FIRED!

The rain held off long enough for me to actually light the fire.....

It was an experimental firing - all the pieces in it were/are tests and, so that I didn't have to fill the entire kiln, I reconstructed the inside to block off the second chamber.

I wanted to see what a shorter firing was like as well, especially considering all the work in there was glazed in some way.
My concern with this modification to the kiln was that it would collapse, or act like another 3 feet of chimney greatly increasing the pull of the chimney. In the event neither concerns were founded - on the contrary, the draw on the firebox was reduced and I had two sticking points where I had to work very hard to get a temperature rise.

I lit the fire at 7.30 am, started reduction at 2.30 pm and continued firing till 3am when cone 10 was down and cone 11 just touched. 19.5 hours of hard stoking on my own and I am now absolutely knackered. But the day itself was fine. By 1am I had my second (or third) wind. Totally wired on adrenaline and fizzy pop. But it was fine - I could have gone on for a few hours more if needed.

Toasted the firing with a pint of Fullers ESB (best beer in the world) and sealed it all up. It's still at 900C at 1pm this afternoon.