It's 3:20 am, I'm exhausted, covered in soot, ready for bed and there's no rest in sight. Over the past few days, amid the abundance of snow, we've been working feverishly trying to get all the work ready for one last firing before Christmas. Sunday I was working at 10 am until past midnight, glazing, spraying and cleaning all my work. Today, even with our best efforts, we didn't get the kiln loaded and ready to go until 4:15 pm. So I'm 11 hours into this firing, with a possible 1-3 more hours left to go, (if not more due to the cold weather) and I feel downright drained. But the end is in sight, and without any mishaps, the kiln should be ready to unload Thursday evening. It's moments like this that make me wonder why we do wood firings, and why we don't charge a huge premium for all this extra labour.