Sausage count hits double figures...

Still a long way to go, but at least the sausage counter is nearly where it needs to be. We think we need 16 eventually and we now have 13 thanks to Tracey's endless puddling.

making a trial batch of insulating bricks

After a trial run at making insulating bricks (clay slip and sawdust), we have a much better idea of the numbers required for the next 10cm layer;

1. Two jugs of slip to eight jugs of sawdust makes 7 "bricks" 
2. With the planned width we need approximately 250 bricks to cover it once (5cms deep)
3. Then to cover again will take another 280 bricks as by then it will be almost 120cms wide!
4. One trug of slip we now know makes roughly 12 mixes (84 bricks)
5. So we need five and a half trugs of slip to make a decent insulating layer.

It might not be such great news for our hands, but it certainly makes me feel a lot more comfortable with the amount of clay we will have available. Such a thick insulating layer also means we only need a single outer layer of clay (290 bricks).
Since we plan on starting with 13 sausages, we need to get at least 35 bricks out of each sausage. Sounds reasonable. Any spare can then be used for repairing cracks and moulding the oven into the work surface and rest of the kitchen.

Of course whilst Cassius is coming to life, so is the rest of Rais, and more worryingly... the bracken - it's rampant. The areas we pulled last year have thankfully only come back at probably 50% the volume they were before, so it's important we keep on top of it, else all that hard work will have been for nothing. Simon kindly spent the best part of a day hand-pulling throughout the way-leave to get rid of it before it sets spores and we are back to square one. A back-breaking job, but very rewarding, as large areas can be covered relatively quickly.