruning: I have so far thinned out a huge Nashi pear tree, a few tropical apples, and a massive dense lime tree...
Filling the largish gaps between the firebricks with Densecrete 135 F is a fiddly job... I bought some mixing containers with a tight lid so I can get away for a coffee break without the stuff drying up! On the container: my indispensible Italian pointing tool...
Days of heavy intermittent rain prevented work on the oven, so today I planted a Kalamatta olive tree close to the site. A Manzanilla variety awaits allocation of a suitable spot... In the backgound a 20-odd year-old piece of eucalypt trunk that I'm whittling down with a log splitter axe - a bit each day....
Newly-planted Kalamatta olive tree, with admirer... In background a black mulberry tree full of flowers and bees is dwarfed by an old paperbark tree
On a beautiful pre-spring day (24 C today!) another layer of the flatter (75 mm > 63 mm) firebricks is placed...
... but while cleaning up the inside joints - where do these big vertical triangular gaps arise?! - I knocked off one of the freshly laid bricks
Here's the 'golfball' from another perspective, including the new gap. My dentist did something like this to me years back... Talking of matters medical: I went to the nice Chinese Dr. Wayne Young (sic) today to learn the results of my blood test. All functions fine, and no urates in the blood - although this doesn't totally discredit his initial diagnosis of gout. I ascribed the damaged Big Toe joint to kicking firebricks around in gumboots...
Double-layer of Insulfrax remained wet for weeks under the hearth tiles, so today I bit the bullet and removed most floor tiles. Just as the sun was nicely shining into the open dome - but as soon as I was done, rain threatened again!
Yesterday I started laying a chain of firebricks at this sharp angle - without supports - and several times they just slid off into the 'void'... Perhaps I should start thinking about some 'formwork'? NB: junction between door arch and dome remains tricky - I proceed by T&E (trial and error)...
At layer eight, I discovered that half bricks tended to slide into the void, whereas one-third bricks stayed put...
... so I started cutting bricks in three, using a small incision followed by a blow with the bolster.
The result, as dusk fell, is chain number eight completed - apart from the closure brick at the door arch - without further brickslides!
Taped the triangular openings between the bricks, so I could pour thinnish hi-temp mortar into the cracks from the outside...
Chinese gym ball has just about the right diameter to prop up layer 10 and above - I hope...
Layer Nine in place, and my last Densecrete 135F (the black stuff) expended on the largeish gaps. You can see how I will have to fudge the transition from elongated 'circle' of bricks to the door arch. Flue arch remains open until I finish the dome proper, with all insulation and stucco. Then I'll fit the stainless steel flue to the flue arch...
Same view. from the rear... hearth tiles are back in place...
What the amateur mason would like to hide from view, the sooner the better: ugly gaps between the bricks, here (top) filled with Densecrete ( a mixture of ciment fondu and ground firebricks, I assume)...
Close-up of same - hi-temp mortar will fill any remaining voids...
Goldie the rooster who sings, after whom my pizza oven is named (Forno del gallo che canta)
Honing my skills for the day my Forno del gallo is finished, I quickly baked my first-ever 'baguettes' - just in time for dinner tonight... Still warm out of the conventional electric oven, they went down well with the Asian-style chicken soup. (I made the kitchen table some 30 years ago - a fake parson's table after a Sunset Magazine design.)
Rye bread I just baked has a wry smile - using Bianca's just broken-off front tooth (dentist booked for next Friday). I hasten to add that it wasn't my bread's fault: Bianca ran into a branch in the bush surrounding the homestead!
Daniel Leader's book on Local Breads is my new bread-baking bible - I am always surprised how well the loaves turn out even if I only casually follow his recipe...
... such as this Pane di Altamura a la Luigi :-). I wonder how they will turn out when I can bake the real thing in a real oven! No time BTW to work on the project: yesterday was a day of extreme fire danger, smoke drifted across our coastal valley and I spent the day putting a Honda/Davey Firefighter Plus pump through its paces until I was thoroughly wet. Then it was time to install an electric pump on the second of two 13,000 Litre rainwater tanks and test its output. Today I rested while playing with my new Netgear DG834GV VoIP router/modem...
