Step by step…

Finally, after months of work, the wood-fired pizza oven was done. Sometimes it seemed as if it would never be finished. I first had to add on to the existing woodshop (pouring a floor, framing walls and roof, and creating a block foundation and concrete countertop) before even starting to lay out the first bricks for the oven itself. Then came 2-3 weeks of careful layout and assembly, with most of the bricks needing to be cut to particular sizes. I used a homemade device to position each brick to keep the dome radius consistent layer by layer:

My approach to doing something complicated like this, especially something I’ve never done before, is to first see what I can learn from others (thank goodness for YouTube), then take the plunge, often diving in with (an alarming amount of) self-confidence and the faith that it’s going to all work out in the end if I just take things step-by-step. In many ways, that is how Bob and I are approaching the Walk. We’ve planned a route and sketched out the basics, but we’re really acting on faith, confident that we have the heart to find our way with each other and those me meet.