The first firing seemed to be very successful! We spent 5 days getting it up to temperature and with a cold weather system moving in on Monday night and having fought the kiln with our all we had to get it up to temp during the day we decided to end the firing 12 hours early... 115 hour firing in total. We are all waiting anxiously to see what the inaugural firing will have to show for us. Here are some shots of the first firing. There will be more shots up after we get some of the pots out and are able to get a feel for what the kiln did over those 115 hours.

Here is the kiln during the middle of day 3.

	Lots and lots of wood was burned through. Here is Careen chain sawing a pile of lath.
	Chris stoking side port on the end of the 4th day.
	Here is the view of the front of the kiln. The door worked very well and the thin threaded rod handle was cool to the touch, even when the temp in the front of the kiln was reading 2450 degrees Fahrenheit!
	Here is the bustling kiln site.
	View of the side stokes where we spent so much of our time.
	After a stoke there is considerable pressure inside the kiln forcing impressive amounts of flame out through the side stoke holes. It often comes shooting out the chimney as well.
UNLOADING!!
Here is Simon at the inaugural opening of the I.Savage Anagama.
Note the listing of the the narrow stack on the right of the kiln. This made for some interesting high speed unloading.
Here is a view of the kiln floor. Looking a little sea-sick.
Here is a shot trying to capture the anticipation of unloading. Behind some of Simon's nice bulbous vases are a couple of my vases that I declared to be the best of mine from the firing. You can see the rich red shino peeking out from behind the post there. Mmmmm. very nice.
Here is Livya standing inside of one of Simon's large jars that had not made it succesfully through the firing because we raised the temp too quickly at the beginning.
	Because the front stack on the right had tipped over, it pushed a plate up on the underside of one of the other shelves.
	The Silca Carbide shelves foam durring a wood-firing. I am not sure what the chemical reasoning is for this, but if the silica drips onto a pot below it sometimes is a great effect, and sometimes not.
	A view of the second stack
	Simon inspecting second stack.
	One of the nicer pots that came out of this firing.
	Another piece that I was quite pleased with.