Bring on the pizza!

Tracey rowing with pizza paddles

Sorry for the delayed write up - had to fit in a quick trip to Africa!....
But the weekend before we left, Tracey and I managed to complete Cassius and were able to provide Flee with his first woodland pizza, as requested all those months ago.
Armed with not one, but two pizza paddles, made in two different materials by two different people, we set off for the wood, laden with pizza bases (yes, I know, pre-bought, but we all have to start somewhere) and a huge selection of toppings (think I might have overdone it a bit!).

The make-your-own selection platter

After a few hours firing, Cassius' thermometer was swinging between 170 and 200 and so we shoved in a cheap and cheerful, cheese and tomato mini to test him out with....We were expecting a black bottom, and possibly soot on top as the smoke level is quite low, but the sacrificial pizza looked so good we ate it! Cassius was roaring and so were we. The sense of achievement was immense; digging clay from the pond and turning it into something usable and "free" was fantastic. We now had the means to make roasties and bread, cakes and casseroles. So excited. But today's task was pizza for eight people. It was dark by the time the gang were all assembled, but with our solar lighting in the Yardarm it wasn't long before Cassius was in full swing and pizza after perfect pizza came out. The wooden paddle was great for getting them in and the metal one made light work of retrieving them - we didn't lose a single slice.

the first sacrificial mini

Everyone knows you can't have pizza without a movie, so we pegged out a pillow case over the woodpile to make a movie screen and all sat round the fire to watch "The making of Cassius" sent from a handheld projector mounted on a tripod - magic.
The journey has been longer than anticipated, and harder work than we could ever have imagined, but Cassius is a fully functioning thing of beauty and the aches and pains are now long forgotten.
We laughed, we worried, then we laughed some more. A massive thank you to everyone who made it possible, you're amazing.

PS: Flee, you can now have your pond back. We are well and truly done with clay.

final set of repairs and they were major!!!

I was supposed to be having a weekend off from Rais and getting some gardening done at home, the back garden is looking horrendous at the moment and the Bay tree has gone completely mad, so if anyone knows a friendly, knowledgeable gardener with some time on their hands to help me tame it, please get in touch. I managed to mow the front lawn, cut the edges and plant up the few cuttings I had on my kitchen window sill, but by 430pm I simply had to get to Rais and check on Cassius, I could bear it no longer.. when I got there the shrinkage was soul-destroying. The soggy clay really was way too water-logged and cracked beyond belief... but thankfully we still have quite a lot of spare clay to make repairs and go again. It took longer than expected to fill the cracks and make good, but by 8pm I was packed and ready to get home again; bath calling me.

I was up again this morning and back with Cassius by half nine. I repaired the new hairline cracks and re-did the chimney after a dodgy attempt at making a snake coiled around it that looked more like a giant turd.
We only have one weekend left before Tracey and I set off for Zambia, so the pizza fest is going to be next weekend... ready or not... we have to have a rest at some point and with any luck it will come next weekend with pizza, wine, and good friends to help christen Cassius properly.
I also have to mention Simon in this blog, who has had his hard work on the bracken overshadowed by Cassius in the past few weeks. The whole time we have been puddling, mashing, mixing, brick-making, and modelling, Simon has been pulling endless amounts of bracken out by hand, which seems to grow a foot or so a week and appears to grow back within days, so it's a pretty thankless and back-breaking job. Sterling work Sewell, thank you so much for rescuing our efforts and ensuring next years growth is hugely reduced.  

Final layer - yay!

300 bricks, made in clay so soggy we couldn't stack them meant we were very lucky it didn't rain all weekend. I think I can safely say Tracey and I have seriously had enough of clay now! NEVER doing this again; the life of an oven at Rais will be the life of Cassius... and that's IT!
We rewarded ourselves with a few glasses of the red stuff of course, well chuffed that we had gotten it all done on the Saturday and could afford a lie in and a leisurely Sunday. More importantly, Tracey would get to watch Andy Murray in the Wimbledon final.
I tried out my new camp bed in the blue tent and slept like a log - so much so that I didn't get up until 10:30am, the best nights sleep I've had up there... ever. :-)
We decided to head over to see the neighbours on Sunday, but unfortunately Bob and Rita were not in, so we continued on to see John at his bird haven in Millers Wood. What a difference some light makes, his woodland is very open in comparison to Rais. He has thinned his trees quite a bit at the Eastern edge of his wood and worked incredibly hard to get a number of hides in situ already, including an impressive drinking hide which I'm keen to have a go in. John has an Alaskan chainsaw mill which gives the ability to turn felled trees into planks... incredibly useful when you want to build solid hides, and flat benches but don't have the need or space for a permanent saw mill. As a result there are benches dotted around to enjoy the peace and watch the birds.  I was particularly impressed with how close the birds were coming in to his feeders, even with us standing not too far away. Then to see the juvenile woodpeckers come in almost immediately after we got seated inside - particularly as we were not even being quiet!  John is renting his hides, and offers photography workshops from his wood so check out his website... http://www.johnstantonphotography.co.uk/
He has sown a lot of wildflower seeds and planted a number of natives around the site which will be stunning in a few seasons time when it all takes hold. I'm also looking forward to seeing how his pond turns out, as he has opted for a man made version with pond liner whereas we are attempting to dam our stream again using the clay instead of liner. I'm intrigued to see if there is a difference in the time they take to establish.
Going to be an exciting summer / autumn.