Here I am at the start of another major project, this time I am making an outdoor oven, something I have been talking about, and looking forward too for quite some time, and finally I have the time and space to do it.

Now this is going to be a bread oven, not to be confused with a pizza oven, which I look down upon with my best haughty stare ( until someone looks back and I turn away quickly, I’m not that brave). The difference is that this oven will have a separate compartment for the wood fire, and the heat is drawn through the oven and then up the chimney on the opposing side. The design is based partly on some examples I have seen of village communal ovens dating back hundreds of years, and partly on some high end artisan baker ovens still being used by trendy bakers, who charge £5 for a loaf  so it must be good. Now there is a school of thought that says “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” but I cant resist a minor modification, I shall be making and fitting a series of steel paddles between fire chamber and the oven in an effort to create a form of heat regulator, and I have managed to obtain from America a temperature gauge to fit on the front.

I have been mulling this project over for years, I have built it in my mind countless times during many a sleepless night, its grown and shrunk in size as reality hits, do I really need an oven chamber big enough to feed the five thousand when there is only six coming to dinner. However The Great British Bake off is back on TV and I have oven envy, they have proving ovens, a facility I had never heard off and we couldn’t fit into the house kitchen, but I do really fancy one maybe we can have one of those as well.

But now reality hits. Over months I have assembled the materials, bits of steel sheet and angle iron, last week I poured the concrete base, and today  I took delivery of the bricks, over 2 tons if you include the sand and cement, and having shifted it all 50mts in a wheelbarrow I am feeling every kilo.

Tomorrow its time for action, the talking is over. the Bacon Sandwich is ready, there is a fresh pint of milk ready for tea, I have a secret stash of Chocolate biscuits my daughters haven’t found  and the weather is going to be great. Now its the dodgy bit I have actually got to build it.

Wish me luck

Tom