Off The Grid News Better Ideas For Off The Grid Living
Reader Gives Essential Tips For Starting Fire In Snow
Read the story referenced here.
Thank you for a well-done article. With 39 years of outdoor experience during all seasons in Alaska, I can confirm that starting a fire can be a real challenge in rain or deep snow. Try to anticipate the need for a fire before you get so cold that you are shivering or otherwise fumbling with matches, lighter, etc. Allow plenty of extra time to do what is a relatively easy task in milder weather conditions. If possible, gather “squaw wood,” the dead lower branches on standing trees, to use for kindling. Look for sap or pitch to help catch your fire starter. Often, thumb-size sticks can be split open with a knife to reach dry wood that can be further split or shaved for big tinder or mini-kindling burning.
Windproof and waterproof matches & lighters along with a judicious supply of commercial fire sticks or starters, to be used only in a true emergency, are worth the cost and their weight in gold. Consider surplus store trioxane packets, fire starter pastes, or your homemade cottonball-Vaseline, carried in a Ziploc baggie. A small candle stub can prolong a starting flame if protected from wind and rain. Liquid accelerants are easy to spill, leak or evaporate unintentionally; I don’t consider them as reliable as the other items mentioned. At the same time, I acknowledge that modern, lightweight backpacking stoves can provide a welcome and quick source of heat in trying weather conditions, but they can be difficult to start in very cold temperatures, and, of course, they cease function when the fuel is gone. Your suggestions on using naturally available resources are valid and helpful.
John
**********
Read the story referenced here.
Your right to privacy expired on the day you were born. Any information that can be sold, will be sold! People put every minute detail of their lives online and then wonder why so much of their personal info can be found with a Google search.
For 12 years my military service number was my SSN and it was my driver’s license number for over 20 years. It was on every check that I wrote or cashed. Now it’s supposed to be confidential!
‘The Realist’