Works and days at Camp Virtus

As promised, we started working on the new bread clay oven at Camp Virtus, as the first attempt had failed due to errors in design (it was too tall and required too much fire wood), improper technical solutions (the wattle structure that prevented clay from shrinking evenly, leading to cracks) and the order of operations (the oven was built before the roof, thus exposing it to both rain and too strong sun).

Last Saturday we thus proceeded with destroying the old oven and building the timber structure of the roof. There was also an attempt at making clay bricks, for the base and part of the clay structure, but this proved a rather difficult task in itself, from clay extraction, mixing, shaping, pressing into molds and then removing the bricks from the wooden molds. We only managed to make eight viable bricks and we still don't know how they will dry by the next work session. Which will be soon :)

the burning of the first oven

clay modelingg fun

preparing the bench and the timber posts

clay brick molding

clay bricks

measurements

hard team work

the posts in place before sunset

the roof structure after nightfall