Building the shed, flue, and front door

I spent two days building a concrete slab retaining wall. I found the slabs on the Drilling's land near the Turkey river. I built a bench into the wall where people can sit or place the wood for the next stoke. My goal is to bury the arch of the kiln. Hopefully I can find a helper to complete the wall. It is really a two person job.

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Removed the Arch

Early snow storm

Chimney Floor

James P & Dawnie Marie
My wife spent many a weekend helping me with the kiln. 

Good Friends With Shovels
Chris and Carrie came up for a "Weekend Get-Away" of digging, beer drinking, brick cleaning, local grub, rock stacking and more digging. 

The Cabin
The Cabin was used to be the hired man's house. Jann's mother remodeled it as a get away retreat in the mid-seventies. I love the plaid carpet and the green appliances.

Jann & Bruce
My mother-in-law and her bother own the land near my kiln. They have been so helpful to me. It is cool to learn about the farm and the towns close by.

The Horses Wanted To Eat My Car 

 

It Was A Pretty Site 

I Love Tractors! 

Isn't This How They Built China? 

X Marks The Spot
My kiln lies in a horse pasture below the cabin between corn and the bean fields.

 

Land Of The Lost
There was wonderful eye candy in the beehive. I could not believe how well this kiln was constructed.

The Fortunes Of Good Timing


The brick in the tunnels were really clean. I was fortunate that the floor, made up of layers of crusty salted brick, was removed by others in the years before my visit to What Cheer. 

I spent week harvesting 3000 brick. Gere and James "Ole" Olson help me put them on pallets. 

The tunnel on the left led to a seven story tall chimney that was shared with four other beehive kiln.
What Cheer Iowa was originally a coal mining town. Under the coal seam there was a beautiful layer of Stoneware Clay. Between 1920's and the late 1960's What Cheer sent sewer tile around the world. The Factory consisted of 22 beehive kilns, several large smoke stacks, power plant, tile pipe factory, and a clay processing building. The clay and Coal was all brought in by rail.

 

This is the exit flue of the the beehive kiln. The coal was shoveled in through the side ports and then heat rose to the top of the beehive only to be forced down to this exit flue in the floor of the kiln. 

Gere Huffman of What Cheer, Iowa explaining the working of a beehive kiln to my parents Bill and Cheryl.