Wood-Fired Pizza Oven Update - The Mystery of the Hairy Oven

My friends, we have fire.

Sort of.

As you will no doubt recall, the pizza oven, when last we left it, was a pile of clay and sand and straw, all supported by a giant sand dome.

Now, it's a pile of clay and sand and straw, all supported by hopes and dreams.

A couple days ago, I was able, with shaking hand, to cut out the inner door and remove the sand.

Doctor? The patient is ready.

I KNEW that playing Operation as a kid would serve me well.

I see newspaper!!

Kerri thought it was adorable that I was giggling. I am adorable, darn it.

Inner door almost gone.

The middle managers want to make sure things are going smoothly.

The fear, of course, was that once the sand was removed, the entire thing would collapse. An outcome not to be desired.

So far, no collapse...

How much sand is in this thing?!?

It honestly took me about a half an hour to pull out all the sand.

It honestly took my back two days to stop aching.

After all the sand was out and the entire thing didn't collapse into a pile of rubble and broken dreams, we started a very small fire inside. One of the blogs I got directions from recommended this as a way to dry the interior and exterior evenly.

Here we go...

Are you ready?

FIRE!!!

We spent several hours parked in front of the oven, feeding twigs into the tiny fire.

It burned well, so I think it has a nice draw for air.

Now, it needs to dry completely before we can really fire it up.

And I need to figure out why it's starting to sprout hair. Yesterday, I noticed small green shoots growing out of the damp cob.

Oh, please get covered in sprouts.

Especially if these happen to be garlic!

It will be the world's biggest chia head!

I'll figure out how to mow this thing and then I'll build a door.

And then, it's pizza party time!