Looks like the dome is closed in....
....but there are some tricky cuts still to be made! Gym ball supports bricks while mortar sets.
Mark McGraban, I think, had an idea: just pour a plug of hi-temp mortar with ground up firebrick debris in the very top centre of the dome. I'll keep that in mind, if all else fails...
In between cutting and laying bricks, I have started to excavate around the Forno del Gallo. I am considering a semi-circular retaining wall-cum-seating, perhaps including a tandoor (don't tell Bianca, my long-suffering (44 years!) wife...
Taking a break from cutting and re-cutting firebricks for the top of the Forno del Gallo today, I threw together a quick pain de seigle d'Auvergne as per Daniel Leader's brilliant book. Of course, I took some liberties: instead of levain for fermenting a rye starter, I just took 350 g of nicely fermenting rye starter from the fridge. And instead of 200 g wheat flour, I used 400 g of wheat grain I had ground coarsely with our old Retsel mill... At least it LOOKS just like the one in Local Breads, Dan!
'German' Bauernbrot, a country loaf using mainly rye, rye starter and a pinch of yeast, is yet another effort in my test series from Daniel Leader's book, Local Breads - but once more adapted according to my ideosyncrasies. The taste is excellent, but perhaps I should have used bran as he suggests instead of cracked wheat?
“We have closure” : the dome builder is proud - so is the keystone! Which is why I put some hi-temp mortar with crushed firebricks in a little mound around it...
The grey stuff is some excess 'Airset' high-temp pre-mixed mortar. I am contemplating covering the entire dome with the stuff, since I've so much left over, before I put the kaowool around the oven. It doesn't look perfect - but hey, that damn hole is plugged! (One of these days I'll get Bianca to snap me curled up inside the oven, trying to patch the inner face of this hole...)
While waiting for the joints to set, I hit upon the idea to add a bit of extra thermal mass to the top of the dome....
In between other odd jobs, such as stuffing around for days with three different VoIP devices, I get a bit of exercise digging out old tree stumps around the Forno site. (BTW, I recommend the Bipac Billion 7404VGOM - it does everything but build brick domes!)
After a rainy day, more earthworks were on the menu: keystone in flue arch waits for a bit of dry weather
I plan to put up a lean-to on this western wall of the shed, with a retaining wall securing planned beds of San Marzano toms
The view from the south: paving and seating will eventually surround Forno del Gallo
After almost a week of non-stop rain the entire Forno site was nicely flooded: I had to go out at 22:30 h last night to dig diversion channels!
Picked the wrong time to get stuck into that protective embankment... Nellie the Leghorn inspects the strange S/S flue pipe
No work on the oven all week, but I managed to play extensively with wireless router and two 'marooned' client machines!
Grey concrete pavers will be laid in the circle marked purple - unless I think of something else...
Keystone of flue arch in place - deliberately standing proud to distract from the fact that its two faces are unequal... Timber prop intended to keep S/S/ flue pipe in place while I fix it with bricks and mortar tomorrow, Inshallah! Hope it doesn't rain again...
Change of plan: decided to wrap the dome first! Roll of 25 mm Isowool didn't quite go around twice, so brought out another 7m roll...
... of slightly lesser density and called Kaowool this time. So dome will have 50 mm fibre blanket insulation - do I still need to lay up a layer of 50 mm perlite/cement before rendering this igloo?!
Trying to close the flue arch, I managed to knock down five bricks! Today I started the repairs...
No-one volunteered an answer, so I went ahead with the first of two layers of vermiculite/cement insulation! It ain't easy putting the crumbly stuff onto a supporting mesh of chickenwire...
Once the second layer is placed , I'll perfect - and protect - the dome form with two coats of cement render. All this on top of 50 mm ceramic fibre insulation... this thing should stay hot - or cool - for a very long time...
