We built a wood kiln!

It was a Facebook post that led us to this day almost exactly 3 years later. A man in Indiana posted his wood kiln for sale. I forwarded the post to Joshua, my husband. I knew he would be interested, but I never dreamed he would leave that weekend with a large pile of cash to secure the kiln and agree to moving it brick by brick to our house!

It took Joshua 5 trips and many friends with trucks and trailers countless hours in freezing rain to move the kiln, but he did it without complaint. (We really do have the best friends in the world.) The bricks were piled across our entire 2.5 car garage in neat piles, sorted by type. There they stayed while we found and contracted with a local handyman to build the awning that would protect the finished kiln, and the concrete footer it would sit on. It wasn’t until 6 months later that the bricks were finally neatly piled under the awning and I had my garage back.

Thank goodness Joshua took so many pictures before he began to disassemble the wood kiln. This Lego build was not for the faint of heart and did not come with any instructions. Those old photos taken in the rain were all anyone had to go on. That explains why it was taken apart many more times than it was put together over the next 2 years as Joshua piled and unpiled bricks.

The real heart stopping moment came when the key stone was poured. A keystone is the top part of the arch that puts both weight and pressure on the bricks below them along the curve. It has to be heat resistant (over 2500 degrees F) as well as heavy, but not so heavy the structure collapses. Unfortunately, physics was not on our side. A wiggle caused the entire arch to collapse as we removed the arch form. The incident convinced us to take a break for a few months. It wasn’t until the winter had passed into spring that Joshua was ready to try again - and 2nd times a charm!

I wouldn’t say the rest was easy after our heart wrenching fall, but it went a lot smother. The fire box and chimney were built. Our handyman came out and cut the awning roof to make way for the chimney. Some beloved friends were there when Josh set the final stones on the very top. It is hard to describe the feeling standing back and seeing what Josh built. Inspiring.

We have already started on the work that fill the kiln. Check-in in April to read about our first kiln firing and the results of our efforts.