It started out simple enough, a little ring of hand stacked bricks to make a little fire pit. This little ring of bricks got used well over 10 times in the last 30 days since it was built. Not bad for a 15 minute build, it lasted all month, the boys both enjoyed it, and it was simple.

Sunday night I wanted to grill but did not feel like starting up the actual grill since I wanted a little fire in the ring. I decided to change up the ring a bit and added support bricks to hold our cast iron griddle. This worked well for the night but it instantly had me thinking and designing the new one.

The 2 support bricks are visible with the weight bricks holding down the backside of them.

Yesterday around 11:30 am the tear down occurred and was done in only a few minutes. The first step was to level out the ground where the new ring was to be built. I opted for a larger pad to allow more room for building in general. I was not intent on using all the space though.

My oldest, J, wanted to help with the tamping but his tamps were only so effective since he isn't quite strong enough to lift the tamper very high. I took the 4ft level to the ground and tamped the soil solidly all around the pad.

The soil packed okay, not perfect, but well enough that I felt comfortable setting bricks. You can see in the image the square area of tamping, that is the spot for the grill section of the pit. Even after enlarging the pad I still ended up needing to increase the pad area a bit in certain spots.

The design went together surprisingly fast. I laid down the base layer and fit all the bricks to a point that they looked about even through the arc and in the box. I took a brick and tapped each brick to attempt to level each one with its neighbor. I intentionally left airspace between the bricks to help give the ring a good airflow ability. Each space will allow a metered amount of air through, but as a whole the air intake is more than enough.

One key design issue I had to take into account is the size of the grills and the griddle for the grill box. You can see there are 6 bricks across the base of the box with the next two on each side staggered in a half brick. This was needed to give a brick lip on either side for the grills/griddle to sit upon.

Both boys helped hand me bricks as I stacked. I started with the main pit arc and worked hard to make each brick in the arc flush on the inside perimeter. The first pit was a little to slap-dash so I wanted this one to look much better.

After I got the 3 rows on the main arc I started to build the grill box up. The stacking and order of the bricks was a touch tricky for the box since it ended up being a bit irregular per level. Let me rephrase, every other level was a similar stack. The 1st, 3rd, and 5th levels are the same and the 2nd and 4th are the same pattern.

After an hour of stacking bricks the fire pit and grill were primarily complete. I set the grill in its place and nestled the boundary bricks up to it to hold it in place. You can see the 1 inch of brick supporting the grill on either side. At the back I have the grill flush with the brick to help keep the grill surface as large as possible.

The grill box is set well in that it has a good amount of air space between a number of the bricks so the air flow is still sufficient. I am now browsing my brick collection and looking for any possible capstones for the top of the pit, but it may end up staying as is. I just like the idea of locking the top row in place to keep the boys from mangling it.

The first test run of the new setup was a resounding success. I can build a fire in the main pit and then just drag as much as I need into the grill box. It is very easy to meter the amount of flames and heat just by moving coals around.

I've got it in my head to build a second test pit/grill that is square sided rather than round. It is more of a test idea to see which would work better, but that will wait for another time. I have too many other things to get to around the farm now.

Check out my blog @flemingfarm

For more information about our farm:
Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce

All images are original works of Fleming Family Farm unless otherwise notated and credited.

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