This side still needed a bit of rounding out, but a big blister on my right thumb - from pressing down on the trowel - cut the effort short for the day. It helps to make the mix a bit on the sloppy side - after all, you're not making structural concrete - and to put three trowels full on a hawk, then slide sections of it against the side of the dome and press it in place...
Two layers of insulating fibre blanket and two layers of vermiculite mix later, I am about to launch into the first render coat... earthworks around the site are for a gravel bed with anthracite-coloured cement pavers around the dome. MTC (more to come)...
After a week or so of nice, soaking rain, I finished the second render coat on the dome, and over two days, applied enough mortar mix to bring the surrounding segment - which already carried about 30 mm of vermiculite mix - to the proper level. (That's why the stand had to wear its 'kummerbund' once more :-) ) I can now relax with a glass of Victorian Tahbilk viognier 2006 and a slice of Tasmanian Heritage blue vein cheese for lunch...
The igloo has landed! Sorry, bad joke... even Bianca, who professes not to be in the least interested in my folly, was prompted to ask: will you paint it white then?! She took some solace when I explained this was only the undercoat - and when I poured some of this excellent Tahbilk viognier, which she declared to be her favourite from now on...
Bianca's sourdough bread (x 2 at right) and my pain d'Auvergne fought hard for oven space/time: the rye bread won hands down and Bianca's were relegated to the fridge for the duration... This time I followed Danier Leader's purloined recipe more closely, except for taking four times (200 g) as much of the sourdough starter he prescribed. My reasoning is that when I refresh my rye starter, I don't throw away half but use it to bake a bread!
Just when I began to use up the patching mortar at the front of the hearth, a thunderstorm called for desperate measures... Otherwise, transition between vermiculite-topped hearth slab and new mortar level was successfully patched all round (see fresh dark joint at left and right of flue arch). Getting very close to the finish line now!
The view from our sleeping loft window - next to Forno del gallo is a bed with Roma and San Marzano seedlings I raised, a bit late, but...
In between showers, I managed to give hearth slab a quick buff undercoat...
In close-up you can see front portion isn't quite ready yet... and with more time between heavy downpours, I'd have scraped the belt of patch cement smooth before painting!
Hearth detail showing ca. 50 mm vermiculite concrete topped by twin layer of 25 mm Calsil board, with 50 mm hearth tiles on top...
About to clamber into the chamber for some interior patching. Bianca took the shot with her 40-year-old Canon FX, after we paid $A100 to have it cleaned - still looks a bit fuzzy, but...
I intend to fill the gaps to the left & right of the flue arch arcs with a mixture of sand and fireclay, then complete the cast around the front portion. Stainless steel flue is next...
Stainless 20 cm (8 in.) flue pipe is finally in place, with rush work in between showers. The sponges either side are to keep the high-temperature mortar moist until it sets properly. In the background at right one can see, barely, my Roma and San Marzano seedlings enjoy the open air for the first time...
Detail of the flue arch, with the flue just flush with the bottom portion of the arch. This means there is at least about 115 mm (4.5 in.) of embedding to keep the pipe steady - hopefully even when the rather large flue cap is fitted...
So far, so good: using up my remnant of Dulux Tuscan Effects paint on the dome seemed the right thing to do - the hearth slab I think I'll paint with a bit of left-over sky blue paint from the timber slats on the house. Is that flue straight? I have a feeling it leans a millimetre or two to the right now that the mortar is in place...
Temporary flue cap and flue arch door to guard against threatening showers... big tarp (right) is never far away.
Flue securely in place, it's time to work on the oven landing...
...note twin layer of 25 mm (1 in.) calcium silicate on top of about 50 mm (2 in.) vermiculite/concrete mix. Flue arch rests on normal block of insulating firebrick (see at right), itself embedded in about 25 mm (1 in.) of vermiculite mix that tops the hearth slab concrete. Howszat for insulation under the 50 mm (2 in) hearth tiles?!
Hearth tiles extended to front landing, flue cap fitted, front of hearth slab rendered - now, how about some real beautification?!
Detail of front hearth tile arrangement: loosely fitted against flue arch, then major gaps filled with 50/50 fireclay/sand mix. Hi-temp mortar covers front of tiles, as well as little 'stabilising patches' left and right next to the door arch...
