JourneySeeds

Sacred Culture

I've been working on something.  This is a banner that descibes some of that.  Sacred Culture. It's a simple phrase but, big in what it means for me.  It's part of what I'm working to bring to light. For now it looks like this.  A colorful banner made from fabric from old outfits, upholstery remnants, batik that shows the trees and the sky...that's it.

He's been working on something. Another cob oven roof.  This one was quick, materials laying around and some metal roofing.  Remember those huge snows that crashed the last one in? What a winter! So, here's the new one...get 'er done! Hope you'll be able to come by soon for pizza or root vegetables baked double time in this oven made with birthday love.  The base was made many years ago by a young girl and her dad...hauling rocks up from the river and nearby woods. 

It's all a part of what we're offering up here.  Our version of Story love made manifest. 

Cob Style Thanksgiving

 
Emma planned and cooked nearly everything this Thanksgiving.  The meal was created in the cob oven.  Pizza was one of the main courses...we had three different kinds of pizza...all fabulous!

 


 
Perfect temp...around 700-800degrees!

 
Upcycled door handle...some finishing work still needs to be done on the door. 

 


 


 

 
Owl Feathers

 
Maude always watching....

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday in Photos....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
A beautiful new pizza peel made by Mr. P...gorgeous!

 
A day of lots of creative cooking

 

 
New garlic roaster

 
Ready for the cob oven

 
Vegetables ready for the oven...

 
Pizza Ninja...check out that long handled peel!

 

 
Flaming Pizza!

 
It's official...


 
I've waited long enough....fork it over!

 

 
Another pizza

 

 

 
Painting for Emma on her birthday...Walking In The Woods

First Pizza....

 

We tried out the wood-fired pizza oven tonight.  Emma made a spinach, goat cheese, garlic and tomato pizza.  It was delicious!  We still have some finishing to do on the oven but, we were anxious to try it out.  It was a pretty chilly New England evening here...fall has finally arrived. 

Finished!


Autumn Banner....

 

  
Coventry Farmers Market

 
 

 

  
We ran into some old friends at the Farmers Market...

 
Oyster Mushrooms from Maggie's Farm...these made it onto the first pizza.

 
End of the day at the Willimantic Food Coop Fair.

Birthday...

Emma made this great outdoor chair for Randy for his birthday.  The angle is perfect, the color is perfect and its just the right fit for this birthday boy!

Beautiful chair!

Maker of the chair.  She has folks ordering them right and left from her!  Everyone was relaxing before another day of cobbing the oven.  You know how I showed you pictures of it all finished?  Well...the outer layer was cracking too much for out liking.  With great trepidation we tore off the whole outside layer and re-cobbed the entire surface...adding some more hay to the mix.  The hay was cut into finer pieces.  So, basically we've built two ovens in the last few weeks.  Everything looks good now.  We may put a final plaster finish over the outside of it in a few weeks...we'll see how it's looking.  So, the birthday was spent cobbing for awhile and then we took off for a party at our friend Ian's place....

 

Cob Oven cont'd....

 
First fire, first course...slow warming of the cob 

 

 
Building it up...

 
Beginning another day of mud stomping...

 
Late night cobbing.  We ran out of clay late...so we made a run to the rive for more buckets of clay.  We wanted to finish it the best we could last night.

 
Needing to start cobbing the top with finish coat.

 
It was a cloudy day and with the tarp/roof over the oven the photos are kind of dark.  Although, this one was at night.  I used a flash despite it being daytime.  So...everything is a bit washed out.

 
 

 

 
Trying to keep the fire low and slow...

 

 

  
Early morning checking for cracks in the cob.  There are a few cracks in the front.

 
Cracks that need mending

 
Finish coat

 
Backside of oven

 

  

  
Bricks already blackened by the fire

 
The front needs some more rounding and smoothing out

 

 
The bricks hanging down just inside the opening are going to be trimmed off...

