Why I Oughta...

This past weekend, I set the first fire of 2026 in the backyard pizza oven.  A small fire, just to get the dome warmed up a tiny bit.  I have a couple of cracks already in the dome, but I'm not looking for more, so I'm going to try to heat the dome up a few times over the next few weeks before firing it up for a big bake on a Friday night.  It was good to see the smoke circle the dome and then escape out the front chimney vent.  Just like it is supposed to do in this design.  I am *pretty* confident that the enclosure is water-tight, so I don't need to re-cure this firebrick, but I'm going to go a bit slower to start this season just to make sure.   Also, hoping to motivate myself to get going on the exterior of the dome. Have to finish the veneer and the trim work around the roof.  Oh...and the roof.  There's a lot of work to get done this Spring.

Last week, the pizza oven dome went vertical with the first chain rising above the solider course .  Today, I'm showing a few more photos of even more vertical construction.  First, I've learned from the FornoBravo community that part of mortar'ing in a chain of bricks on the dome *should* include the placing and mortar'ing of an 'anchor brick' for the next course/chain.  You can see that below - in the first photo.  I set the first brick of the second chain (soldier + 2) in the middle of the back of the dome.  I did this one evening, then let it set.  I came back the next night and was able to mortar in the bricks to the side while using this fixed brick as an anchor. Below you can see that anchor brick with the rest of the chain: From there, the dome keeps rising: Below you can see the pitch starting to be created by the IT / dome gauge.   Below is the solider + three chains.  Four in total - from the outside of the dome.   And he...