Getting fired up

Since I've been on a low 'tick over' most functions pottery wise have also been on hold.Maintaining just enough heat with low watt, stat controlled tube heaters in the vicinity of drying pots avoids frost damage.(basic school science..clay=lots o water, extreme low temperature = ice , ice = expansion , expansion = zillions of 'bits' o pots !) Trust me, you let this kind of traumatic trauma happen just once! A few boards of pots about and your looking at a lot of time & £.
We started children's classes last week,it seems children are more resilient to frost damage than pots! Getting old Bertha fired up ( the pot belly stove in the teaching studio ) and keeping her fed with split logs has been one of may challenges whilst spinning around on crutches! My lovely faithful crew of little 'Mudlarks' duly turned up and put a smile on my face for an hour or so . I have to say they were the most critical about me when they realised I'd slacked on firring kilns and wailed in unison "so why haven't you fired our pots !?) Adult classes started this week and as a child oriented foster carer I of course love children's class but a couple of hours with kindred spirits and a glass of the same ( a nice dry red Shiraz does it for me!) kinda rows my boat and is a night out .
Well I'm going to try and do all the back orders on glazing and over the next few days, fire a few kilns and quell the hoards of mutinous kids !