Serendipity is on my side lately!So I have a little story here that if you don't like reading long posts please move on to another thread. First lets start with where this all began. Being a bit of an "artistic crude reclaiming engineer" and a proud Italian, I got this idea in my head to build a cheap rustic pizza earth oven made from scrap bricks and pavers I constantly see and collect from demolition sites in this urban jungle I call home. So after looking at some youtube videos to see if this design is even something possible as a functional pizza oven, I saw a few ideas that were close enough to mine. My design required having the dome made from a big clay flower pot that I would then bury under a soil mound for insulation and to hold the whole thing together since I'm not using mortar. No telling what exact size and dome shape I would find at a garden center and the cost could make more practical to just go out and buy a large pizza oven kit. Then while surfing the web for pots I remembered being at Marshalls a few weeks back and seeing two large cast iron shallow fire pit bowls that were being sold on clearance (my favorite part of the store). I had no use for them at the time I saw them, but remembered they were reduced to $70. I was thinking they are probably gone by now as they were pretty cheap, but then again they were heavy and an odd object for a city location where an open fire pit is probably not a good idea. I searched online just to see what they go for and I could not find one for cheaper than $200 and then shipping fees apply! Well that is not practical at all, so on Thursday I went to Marshalls during my lunch break to take a chance they might still be there. They were not in the original spot I first saw them so I was like "oh well it figures, I do have back up ideas for my oven build and this will have to do". Just as I finished that thought I came up to both fire pits stacked on each other and this time they were further reduced to $50! Then while inspecting them to see which one I wanted I was approached by one of my past students who is currently an employee of Marshalls . "I said to him I guess these were too heavy to sell and maybe no one knew what they even were since they are not labelled?". Then he said "yeah and we were just going to mark them down further, but I still have to make the labels". He checked on the computer and said "yep $22". These things are practically worth that much as scrap! so I told him I'll take both and then he helped me get them in my car. Today while out putting the finishing touches on my shopping list for tomorrows big St. Patty's day feast, I decided to check out an obscure little empty lot to search for some clay bricks someone may have dumped. I need more bricks for the oven and I have a few ideas and locations where I can find some. Any lot left empty in city locations inevitably become dumping grounds for things like tires to land fill rubble by inconsiderate people. Knowing this I took a shot and no bricks, but I did see some cinder blocks I will take at a later time. In the mean time someone dumped a nice pile of cut up black locust! Having a cargo of groceries I could only take what the back crate could hold and I will return later periodically for the rest. As I threw a few logs towards the car I noticed them half peeling out of their bark...Bonus! So I peeled them all which explains the bald appearance. After leaving that lot I drove up another dead end road close by and came upon this site. It looks like it may be catalpa which would be garbage, but cant tell much without more information and no leaves. will check it out with a fresh cut some other time. Anyway I now have a back log of spots to work on and so I'm pretty set for some time to come!
I like long posts! Fantastic you found some locust, and could leave the bark behind to boot! I don't know about that other trunk, but there is a lot of it. Definitely give the locust priority. Your pizza oven project sounds like fun. Will you make it a double dome, or nest one bowl inside the other? I've been on the lookout for cinder blocks too, for new stacks. There's a rubble pile at the dump, but I'm fussy about condition and hold out for non-chipped ones. I haven't scrounged any wood since the sugar maple, but I'm patient, the snow is just melting, and the wind damaged wood from this winter will start to trickle in. Happy St. Patrick's tomorrow!
Yes thanks Molly... Happy St. Patricks Day to you and all here as well. Anyway, no I have no plans for the other fire pit yet, but for that price I could give it to one of my brothers who both just bought two beautiful waterfront homes. These are 5/16th inch thick and 1oolbs each so they will last a lifetime like a cast iron skillet. They would look nice on a dock overlooking the water and burning like the Olympic flame. I don't need to be fussy about the condition of my cinder blocks, they will be used as level elevation support and then buried or enclosed under clay brick. We had 75 degree weather yesterday that took car of every last snow bank.
Nothing car-related today, just cut the rest of my sugar maple, and moved it to the back yard. The shed in the background is where it's going, I hope it fits.
Nice work Molly! The fruits of your labor is quite apparent here looking at your stacks, but I still see 3 trees standing
Picked up some red cedar off Craigslist on my way home from MA. I like it for kindling. Urban Woods, how was your party?
Exausting, but fun! Thanks for asking Midwinter . Coincidently I burned the big cemetery Cedar stump for a little holiday fragrance. However with that many people in the house (30+) and with kitchen ovens baking, pots of corned beef a-boilin and liquor flowing, only one load of wood was all that was needed and this was with doors constantly opening. Word gets around quick, everyone was asking "so I heard you're building a Pizza oven??" What's going on..do they read this forum??? Or perhaps they're looking for a little more I guess I'm committed to building one now By the way I left a few cedar splits on the hearth to get some fragrant fumes cooked up from the heat off the oven window...nice!
i have a few cedar logs ive scrounged in recent months and dont have the heart to cut them for burning. One was fresh cut and green, maybe 10" BHD and oozed cedar oil. Got all over my sweatshirt and i smelled like a cedar closet for a day or two. I doesnt wash out. I want to use them for a project of some sort. I cut cookies off of some for centerpieces at my step daughters wedding last Sept. They had the wedding at their log cabin house so it was a cabiny theme!
Cedar sawdust and noodles are great for making firestarters. I don't have the talent to make things out of wood, so kindling it is.
Daylight savings time was my friend this evening, I went and got half the oak trunk from outside the dump. I took seven rounds, split in half so I could lift them. There's another four rounds in the bottom trunk section. I'll try for that this weekend. The top part, with all the knots, I think I'll leave.
Good Job Molly! I didn't realize there was more oak left. You're putting that saw through it's paces and worked very smart and efficient pre-cutting the wedge slits. Yeah, I would leave the top crown of crotch for the worms. I was visiting my sister last night in uptate NY, but still downstate from you. I stayed overnight and left her house after lunch today. Of course on the way back I had to pick up some small branch size dry elm, mulberry, and ash off the side of a road near her house. It was windy and that was a bit of a nuisance, but I'm burning it now and lovin it.
Wow what a deal and you only needed one for your oven and got 2. Could you fix up some Chinese with the other one? It looks like it would make a great Wok on the firepit.
I'm glad you found a scrounge on your trip upstate! I got the rest of the trunk in the late afternoon, after that wind died down. A little wedge porn... The obligatory car pic... Total take from yesterday and today. The eight half-rounds on the right are today's. There's still some limb wood left, but I'll save that for when I get really bored. Maybe someone else will grab it.
How did you know I love Chinese cooking? Funny enough I used to have a large wok that I would use over a wood fire. This was 30 years ago and I couldn't really get the temps hot as I'd like for stir-fry and then the smoke in my eyes eventually caused me think wood fired wok-ing was not practical. Now today with youtube I see what I needed to make back then was a rocket stove design to perch my wok on. These would make some awesome huge party size woks, but they have a 1 inch drain hole on the bottom for rainwater to escape, plus screw holes for the stand. You cant see it in the picture, but he stand is simply a smaller bowl upside down and screwed on. Actually I spoke to one of my brothers on the phone about my pizza oven idea and said if he wants the other it would make a good fire pit for the waters edge in his new home. Well he was very enthusiastic to get it, but not for a fire pit... for a pizza oven! Sounds like a design competition is on
Lol! I forgot all about that! I was in Nashua today in the Bronco, but it was 2ish, so I didnt even bother to go near the dump.
