Another Bout with the Whale

I drove down to Pardes Hanna again after Shabbat: the kiln had been "stuck" [not for the first time during this firing- it's a new kiln,remember,and takes some learning] for a while,unwilling to rise in temperature,but Pnina and Michael had brought it back to life with some concentrated stoking through the side-ports. Ricardo and I took over and managed to more-or-less hold our ground throughout the night while Meir caught a [very] few hours' sleep. In the morning,the front was closed up,having reached cone 12 [1320-ish],and wood was loaded into the side-ports to bring the rest of the kiln to temperature. The firing will probably have finished by now; we have to wait a week while the kiln cools before opening [next Friday].