[MarkJerling]

That’s not football in NZ, it is soccer. Football in N Z has scrums.

My English friends get annoyed if I call it soccer!

[MarkJerling]

On Friday I saw a man walking in the middle of the meadow near home playing bagpipes. He was wearing trousers, neither trews nor a dress.

Could not have been Robert then.

[slartibartfast01]

Was our son's 18th birthday this weekend. I grilled some steaks, Annie baked a cake and a quiche and I got some nice shots of John's football game, last weekend.

Pizza oven almost done but Sunday a storm came through so I'm not done yet!

Is that a rucksack on the pitch or jumpers for goalposts?

[MarkJerling]

Is that a rucksack on the pitch or jumpers for goalposts?

Just off the sideline, but you know how telephoto zooms compress everything.

[MarkJerling]

Pre-storm progress. I had to cover the whole thing up so as to not get the insulation wet. Storm rages on, still.

[35mmfilmfan]

It doesn't have to be busy here. One of the quirks of Pierre drivers is that about a third of them seem to think that driving 5 to 10 MPH under the limit is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. The main street through town is 30 MPH speed limit and has 5 un-timed traffic signals over a distance of roughly a mile and a half. One block south of it is a through street with the same 30 MPH speed limit and just a single stop sign which makes it seem like a great way to get across town. Well I can probably count on one finger the number of times in a week that I can actually drive the length of the street at the speed limit.

We have the same thing in Norfolk (UK - the original) during the annual grockle invasion (summer tourists), who find our lovely winding roads difficult to cope with (see Chesterton). The local name for them is 'Ten-unders', as they drive at ten under the limit. You've not lived until you've been on a bus in Norfolk travelling at about fifty, overtaking a grockle towing a caravan approaching a blind bend at the top of a hill, on a road barely wide enough for both vehicles.

BTW, I fully intend to buy a second-hand K3 as soon as my legacy from my uncle comes through (just a brief tip of the hat to the long-forgotten original topic !)

[robtcorl]

Your outdoor oven looks top notch, Mark!
Happy birthday to your son! He looks like a young, but trim and fit, you.

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Last edited by robtcorl; 09-28-2020 at 05:41 AM. Reason: typo

[bertwert]

On Friday I saw a man walking in the middle of the meadow near home playing bagpipes. He was wearing trousers, neither trews nor a dress.

Could not have been Robert then.

I generally just wear trousers when practicing.

[bertwert]

Pre-storm progress. I had to cover the whole thing up so as to not get the insulation wet. Storm rages on, still.

Looking good Mark, let me know when it's done so I can plan a visit

[MarkJerling]

Your outdoor oven looks top notch, Mark!
Happy birthday to your son! He looks like a young, but trim and fit, you.

So, I'm not young trim and fit then?

Thank Bob.

[MarkJerling]

Looking good Mark, let me know when it's done so I can plan a visit

Start paddling now. I'll be done by the time you get here.

[lesmore49]

Quite a pizza oven ! Boy...you must like pizza in a big way. How many pizzas can you cook at one time with that oven ?

Looking at it, it does appear like an old style, Italian oven that could have multi uses. Baked bread, other baked goods come to mind. The brick work makes me think that this would contribute to benefits in the taste of any product cooked in this oven.

I was curious as to whether this would be the case, so I turned to my friend the internet for the answer.

Why Cooking Pizza in a Brick Oven is Better.

BTW, we got the ASUS gaming computer...7- 4800 and so forth and Windows 10 Pro (as per your suggestion) , etc., and I have to say what a difference between it and our previous computer...which was about a 10-11 year old laptop. We're hoping to keep it for a few years and also hope, that it doesn't get outmoded too quickly, which is why we went for specs that exceed our needs.

[MarkJerling]

Quite a pizza oven ! Boy...you must like pizza in a big way. How many pizzas can you cook at one time with that oven ?

I sure do! The oven "door" will fit anything up to 19" diameter and could fit 2x 19" pizzas at one time, or, more practically, 3x 15" diameter, 4x 12" diameter or 6x 10" diameter at one time, allowing for a fire area on the side. It's seriously oversize for a home pizza oven.

Looking at it, it does appear like an old style, Italian oven that could have multi uses. Baked bread, other baked goods come to mind. The brick work makes me think that this would contribute to benefits in the taste of any product cooked in this oven.

I have (broadly) used a modified Forno Bravo design. See Forno Bravo - Your pizza oven awaits - Authentic wood fired pizza ovens The reason I have built it big is because (a) I had most of the materials anyway. (b) if you build it big, it works for many more things than pizza. Bread, as you rightly point out, also cakes or roasts or smoked foods can all be more easily done in a bigger wood fired oven. (c) I may be able to make a business out of something like a bigger oven!

As you point out, a brick built oven is a great resource as it will hold it's temperature for a long time. The down side to building it bigger is that it will need a longer and larger fire to heat up but, conversely, once heated, it will hold a stable high temperature for longer, allowing it to cook not just pizzas at high heat, but also hold it's heat for bread baking and I see a market for wood fired artisan breads. In theory, the 150 fire bricks will help to create an efficient heat store. If all goes to plan, I may do low heat test fire as soon as next weekend. The trick with brick ovens in that they need to be seasoned so I need to start with a small fire and then over some days gradually build up the heat so as to not stress the construction with too high a heat right away. If we do it well, it will easily handle the 400-500 degree heat it will regularly be subjected to. It will even handle 700-800 degrees (commercial pizza oven temps) and the maximum temperature it should handle is a whopping 1200-1400 degrees, based upon the fire bricks and fire mortar used. Basically, not quite hot enough to use as a pottery kiln, but certaily hot enough for what I plan to use it for!

BTW, we got the ASUS gaming computer...7- 4800 and so forth and Windows 10 Pro (as per your suggestion) , etc., and I have to say what a difference between it and our previous computer...which was about a 10-11 year old laptop. We're hoping to keep it for a few years and also hope, that it doesn't get outmoded too quickly, which is why we went for specs that exceed our needs.

Great to hear that's worked out well for you. Shout if you need any help with the operating system.

[Parallax]

I sure do! The oven "door" will fit anything up to 19" diameter and could fit 2x 19" pizzas at one time, or, more practically, 3x 15" diameter, 4x 12" diameter or 6x 10" diameter at one time, allowing for a fire area on the side.

Impressive computation, Mr. Euclid.

[bertwert]

BTW, we got the ASUS gaming computer...7- 4800 and so forth and Windows 10 Pro (as per your suggestion) , etc., and I have to say what a difference between it and our previous computer...which was about a 10-11 year old laptop. We're hoping to keep it for a few years and also hope, that it doesn't get outmoded too quickly, which is why we went for specs that exceed our needs.

Windows... Blech.


But in seriousness, new computers can feel like lightning... I still haven't gotten used to the speed of my new laptop - and it's not even a super high end thing. (Though Arch Linux helps make it snappy...)