Mud and Fire make gleeful fun…

It’s the hottest weekend of the year, so what do I do? What any sane person would do, of course–I make elaborate mud structures and set them on fire!!

Pizza oven!
The pizza oven’s first firing, to dry out the insides and bake it rock-hard…

I’d been working on this pizza oven all summer, and I finally got to fire the insides to set the cob. I’m still getting the hang of keeping the fire nice and hot–it was a windy day yesterday, so the fire kept blowing out. But once I half-blocked the door with a cookie sheet, the fire did quite nicely!
Now I think a few more test fires, and then I can get to the fun part–making it pretty. Right now it’s workable, but it looks very much like a big pile of mud with a fire in it. But another plaster layer with some carving and a whitewash will do wonders, I think.

And how do I celebrate all this muddy, firey victory? By cowering inside by the fan, spinning hefty Llama yarns and drinking gallons of limeade. Because *cues sinister music* winter is coming! Well, maybe not quite this minute…