Finally!

 
    I finally got the firepit finished! I caved and ended up forsaking the pallet of stone that I thought might work, and bought retaining wall brick instead. There were a few reasons for this. First, I was trying to take rectangular pieces of stone and arrange them into a circle...think about that for a minute. I also had to cut each piece even smaller than before, and when I did this I found out that even after doing so, lining them up still gave me major gaps that I'd have to fill with mortar. However, the most important reason I threw in the towel on the stone was safety. The stone was very porous and soft. It flaked and broke easily. I rule I read when researching the fire pit was to avoid this type of stone, as there was a possibility that it might soak up too much water after a rain. That's a problem if you're heating it up next to a fire, as the water trapped inside the rock rock looks for a way out. If you're not careful, the rock can explode. I had planned to line the whole thing with firebrick to insulate it and avoid a catastrophe, but it just didn't feel right.

     So, like I said, I went down and bought some pavers from Lowe's, hauled them back, and started building. The bricks were shaped so that stacking them around the pit was an easy job, and I didn't have to mix mortar to adhere them to each other. I simply used some concrete adhesive and moved on. It was so much easier. My back hated me the next day, but it was worth it. Plus, my wife was happy, and the kids thought it was pretty cool. If you know anyone looking for a pallet of rectangle-shaped rock, send them my way.