Next on the agenda was clearing a spot and building a fire pit. As with everything else, there are regulations, including size of the clearing around the pit and proximity to water. Daryl ordered a pit and finally it was ready. It was so big it barely fit in the truck. There would be as much below ground as above.
There was a skiff of snow covering everything the morning we started. luckily it melted quickly. Pretty sure my help was limited to .1% of the digging.
It was not easy digging up the grass as the ground was still quite frozen, there might be an inch or two of soil, then it was rocky.
Take the pick axe and break the rocky soil enough to shovel it out…..over and over.
Because there were no air vents in this pit, Daryl decided to dig a trench and place an underground pipe to help the fire draw.
Getting there!
We sure seem to be able to make work, first we dig up the grass and dirt, then fill up the holes and move the sod to fill up other holes!
We put rocks in the bottom of the pit. This was to try and keep the ash out of the air vent. We use the ash mixed with peat moss in the outhouse (thank you Teresa) and found getting it out from around the rocks is a real pain. Next year we will do something different, probably try piling the rocks around the air vent. Hopefully that will make ash collection easier.
Daryl had this lovely idea that putting rocks around the pit would look good. As soon as the paint started burning off, the charred pit would not look very pretty. I agreed and went to work gathering rocks. While Daryl went off to get a load of gravel, I took the wheelbarrow and went to the road looking for the perfect size rocks. And then it hit me….I am here by myself in bear country. Every rock was slammed as hard as possible into the metal wheelbarrow. My hope was if I made enough noise no bear would come by!
It seemed like such a good idea and was really pretty. First I built it all up to see what it looked like. Then took it all apart and glued two rows together too see if it would stick. We left it for a week or so, and everything was still holding. It was quite the job glueing every rock to the one below. Finicky, especially the small ones at the top.
Daryl cut the square edges off the grill, then welded stabilizing bars to keep it from warping in the heat.
The fire pit works like a charm. The air vent must be working, fire catches easily and doesn’t give off a ton of smoke, At least that’s my theory from watching someone else build the fire! There is also a full rain barrel and hose very close….guess we must be rule followers! However, a fire out in the bush would be disastrous.
And then the rocks started falling off. As the fire was used more often and got very hot, the glue became soft. What a bummer! I ended up taking all the rocks off the pit and cleaned off the glue. The clean rocks are all sitting there waiting for next summer. Next time we will try to cement them together.
Yep, we like company too. What’s the expression about all work and no play??
Cheers
Ruth
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