Flue pipe is just flush with bottom of flue arch tiles - corrugated portion, embedded in hi-temp mortar, can just be seen at rear.
Detail of flue pipe cap - never mind the loose fit! - shows spark arrestor I fashioned from some expanded aluminium. Bianca is incredibly worried now that I've announced I'll start the first of the drying fires tomorrow, and has requested that all firefighting gear be put in place beforehand... Plasma?! Not on your Nellie!
After the first 'tempering' fire using just newspaper, inner dome temperature was around 95 F, with flame temp of around 370 F. Fire left a thin black layer on the inside of the dome. Now I need a steel tray for the wheelbarrow, so I can rake in the coals and ashes... And I better make a little mortar ramp sloping toward the front of the landing area!
Can't burn any of my nice dry old timber splits yet - each day the temperature has to be raised by 100 F, for 7 days, until the oven reaches its normal operating temperatures... Can I do TWO drying-out burns per day? Pizza on New Year's Eve?!?
On the second fire, I can't get beyond some 150 F, so I added some bits of old hardwood. See how it goes...
Bit of a warm north-easterly blowing right into the fire and swirling out embers - so I quickly jury-rigged a firescreen (same expanded aluminium mesh that I used in the flue cap spark arrestor). Ray of sunlight under the oven (centre pic) indicates the position of the setting sun... a WFO sundial?!
Instead of using newspapers, I found that bark makes a perfect firelighting material...
... and there's no shortage of shed bark curls under the big blackbutt trees.
I hate to see all this 'tempering' fire energy go to waste, so I got out our old Spanish tripod and paella pan and made a quick, impromptu...
Paella! Didn't want to waste ingredients, either, on the experiment - so our first dish from the oven is a rather spartan affair: Basmati rice, half an eggplant, a handful of black olives and a couple of red pickled chilis from my garden.
Even Bianca had some - although I must say it tasted a bit of rusty pan! It can only improve from here on...
Lunch is served at our “Bar jeglichen Komforts” next to the chookhouse
After a fortnight of inactivity (while battling 'flu and incipient pneumonia), I started the tempering fires again yesterday afternoon. Some 24 hours later, the inside of the oven still had more than 50 C! Slight improvement on the firescreen front: it now fits inside the flue arch - to prevent the ugly flame spoors on the outside... Hairline cracks in the mortar bed around the flue but nothing serious
Hairline crack? Looks a bit more serious to me...This is the top of the flue arch and the crack runs right against the flue pipe. Shall I push some hi-temp mortar into the crack while its hot and open?
A little sun, a lot of smoke - but we'll dry you out yet, Forno del Gallo! At right some more earthworks to create the future paved area... Olive tree and tomato plants are protected by an earth berm
Another little folly: I chanced upon this cute little rooster weathervane at the hardware store... Reduced to $A220 from the $295 asking price, I just had to snap him up for his namesake oven!
Namesake rooster weather vane temporarily perches on a tree stump in front of il forno del gallo. In the background a big old mulberry tree...
Making a start with gravel around the oven, and placing some pavers to test possible patterns...
...looks like I'll have to cut lots of pavers for a circular surround!
Still on the slow, solid fire regime: dome temperatures around 260C (470F). Days of rain have allowed moisture to enter the flue arch from the flue - bad design of flue cap
First attempt at baking a 'test bread' - wholemeal flour with sourdough starter plus yeast... But my Forno del gallo was still a bit too hot, and the coals surrounding the stainless steel plate burned the sides...
... and scorched the bottom of the bread! But then: I was distracted by a video call from our eldest in L.A.
Schiacciata a la Daniel Leader proofing before being loaded into the forno...
...and as they came out after 15 min: not enough top heat, good crust at the bottom. They were quite edible, with a glass of 1998 Jacobs Creek Reserve Shiraz. Note to self: make door for oven!
Here's the start of an oven door - fashioned from the galvanised sheet metal that once belonged to our ill-fated St. George electric oven... In the background, another piece of the same oven awaits the same treatment
Metal work was never my forte: here we have the two half-moons for the door with little bent tabs holding the insulation board...
