Groundbreaking

Today we broke ground for the long-considered outdoor cooking area.  This all started in 2002 when my company was moving to a new building.  In the basement of the old building was a cast iron door from an abandoned coal furnace.  Since it was just going to be thrown in the dumpster, I brought it home.  I didn’t need a reason, Debbie and I both firmly believe you can never have too many heavy chunks of iron lying about.

Sure enough, my faith in acquiring chunks of iron was rewarded.  In 2003 I saw plans for this adobe bread oven.  “Wouldn’t it be cool to build an adobe bread oven and use the iron door on it,” I thought.

The passing years have seen the initial concept blossoming by 2010 into a stone fire pit, smoker, bread oven, and work area.

You’d think the Federal government was running this show.

We’re planning on using stone instead of brick as in the picture above.  The chimney on our house is stone, and stone figures heavily in our landscaping.  Building it from stone will provide a pleasing consistency, and in keeping with the ever expanding nature of the project, it’s the most expensive choice.

We had a fire pit made out of hand-me-down limestone in the area where we want to put the new structure, surrounded by crushed stone.  That all had to come out to make way for the Big Stone Cooking Area.    Our mason is coming tomorrow to start work so despite today being the hottest day in living memory, I hauled off all the old limestone,  filled in the old fire pit, shoveled up all the crushed gravel, and removed 2 sections of fence.

Jay Rosswurm, a local mason, is doing the skilled work for us.  Jay’s a 3rd generation mason (at least 3rd, maybe more, I should ask him).  He came over earlier in the week to look at our site and listen to our ideas so he could work up an estimate.  He doesn’t know it, but he had the job when he said to me, “I’ll have to ask Grandpa about the dimensions for the flue.”  That sort of filial respect, and the willingness to admit you don’t know everything, carries a lot of weight with me.

I’m already considering the first change order; what about a place for a gas ring for frying?