To Build an Oven

The oven.  Where to begin?  Jason had been studying Italian ovens for quite some time. The cost to have one built and delivered by the famous Italian oven-makers would run about $40,000. Not that we ever considered buying one.  Jason knew he would make one, but had no idea how.  The oven he wanted to make was drastically different than the one we had on the cart.  And much larger.  Before we ever started working on our indoor location, he spent hours and hours researching these ovens. There wasn't much information out there.  It seemed to be a heavily gaurded secret. He researched like mad. Putting little bits of information together with other little bits. He laid awake MANY nights just trying to figure it out. It was on his mind 24/7.
One night, in the middle of the night, it came to him. He awoke suddenly with all the numbers in his mind.  Call it what you will, but I call it divine intervention. Three months later, he had built one AMAZING oven that worked better than we could have ever hoped.


Mixing concrete for the oven. It's a messy business.



He had a lot of help while pouring the oven. Help from his dad, his brother, and of course, Weston.



He made the oven in four pieces, each weighing over 700 lbs. You can see the imprints of leaves from our tree that he put on the inside of the oven.



He had the base of the oven welded up by a local welder.



After the insulation and brick floor was laid (which was much more complicated than it sounds), it took four guys and a lift to get the oven in place.


In place. Everyone breathing a sigh of relief here.


It's a huge oven.  Big enough to cook Jason, if we so desired.


Now for the hard part...