--- but never quite touching (to prevent heat transfer). Now all I need is some hi-temp glue for calcium silicate board to fix the two door halves together! Anyone got any ideas?
Twin pizzas hug the alu plate as I load them with tomatoes, cheese, olives, anchovies and oregano leaves. Big pickled chilli marks my plate, small chilli's for Bianca...
A few minutes at nearly 400C (800F) seemed to do the thick dough on the alu plates rather nicely, but...
...Bianca looks askew as her pizza proves rather underdone inside. Mine was heaps better (closer to the coals), so that's one lesson learned! Eight-year-old Evans & Tate Gnangara shiraz made the repast passable at our 'Bar jeglichen Komforts' next to the chookhouse...
Propped up my new double-insulated prototype door against the hot dome arch - let's see how much heat is retained by tomorrow morning
Pig's hock drenched with home-made beer while baking slowly in Forno del Gallo, after the pizza had been cooked and eaten...
Peter Reinhart's 'Crust & Crumb' gave a simple recipe for pan' rustico - but of course I had to mess with it! Added some rye sourdough to the biga, and the dough rose beautifully and unstoppably three times before I put them in bread pans... I thought this is what he meant by 'sheet pans'... Bianca used a third of the dough to make beautiful breadrolls in her electric oven...
Quick & dirty formwork using the old 4 mm plywood that had already served during the oven construction. In the background some 200 quarry tiles I moved back onto the pallet after trying various layouts around Forno del gallo. When the retaining border is finished...
... the tiles will be laid around the oven in circles with a slight fall toward the concrete border strip I am about to pour - in sections, by moving the formwork along in a circle. Interestingly, there is a layer of charcoal some 30-40 cm below the natural ground surface - before future archeologists blame this pizzaiolo, consider the incidence of bushfires in these parts!
Peter Reinhart's master recipe for cracker bread with polenta was such a success that Bianca finished a bottle of Hunter Valley semillon with me to wash the crackers down! And for days after, she hunted down my reserves of the new treat - which I must say goes exceedingly well with a local white...
This is how much it rained! 400 mm in a few days - that's two-thirds of the average annual rainfall for our coastal area...
More on the downpour...
...which stopped work on the landscaping around Forno del gallo che canta for more than two weeks
This is the formwork portion I started for pouring a concrete retaining wall - I'm waiting for a bit of dry weather...
Nibbling at the just-baked fougace and drinking half a bottle of 2006 Tahbilk Marsanne while waiting for the kang kong soup - I had to fire the oven because it got rather wet during two weeks of almost incessant rain... Freshly laid farm eggs in carton at left are for our old neighbour, Jean
Slow progress of my landscaping: stripped formwork from first retaining wall segment today and am moving the forms forward counter-clockwise. Also placed some pavers temporarily to check height/pattern for laying later...Stop Press: my blacksnake escape-friendly construction works! A tiny 'blackie' wriggled into the centre void today as I picked up wood in front!
Fiskars log-splitter makes short shrift of the solid ironbark (?) billet, then the Fiskars chopping axe (left) takes over. One billet yields the amount of split timber shown; two are sufficient for a quick pizza plus bread-baking fire... Last night we had pizza after the polenta master formula in Peter Reinhart's Crust & Crumb, but I disagree: the dough tastes better in cracker bread...
No names, no packdrill - just a quick sourdough bread thrown together from rye sourdough, lots of rye flour and about 50 per cent unbleached wheat flour. Look Ma, no grains! And no molasses either... Baked for 45 minutes in bread tins in the Forno del gallo. Brilliantly simple bread, and excellent taste (couldn't resist cutting a thin slice off the warm loaf at left).
A far cry from Le Creuset, this pair of cast-iron cooking vessels from a local op shop also cost only a fraction of the French classics: $A20 for the pair!
