Building a fire

             

I can remember being in boy scouts and first learning how to build a fire.  I was about 12 years old and I was doing it with a friend.  It was so hard; I just couldn’t get it right.  I had tried the “teepee” method probably about nine times and every time it would get going then burn up the tinder and go out.  My scoutmaster then showed me a way to build the fire that has worked every time since.  Start out with two large logs and lay them side by side with about eight inches between the two crests of them.  Then look for sticks anbout the size of a match stick around and lay them across the two logs till there is about 6 inches if width between your first and last stick ( like this |<6>| )  then lay the same size sticks across those so you form a grid like this #.  Now look for sticks about the size of a pencil and do the same crisscrossing two layers on top of this.  Then find sticks about the size of your thumb and lay them across in the same way.  Now take one match and light the fire from the bottom.  If your wood is dry and you have followed the methods that I have stated above, you should have a full blown fire shortly.  I have not once had this method fail and I have always used just one match when starting the fires. 

                Now that you can build a fire it would be helpful to know how to build a fire so that it can be used for cooking.  You could just build the fire like I stated above and let it burn down and then set your pots or pans on top and cook.  However this method requires that you can find logs of equal size and that you wait for the fire to burn down to just coals.  The alternative is a pit fire.  Dig a hole about one food deep and build your fire in it.  Once your fire gets going throw your wood into the fire until it barely starts to pile over the top of your hole.  Let the flames die down a little bit then you will have a perfect cooking fire.  Because your fire is in a hole the dirt around it will harden up and insulate the heat and prevent the heat loss that you would have otherwise.  It also stops the problem that you would normally have if it’s windy (the heat gets blown away from the food and your food just sits there getting warm).  Once you are done cooking you can throw logs on top of your cooking fire and if your fire was built right than the basically solid mass of coals in your pit will engulf your log in flames. This is great when all you have left is large wood and its dark and your tire and just want to relax and fall asleep.