Decorating the Wood-Fired Oven

At the end of the day, May 19, 2011, the front of the oven looked like this. To see what took place all day long to get to this stage, click on the link to the slide show:  Oven Decoration Day  The electric heater inside is drying and curing the mortar. John and I had a ball doing this together, using things we had collected up in the Canadian Maritimes years ago. Red beach sand from the coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, scallop shells from Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, various other shells from various other beaches, cookie cutters, hand made clay marbles from a confiscated collection in the attic of our former house in Gill, Mass, and mirrors from window mobiles bought in Johnson, Vermont.  There are still other things that must be done before we can start building little fires to break it in. The oven will be insulated with vermiculite and the chimney has to be installed. Another month maybe before we are ready to bake.