Wood-Fired Pizza Oven Saga - Part 3 - Digging Holes and Filling Them Up Again

This pizza had better be delicious.

After raising the roof, the next step is to prepare a spot for the actual oven.

Wood-fired oven are, not surprisingly, rather heavy. Especially so if the pizza has a lot of toppings on it. And mine will.

I've been gathering locally sourced, free-range, organic rocks from our property to use for the base of the oven.

My neighbors have enjoyed the sight of me, staggering up the street, pushing a wheelbarrow with a  rock the size and weight of a '56 Buick in it.

They have taken to sitting on their porches, sipping cool drinks, and calling out encouraging words to me as I pass by.

"Wow. that looks heavy," they will say.
"Sure is hot today, isn't it?" they will ask.
"You look tired," they will observe.
"This cool, refreshing lemonade sure is cool and refreshing, isn't it?" they will inquire rhetorically of each other.

Rocks are really, really, REALLY heavy.

I have discovered that simply carting rocks around in a wheelbarrow and dumping them on our lawn isn't enough. These rocks need to be assembled, much like cheap, Scandinavian furniture. But much, much heavier.

In order to keep the oven base solid and happy, I dug a hole about 2 feet deep and then - wait for it - I filled it back in with gravel!

It reminded me of that old nursery rhyme:

Dig a hole
Then fill it up.
You'll sweat a lot.
A lot, a lot, a lot,
And all night long,
Your back will ache.
A lot, a lot, a lot.

On the plus side, thanks to my new roof, I'm not working in the sun. On the less-plus side, it's still really hot here. 

Kerri wanted a picture of what I looked like before I sweated myself into a piece of Marty-Jerky™.
Too late.

I know you're all jealous of my wheelbarrow. 

Is it deep enough?
Not yet.
Keep digging! 

Fun, fun, fun.

My shirt is incredibly absorbent.

After about a bajilliondy hours of digging*, my hole was deep enough to get filled back in.

*Kerri claims it was an hour. She lies.

And after all that digging, it's like the hole was never there.

It only took 7 wheelbarrow loads of gravel that I dug up on the far side of our property to fill that hole back in. I tamped it down and now, I'm ready for that pizza.

Which will be ready in a few months.

Kerri wanted to highlight the extreme moisture-wicking properties of my shirt.

Behold:

Can someone please get me a drink of water?

Please?

Next up:

Moving big rocks from their happy homes in the ground into a huge, round pile.

Stay tuned.