Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Between the Storms

We got snow yesterday and last night, enough that I cancelled my Tuesday classes. We are forecast to get snow - big snow, actually - tomorrow. Today, though, it's in the mid-40s and sunny: perfect kiln loading weather.

I had to dig out the kiln from yesterday's storm first, of course. Not to mention the driveway.

So, funny story! When I shovelled out my driveway. I pushed some of the snow into the parking lane on my street. Not a lot, and certainly not into the travel lane, but I don't have a snow blower, and sometimes it's hard to find places to put the snow, as we get later in the winter. We are the only ones who ever use the parking spot in front of our house, so no harm, no foul, right? Wrong.
Turns out it is illegal to put your snow in the parking lane. How do I know this? Because some very responsible citizen called the cops on me. No lie. The officer was very nice, and quite apologetic. even; he even stayed to help me push the snow back into a more acceptable configuration. It could have been a sour experience but the young man was so nice it wasn't, at all.

Anyway! Back to the firing.

This load is mostly refires and pots that were already glazed but didn't fit into my last firing. This will be the first firing since I added and additional layer of brick to the stack, to increase the draw, so will be the tell whether one layer was enough. If not, I'll be hauling my cowardly ass back up the ladder and onto the roof to pile on one more course. Be afraid, do it anyway: good advice.

Weather forecasts are sometimes wrong, and storm predictions are often overblown, so I am not sure how tomorrow is going to go. If it looks like big snow, I will cancel my Thursday class and fire at home. I hope it doesn't - rescheduling classes is inconvenient, for me and for students. But on the other hand there is no better way to spend a snow day than firing a kiln. My favorite kind of situation: win-win.

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