This Memorial Day weekend I thought would be a good time to begin blogging in earnest about my pottery activities, since my other business involvements seem to be winding down, boding well for more free time, and I've been feeling pretty healthy lately, able to do my normal amount of work around the pottery and feel good. Seemed like things were moving towards a reinvigoration as far as making pots. So Saturday I started taking pictures as I began the process of pulling the pottery out of its winter sleeping bag.
This is what the kiln shed and shop looked like at about 1 pm.
I was working mostly on organizing- getting the glazes re-sieved, making
a pallet-base to put the buckets on next to the deck to the left of the kiln,
sorting wood, and cutting up some deadfall to burn for glaze-ash.
That didn't work out so well, and by 3 pm this is what the pottery looked like:
Pretty grim, and pretty heartbreaking. Seven years of work gone in a few minutes.
Men and women from three fire companies responded, Springville, Elk Lake and Montrose.
They were all amazing, and kept the fire from spreading to the woods or our house. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. The 500 gallon (full) propane tank next to the shed was a pretty
alarming aspect of the whole conflagration. One of the guys from SVFD grabbed a hose and walked right over and started hosing it down. It didn't go up, which we were all happy about .

I'm still sort of shell shocked from it, and can't quite believe the whole thing is gone.
The wood kiln is fine, but everything else, tools wheels slab roller electric kilns and of course
the building, is destroyed. All the CN-192 shelves from the wood kiln are cracked.
I have to see what if any help I'll get from the insurance company, and then how far that will take me in rebuilding.
What a spectacular mess.