We were concerned about the cob slumping downward from the weight of it.  So, we started a small fire to help with the beginning of drying it out.  It seems to be holding okay so far.  We need to patch up some cracks, round off the front opening section and trim the inside bricks.  We also need to make the door for the oven and get a small piece of pipe with a damper for the thimble to control the burn.  Other things we need to do are finish the roof...we need 5 posts as the posts there now are wearing.  The roof needs covering with shingle and we have that already.  Accessories needed for the oven are a pizza/bread peel, a scraper and a brush would be great.  It's been a process.  We are happy that we decided to use the bricks inside.  It'll make a more efficient and longer lasting oven. 

 

 

Cobbing...

The day started out with us visiting a few clay pits in town to check the clay we had gathered from our friends river... against this clay.  It looked good.

 
Digging the sand form out of the oven

 
This took some muscle

 
Everyone took a turn at digging

 

 
First Cob Dance

 
Clay, sand, straw...

 

 
The dog loved the smell of cob!

 

 
Cob Dance

 
Mushroom ring growing nearby the oven site...

 
Scrapping the insides


 First course of cob being layed down

 
Heave Ho!  Pulling that cob mixture back and forth...mixing.

 
Father, daughter dance...

 
Community cobbing...

 

 
Round and round...cobbing it on...

 

 
Holes being poked into cob to help with binding courses together...

 
poking holes

 
crazy cobber...

 
Using a board to push the sides even...

 
Cleaned out inside of the oven.  The paper will burn off with a fire started inside.  

 
Doing the 4 step

 
Mixing

 

 
Cob Meditation

 
Another course...

 

 
One boys cob feet...

 
A girl's cobbing feet...

 

 

 
So far...still not done

 

 
We still have some work to do! We haven't decided whether or not to leave this as the last course.  We sort of like the look of the straw peeking through.  We might do a final coat over the entire oven.  Then...onto finishing the roof.

Cob Oven cont'd...

This is a very long post of photos of our latest cob oven progress.  Thanks for looking!

 

 
Dog diggin' a ditch

 
Concentrating on the brick

 
Handing it up

 
 
Father & Daughter

 
Brick meditation

 
Nearing completion on the dome

 
Finishing the top


 Randall


 Chimney thimble

 
Mudding the top

 
Yup, that's Emma mixing cement...

 
Laying out a sun ray pattern for the doorway

 
Wood form

 
She just buried a bone with her nose

 

 
Inside view of tunnel in

 
Bricks cut back

 

 
Bricks and wine

 
worksite

 

  
Emma made a pizza in the house for the dinner break

 
night time finishing

 
 
That's it for the night!

 Thanks for looking so far!  I'm going to make this cob oven a seperate page so it's easier to access the photos to this whole process.  Oven makers love to look at other folks process.  So, those of you not into ovens thanks for bearing with this heavily laden post of our progress so far.  It's a nice record for us to have! If you have any questions of what and how we did anything feel free to email me and I'll get back to you.

Cob Oven...cont'd

 
Checking the sand form...

  
Finishing up the sand form

 
 
That bottom board is going to be cut out when the concrete is cured...

 
Trying out the paper covering but, in the end scrapped the idea....

 
Someday I'm going to get some pizza out of that oven....

 
We are bricking the form...and then, covering with cob...more durable oven.  The front is the form to keep the door opening in place/on track while the brick courses are being laid.  We had these old bricks from the chimney work on our house. 
 
 
All of these bricks will be covered by cob.  We left more concrete all over the bricks so that there wouldn't be any gaps in the end.  The  scattered bricks in back of the wood form will be removed...they are just holding up the courses going around...keeping them straight.  The bricks will also will be cut afterwards so that it is a nice smooth surface when one looks into the oven.  A ray pattern will hopefully be laid in to the "tunnel" opening going into the oven proper.

 
That's the back chimney thimble.  It too will be covered by cob in the end.


The concrete is orange colored because that's where all the cutting is being done...dust. 

 
Brick cuts

 
That's all that's done so far...so, most likely no cobbing today...just more bricking at some point.