Preparing the pit

So on Saturday the pit was dug and I thought to myself "no time like the present" and so I decided to fire it and here we go.

I went pretty much according to the book, the aforementioned book Alternative Kilns and Firing Techniques, to be precise. I first filled the bottom with dry kindling:

Strips of newspaper over that:

And sawdust over that, to fill in the gaps. (I got the sawdust from some very nice gentlemen at Cayuga Lumber who called me "dear", showed me where it was, helped me put it in a garbage bag, and then carried it to my car. When I first showed up it was the end of the business day and they were all standing around in the parking lot, and when I asked if they had sawdust one said "Just between my ears, miss." But they turned out to be very helpful after that.)

Anyway, I then nestled the pieces in with the sawdust, away from each other and away from the walls, to maximize their exposure to the smoke.

I added the little packets of salts that I'd made over break around the pieces to see what would happen.

The next layer was more kindling:

Then more of Jamie's old Ithaca Journals because what else are they fit for really:

Then we added more sawdust and then I stacked the bigger logs on top, crosswise, which I don't seem to have a picture of. When full, the wood came all the way up to the top of the pit. I'll show you the actual firing in the next entry.