I am perfecting my fire lighting skills- I have been lighting fires outside for years. But lighting a fire in a stove (is it bigger than a breadbox? No, it’s exactly the same size as a breadbox!) is a little bit more challenging. It is hard to light the kindling (that’s the small stuff) for long enough to get a big log going (luckily, my landlord had been nice enough to provide me with a bucket full of small pieces of wood and egg cartons to get things going). And once it is going, you can only really fit one log in a time, so you have to watch it closely to put a new log in just as the old log is still burning a bit . . . My skills are improving- from 12 matches and a half an hour of frustration the first night to a one match perfect fire last night! Anyway, one thing the wood stove provides (besides lovely warmth) is endless entertainment- I can stare at the fire for hours. Ok, so maybe the wood stove is dangerous . . .
Anyway, winter has definitely arrived. We finally had our first snow on Saturday and this is a picture of the thermometer INSIDE my kitchen this morning . . .
7 comments:
Remember the fire starters we used to make from dryer lint, egg cartons and used candle wax!
Love, MOM
I have the egg cartons, I have the candles (although my electricity has been really good in the evening so I haven't had to use them much), but unfortunately, I don't have a dryer so no lint . . .
Improvise! use little bits of rags or cotton balls, even newspaper. Just remember that it didn't work too good when the lint was from polyester or nylon and colored, slick magazine paper isn't good either! Seriously, you can just use some of the candle wax to soak into the egg carton, it will just burn a little bit better.
Brrrrrr!
Keep an eye on the creosote build-up in the flue. It can cause fires.
Since your parents have covered the actual useful advice, I'll just add this:
Feel free to stare at and play with fire all you like. I believe it is our birthright as tool users... :)
Holy cow that's cold.
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