Hi fellow Outdoorsmen,
Today I'm happy to report with a bit of change in technique, we were able to get a fire going using flint and steel!
Successful Flint
One of the things we've been trying to do is get better at things without some of the modern comforts. A lighter is definitely a great thing to have but it's not always possible to have one. It's a lot easier to carry a good flint and steel since it won't run out of butane or whatever juice they put in the stuff. Plus buying a flint and steel set will last you a hell of a lot longer than a lighter would, so easy win there.
We have been trying to adjust our technique in ways that will help us get a fire going. I know we should also learn to get the local plants involved but where we live, we have a group of people who slaughter anything they don't like the look of with crazy poisons and shit. Really annoys me but that means we don't have a whole lot of things growing wild. There is one set of tall grass but they cut it before winter so you only have two or three weeks in the fall to get the tall grass and seeds before they come and cut it.
What we did was get some cotton balls to help us in our attempt to get some good fires going. It certainly helps to have it! Makes starting the fire a lot easier. We almost lost the fire with the one cotton ball we had but thankfully our son jumped in and helped me keep it alive so that was awesome!
One of the fun things about these fires is they help give my son and I something to do outside where we don't have to drive anywhere. That's important because a lot of people have good access to places they don't have to drive to and we don't have great places to do things without driving so I was happy to have something nearby.
I've also enjoyed it because it's a way to keep the downed trees at bay. I could care less about the property we live at since they aren't really nice people, but one of the things I hate seeing is the landscapers coming in and grabbing all the sticks to put them in a dump truck and end up in a giant compost pile. We can use them to keep the fires going!
We've had quite a few people walk by and love that we are making fires in the fireplace. I've seen not a single other person use the fire pit in the years that we've lived here, it really baffles me lol. Who doesn't like to have a fire going?!
I guess it works out in the end though because that means there's way more wood for us to burn and have fun collecting and using ourselves!
We've certainly enjoyed our time at the fire pit lately. There has been massive amounts of deadfall all over the place so we have quite a supply of stuff to burn! We spend some good time setting up the pit so that we can easily come by and get the fire going again. I wanted to instill in our son the ethos of keeping your space organized so that you can come and enjoy it immediately with just a few minutes prep while you're there. We set up a few different piles so we can hop over when we want, layer the fire up and get it roaring!
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I bet the little tacker loved the flint. I recently found some writings of my son's when he was little and one was about how his stepdad (Jamie) got a flint - it made enough of an impression that he wrote about it in his schoolwork!
Yeah he does! We have a few different styles and he's getting to appreciate the different ones.
That's awesome your son enjoyed it so much he wrote about it! Our son loves the outdoor tools and stuff we've got. We have some neighbors that adore him and he loves playing with them so he brought out his whole outdoor camping kit he got for Christmas this year and showed them all the pieces lol he was having a blast.
Hopefully our little man gets to writing this year! He just read his first couple words by sounding them out this week, pretty excited about that!
We used to put potatoes on those fire pits. The best snack ever :P
Yeah man a fire or grill cooked potato is a delicious snack! I used to love cooking them on the grill, wrap it in tinfoil with some sliced onions, delicious!
Now you are making me hungry :P I should use air-fryer to grill some potatoes right now. It goes well with coffee this cold Sunday afternoon. Damn snow.
Nice, that looks like a lot of fun getting a fire going with no match or lighter. Respect. Cool thing to do with your son too, the kind of things he'll remember fondly.
The firepit is sweet too, it looks great with the granite stones 👍
Thanks man! For sure, he loves when we get out there to make a fire! It’s snowed quite a bit so it’s now encased in the white stuff so it looks like we did this at the right time hahaha.
It’s funny, where we live it’s a whole bunch of half ass shit. One thing they did pretty well though was this fire pit! Nobody else uses it either! I can’t figure it out lol, it’s an awesome looking place, can’t figure out why nobody wants to enjoy it!