[loki]

Hello all, I have made a big discovery today. I have been camping with my son in the boyscouts many of times, so I took for granted the skill I thought I new. For instance I have cooked over the camp fire dozens of times but I finally realized that I had never personally made one. I always cooked on one already lit. So I decided to go out into the back yard and cook some beans and rice in my dutch oven. Now the scene is this it has been raining here for the past week. Today was the yesterday was the first non rain day today was cloudy. I used brush, twigs, straw, small limbs that were broken down from the storms. Needless to say everything was wet through and through. I did some splitting of small limbs with my fiskars hatchet and used my magnesium firestarter to get things going. That was the easy part. The fire started easy enough the problem was keeping it going. I ran into the problem of not giving it enough oxygen and then still working with wet to semi wet wood was not a help. Trying to use enough straw twigs and branches to warm up and dry out the bigger stuff so that it could get hot enough to burn was a B...h. Well I finally did made it through the ordeal and needless to say that my beans were undercooked and yet my rice came out perfect. I can't stress the importance for those who think that they can read a manual or because they have seen someone else do it that they can in a survival situation make a fire to stay warm or cook their food. Without practice and know how, it aint happening. Go into the backyard and cook something or build you a camp fire and keep it lit for 4-6 hours. This is just a minimum of pratice that a person will need so do it safely in the backyard before you die from exposure in the back woods.

 

[haha49]

i live in a rain forest trick is take a tree thats standing chop a limb off since all the stuff on the ground is soaked through and shave some wood off the branch that will give you somewhat dry stuff to light but yes its still a pain i usally just use paper light it and stack the wood in a square and blow on it a bit..

 

[loki]

When you say stack in a square do you mean wood parallel to each other then crosswise on the top. Explain a little further please.

 

[Ghostsaww]

Build it up similar to a log cabin style. Hope this helps

 

[FredLee]

Aound here,its birchbark. I pick it up and save a handfull if I'm out and about.That stuff will burn even after sitting on the forest floor for years.

 

[bmatt]

Yep, it takes a HUGE amount of energy (through heat) to remove the water from wet/green wood. Trick is to locate dry wood.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[AlexH]

My dad's rule is to always let green wood dry outside for a year before burning it.

 

[Lucretius]

I had a similar bad experience on a rainy day in the woods, with my daughter... everything was wet!

Then, the McGyver in me woke up, and I realized that a bottle of alcoholic hand sanitizer in my pocket was really flammable! I squirted some of that on a small pile of grass, twigs, &c. Once they burned really hot, I added bigger and bigger pieces of wood.

So, that's my first tip on lighting a fire: if you can't find any dry grass, try to think about what you carry that could be used. Cotton, toilet paper, such things....

 

[sh4d0wm4573ri7]

Dad always said : Son the difference between a man and a woodsman = a woodsman can build ya a nice fire and cook after a week of rain, when noone else can a man patiently sits and waits for the woodsman to finish hopeing he got enough wood collected to deserve a hot supper.

 

[mylo]

Great tips. Another good one is before the fire is lit...gather LOTS of wood!!! I hate going back and back and back...i usually go out and collect as much dead wood as I can to fuel the fire.

 

[Brwright]

once you get the fire going, build something to set above the fire and stack 1 or two logs there to dry it out, not great but it will help.

 

[Highlander]

If your wood is wet, you can still get dry wood most of the time by using a heavy knife or hatchett to "split" the outmost part of the wood off. Lots of dry stuff a 1/2 inch down.

 

[geoff88]

If you split the wood you also get sharp edges to it that burn easier than round logs.

Geoff

 

[MattSmith]

I live over in washington and there is a lot of rainy pine forests around here. I've found that the pine cones you find under pine trees are NEVER too wet to start a fire...they seem to burn good and hot after like 3 days of rain..and if you get ones under a few pine needles, even better

 

[MightyMouse]

Good idea, i think ill go out tomorrow and practice the basics 101. Things are never as easy as they look or in ideal weather, I need to go out and keep my skills up. thanks bud.

 

[rednecknoise]

who think that they can read a manual or because they have seen someone else do it that they can in a survival situation

Welcome to the reality of the net. I read it at XXXX or saved it on my usb ....i can do it if i had to's .are all to frequent imho.

practice makes perfect

 

[sassytexan74]

Ive always found the Teepee method of stacking to work more effectively in starting a fire. I hated admitting that my ex FIL was right so I have tried other methods only to find myself resorting back to the teepee method when i couldnt keep it going.
Then in cub/boy scouts, they taught us the teepee method again and how to find good starter ( cat tails and reeds work great in wet weather as they're dry inside when you break them open)

 

[Malaz]

Does burning brush count? I'm still burning all the wood that Ike took from my trees. Last time I was at the farm, I had a fire going for 2 days.

 

[GMDSS]

Try to find branches and sticks that are leaning upright against others. The stuff leaning upright will have absorbed less water than the stuff laying down.

 

[Hodeman]

When I was a boyscout they taught me to use "squaw wood" first...which is the finest twigs from a standing dead tree. Then gradually add larger pieces until you get the fire going.
Another interesting "type" of wood to look for is the Sumac tree. We nicknamed it popcorn wood because it pops and crackles when burned. That wood will burn even if its wet. Its an excellent starter wood to get the bigger stuff going later.