It’s Here! It’s Here!

The research was done and it was time to place the order. We contacted Forno Piombo and they had an oven that was almost finished! It would be here before we knew it! Now to get it from Northern California to Phoenix and into our yard. This was quite an adventure!

Our oven was packed in a crate…a really big crate, and shipped on a truck to a freight dock. We arrived at the dock and were shocked by the size of the crate and loaded it onto a trailer to be pulled by my Explorer.

Mr. Fanatic could hardly wait to uncrate the oven when we returned home. The crate looked intimidating but was actually easy to open up.

The oven seemed enormous, but it was going to fit perfectly on the raised area in our outdoor kitchen. It was like we meant to put a wood fired pizza oven there! Check out this picture before the oven.

Because our gate and side yard are so narrow, we could not bring the oven in on a forklift. The oven weighs about 2500 pounds so we were not going to carry it. The only option was a crane to lift it over our wall and place it in the permanent location.

Fortunately, the Forno Piombo oven was on a metal pallet that made it simple to connect the shackles and rigging from the crane. The pallet was bolted to the oven in a couple of places and was very secure for this type of delivery and installation.

Watching the oven rise above the fence line and enter our yard about 15 feet above the ground with a moderate distance to travel at that height was a total nail biter!

With a little guidance and a little twist it was finally in place.

In order to displace moisture left in the oven from the construction process, it is recommended that you have several fires which gradually increase in temperature. The rapid expansion of water in a wet oven can lead to cracks which is why this step is necessary. How were we going to wait a few days before cooking our first pizza?!