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.

I was feeling pretty good about my prescribed burning of tiny piles of leaves and some perennial litter from last season.  I posted the details of it yesterday .  Over the weekend, I went out and did a little bit more burning.  I used my small hand rake to pull together a pile of (mostly) oak leaves - creating a little burn break from other leaf litter - and use my small propane torch to light-it-up.   But, I think I got a little too cocky.  Burning and burning and burning.  And feeling good about returning the carbon to the soil via little ash piles.  All the while...cleaning up the beds a bit.  I was puttering around the beds making little piles and burning them.  They light up, then expire on their own when they exhaust all the material.  A little smoldering for a minute or two, then the piles of ash go dark.  And leave behind some white, burned out material.   I found myself back by the compost bins, where I recen...