Week 4: One Match Fire

Fires are almost an ubiquitous part of growing up in a mountain state like West Virginia. Over 80% of our land is forested, much of it state or national forest/park lands. Camping is something everyone does when the weather permits, and bonfires are very common events. (We even have a festival called Fasnacht which culminates in the midnight burning of an effigy of Old Man Winter in a ginormous community bonfire.) 

Firetending is often one of the first responsibilities given to young children during outdoors pursuits. They learn how to watch over the campfire and keep the coals burning, in addition to fire safety and cooking over this open heat source.

Since this has been such a regular part of my life, I decided to up the difficulty level a bit with this assignment. It's been raining a lot this week...even flooding in some areas...so I decided to use found materials for kindling that would be a bit damp and green, coupled with wood that was probably 95% dry in a damp firepit.

Photo: getting the fire pit set up and ready. (26 February 2021)

I used a broken hydrangea branch with a lot of dried flowers to get things started, even though the branches themselves were still a bit green, because hydrangea flowers make INCREDIBLE kindling. They go up like fire itself, so hot and fast. I also had some dried sticks and branches on my porch that my little one was using for some nature play, so I turned those into tinder. I used four logs in a modified tripod structure, packing the opening with hydrangea, various branches, and big handfuls of the top layer of fallen leaves + pine needles from the ground nearby.

I did use one fireplace match, and lit the fire in six places (two in each open triangle from the tripod.) It took more time and concentration than I remembered to nurse the initial spark into a coal and then back up into flames, and it all took a while to really ignite and catch...plus the addition of many more handfuls of the broken down tinder and kindling that I had prepped added very liberally while there was initially a lot of expected smoke... but within 10-15 minutes there was a beautiful fire, and the wood had fully caught. This is not the easiest or best method for making a fire with limited materials, but in the middle of my forested backyard it actually helps keep the deadfall down to a minimum...and thus prevent forest fires. 

Photo: one match fire in slow, slow progress. (26 February 2021)