How do you make your fires?
Precisely, with little bundles of kindling lined up like Victorian children smallest to largest?
Large-ish tinder bundle ala Kochanski?
Nice multi curl feather sticks?
Neat tepee, box or other fire lay?
When we had our little 24 foot sailing cruiser we treated every hat which was blown overboard as a Man Overboard situation for training purposes so we would be ready for the real thing if it ever happened.
I used to gather tinder as I walked in the forest so I was almost ready to go once we stopped. It is still a good practice but I increasingly go for making do with what is at hand.
So recently, I stopped at a waterfall with a friend. I made the coffee. Putting aside the gas stove, I made do with the damp wood around the stream avoiding the dry kindling and tinder further up slope. It was difficult but I succeeded in the end.
Yesterday, instead of returning to the car during a walk to avoid a thunderstorm, I put up the poncho as a tarp and practiced lighting a fire beneath it as the rain bucketed down. That was humbling but I got a cup of hot tea in the end.
Today, a Kiwi friend called at short notice to say he was coming around with a few beers. I volunteered to do the Barbie (BBQ). So I panicked using fallen wood, hard dry wood that resisted neat feathering etc. rushing to get a bed of coals before he arrived.
The intention is that if T-S-H-T-F on some bush trip then I am practiced and ready to make do with what I have rather than lament that I cannot do a text book fire starting.
All I am interested in when T-S-H-T-F is a fit-for-purpose fire not demonstration grade fire making.
Use what is at hand to panic - mosquitoes, mate arriving, daylight fading, whatever. Its like an IA drill.
I think I learn more each time this way than I do by trying to do it right.
Precisely, with little bundles of kindling lined up like Victorian children smallest to largest?
Large-ish tinder bundle ala Kochanski?
Nice multi curl feather sticks?
Neat tepee, box or other fire lay?
When we had our little 24 foot sailing cruiser we treated every hat which was blown overboard as a Man Overboard situation for training purposes so we would be ready for the real thing if it ever happened.
I used to gather tinder as I walked in the forest so I was almost ready to go once we stopped. It is still a good practice but I increasingly go for making do with what is at hand.
So recently, I stopped at a waterfall with a friend. I made the coffee. Putting aside the gas stove, I made do with the damp wood around the stream avoiding the dry kindling and tinder further up slope. It was difficult but I succeeded in the end.
Yesterday, instead of returning to the car during a walk to avoid a thunderstorm, I put up the poncho as a tarp and practiced lighting a fire beneath it as the rain bucketed down. That was humbling but I got a cup of hot tea in the end.
Today, a Kiwi friend called at short notice to say he was coming around with a few beers. I volunteered to do the Barbie (BBQ). So I panicked using fallen wood, hard dry wood that resisted neat feathering etc. rushing to get a bed of coals before he arrived.
The intention is that if T-S-H-T-F on some bush trip then I am practiced and ready to make do with what I have rather than lament that I cannot do a text book fire starting.
All I am interested in when T-S-H-T-F is a fit-for-purpose fire not demonstration grade fire making.
Use what is at hand to panic - mosquitoes, mate arriving, daylight fading, whatever. Its like an IA drill.
I think I learn more each time this way than I do by trying to do it right.
