Watching Mud Dry - and Very Nearly Done

It's been a very busy week.

Of waiting. For mud to dry.

 And waiting a bit longer. 

 And doing some work.

 And waiting some more. 

And, while waiting, looking at the garden.
(Still haven't gotten a photo of the garter snake that's made a home in the base of the oven.)

And enjoying the waiting.
Because things have a process.
And you can't rush mud.

And then doing a lot of work with the whole gang and being nearly, nearly done.

 Here's Phil and Dani scooping out the sand while Danny and Orsi do some final patching of cracks. 

 Here we are mixing up some more insulating mix (sawdust, shavings, dried grass and mud).

Here's Orsi adding some mortar to the base - we did a final layer of bricks along the top too.

And here's Gloria preparing more mud for mixing.

Here's the inside of the oven! 

The paper shows where the sand form ended and where the mud-clay walls begin. 

It's such a great feeling to look inside.

And here we are putting on some of that final insulating layer that goes on about 3-4" thick.

And here's some more of the gang:

We ran out of wet mud to make the insulating mix so we'll meet up again later this week and finish it off. 

And then we'll be lighting the first fire and testing out this lovely new creation of ours...