Casting the insulated base

With Janes return to France, I have been able to push on and cast the insulated base for the pizza oven. There were 4 key satges to the base, Stage one was a dryinsh mix of sand, cement, lime and gravel packed tightly into the corners. Well I hope it's packed tightly as I delegated this task to Joshua. Stage 2 was the same mix again, this time with the addition of 30% vermiculite, this was placed into the middle and tamped down around the reinforcing bars. Another layer of the first mix was then applied and topped off with chicken wire. Finally a layer of wet concrete finished it all off. I should also point out that I have cast it upside down, just in case any technical people were thinking it was all a bit arse about face. The whole thing has now been topped with plastic to slow the drying process. This will now sit where it is until Steves arrival next week when we shall attempt to move it into place.