Two heavy old-fashioned cast-iron vessels Bianca found at a charity shop in Forster yesterday - washed thouroughly inside and out, they await their baptism by fire,,, Clay 'pizza' plate is a birthday present from my grandson Harley
Lamb a la boulangere goes into the oven for around 90 minutes...
... to emerge in time for dinner (my camera clock is still on summer time:-) We made the dish in a $10 cast iron casserole pot picked up at a local op shop. The recipe stems from an old Woman's Day cookbook produced well before my one year as chief sub-editor there... Bon appetit!
It's the middle of winter, and whenever I'm feeling a bit chilly (10 C inside, 8 C outside in the morning) I cut a few rounds off long-felled trees and chop them up for Forno del Gallo...
... and when I'm done for the day, the chickens rummage through the debris for termites and beetles
Pork rinds sizzle in our old paella pan while sourdough loaves rise slowly in the warm shelter of the oven arch. I baked a tray of rolls before the rinds, but Bianca wasn't satisfied with the crust. So I put them back in above the pork rinds - and promptly allowed the latter to mostly burn to carbon crisps...
Oven spring nearly tore these loaves apart! But if they taste as well as they smell, we'll be able to woo some grandchildren off the soggy white...(my sourdough bread contains almost 2 cups pre-soaked wheat grain, 2 cups of rye flour, 2 cups of wholemeal wheat flour, and a cup each of two kinds of organic 'white' flour that Bianca wasn't using. Oh, and the rye sourdough starter, of course!
This is where it all happens (except the landscaping, that is) - and I've chopped so much hardwood now that 5 compartments under the oven are full, and I still have two wheelbarrows full to accommodate somewhere...
Ran out of storage under the WFO - so here are a few more loads of dry wood for the fire. Conduit at right is for planned 2 kW PV installation at the shed (this will generate about twice our daily average daily use of an extremely modest 4.5kW/h...
Planted the third of a trio of olive trees near the Forno del Gallo che canta today. This one, bought yesterday at Aldi's in Forster for $14.95, is a variety I'd never seen: Coratina... the others are Manzanillo and Kalamatta, respectively
Finished the trench for the last third of the concrete retaining ring for the gravel and pavers surround of the oven - hopefully will start mixing concrete for the pour tomorrow... Bianca has offered to help fill the buckets of sand and gravel for each load
View from the carport, framed by shed and 13,000 L (3000 gal.) tank, showing the current state of my excavation around the oven. At left, a shadecloth enclosure protects my young Roma and San Marzano tomatoes
Two loaves I baked today - inside, because of incessant rain... basic recipe: 1 cup rye sourdough, 2 cups rye flour, 2 cups organic wholemeal, 2 cups organic white flour, 2 tblsp molasses, 10g salt. The result is just too good to adequately describe :-)
Raphael Mammot turned 7 today, so I baked him a pizza which he managed to eat with gusto, despite having gorged himself on Oma's cakes and chocolate eggs. Giulia discusses a fine point about toppings with Bianca, while Isaac has absconded to grab some more goodies in the kitchen. Rafi's brother Benjamin has also gone missing...
Used the remaining heat in the forno del gallo to bake a couple of sourdough loaves, then roasted a handful of chestnuts for good measure. Let's see how much heat remains after the night... (BTW, the chestnuts made a Lindeman's Bin 50 Shiraz just bearable)
As soon as I'd finished (sort of) the paving around Forno del Gallo, our geese selected the platform as an ideal launching pad... (it's not ideal though because they leave a lot of 'spent fuel'!)
My Forno del gallo che canta looks innocent enough late this afternoon, but I've already made a pizza in it, baked two loaves of bread and have now a cast-iron casserole with Bianca's osso bucco simmering away in the falling heat... in the foreground the namesake rooster keeps watch on my tiny tomato patch
Little yeast loaf using Laucke multigrain pre-mix so I could test bake in my Forno del Gallo again. In the background at left the rye sourdough I use for my proper sourdough loaves with freshly ground wheat, rye and coarsely hand-milled wheat berries for added texture.
Bianca baked these breads in her electric oven after my recipe - they are still a bit low... I'll have to rethink my ingredient proportions
