The first firing of the kiln was concluded at around 7:00am this morning after the kiln reached a holding temprature of 1944 degrees farenheight. That is about 4 degrees above the normal specification for Cone 04, but I guess thats what the kiln’s “intelligent” controller decided was required for reaching the proper saturation in the time it needed to finish firing, I guess it did its final ramp too quickly and needed to compensate. The stoneware pieces came out bright white and the terra cotta pieces are a standard terra-cotta color. I removed the pieces from the kiln at approximately 85 degrees. A full load has been added to the kiln this time and I am running an new firing for the pieces that DIDN’T go into the kiln last night. I am being a little adventurous at the moment with the kiln, I am ramping a little faster tonight than I did last night. I’m hoping that nothing goes wrong with doing this. Last night I ramped at roughly 197 degrees per hour, tonight I am going for closer to 265 degrees per hour. The total run time for last night was supposed to be about 10 hours, and the kiln reported to me this morning that she took 9 hours, 28 minutes to complete. We shall see how long it takes to run this firing, and whether sounds of exploding stoneware is heard or not, I am hoping for not.