Building a Fire Pit

I've had it in my mind to make myself a little fire pit for a while now.  Not a large project, but still it took months before I actually got around to doing it.  In the end, I did it all in about three hours counting the time it took to drive to Home Depot, buy the stuff, place it and clean-up.  A small project, but a rewarding one.

So far as it appears, I can't tell the difference between a construction project and a hole in the ground

I dug a pit in my backyard, maybe 8" deep.  I tried to keep the bottom level, but since the ground slopes slightly I imagine the result was less than perfect.  Still it was close enough, and after about 15 to 20 minutes I had a roundish, 3.5 foot diameter hole.

Fire pit parts: some assembly required

I went to Home Depot to acquire supplies.  I actually had to buy a wheelbarrow as I had not gotten one previously.  Which meant attaching my trailer to my car and getting my usual angst as I drive around the very bumpy local roads.  But I got the trailer to the store and ended up with 64 bricks, a pitch fork, some "leveling sand", a 5-gallon bucket and some mortar with a bin to mix it in and the trowel to place it.

A wonderful day to do the work

I placed the leveling sand around the edge of the pit as well as in the pit.  Then it was time to really get going.  I had bought two, 60 lbs bags of mortar, but I only needed one.  I mixed in one batch and started applying it.  It was obvious I wasn't much of a mason, but this didn't exactly need to withstand armageddon  so within the hour all the bricks had gone up and all the mortar had been slathered around between them.  I had guessed on the number of bricks and by sheer luck: gotten it exactly right.  I used every one of them, and they were placed perfectly to allow for three courses with a small opening in each one to let some air move through.

The mortar is applied and is beginning to set

I cleaned up as best I could: removing excess mortar and ensuring the bricks were placed where I wanted.  Then nothing to do but clean-up and wait for the right time to put my creation to use.

I invented fire!

 When night came, I started a fire up and made smores.  Yum!  Day well spent.