Another winter fire

Wednesday was a long walk filled with deer, but yesterday was a shorter walk with reaching a fire-building location in mind. I wanted to go out, get a little fire built, and just relax in the snow for a while. And I did just that.

It wasn't much trouble, but did take two attempts. After the first light the fire burned for about two minutes, but my kindling wasn't catching. I gathered a bit more from a nearby hemlock and tried again. I used some pitchwood, waxed jute twine, and a ferro rod once again. The pitchwood was perhaps unnecessary because as soon as the fine branches from the hemlock touched flame they were up in a matter of seconds. That said, this combination of tinders (pitchwood and waxed jute) is a good one to have in wet and cold weather (works good in rain/when wet), or at any time as a backup. I keep them in my fire kit.

I've now built two fires alone this winter, and helped build two others as part of a group. Winter fires aren't as intimidating as they might seem; in fact, my general opinion on many outdoor skills is that they aren't so much hard as they just require some practice. It's just a matter of doing it. Knowledge of the trees around you, and knowledge of the place in general, are invaluable.

With all of that said, even though I think I might have winter fires figured out I'll continue to practice making them. Fire is another one of those things that I'll probably never learn enough about. Twenty years might go by, and even though I'll definitely learn a lot I bet I still won't know all of the intricacies, subtleties, and secrets of fire. It will always keep some of its mystery for itself, and will always remain enchanting.

And I believe fire has much to teach about other things, as well. You can learn much about the woods simply by practicing your fire-making skills in different environments. There is so much to learn about how different woods burn, where and when and how to gather different materials ... the list could go on much longer I'm sure. (There's also a lot of invisible learning as you go through the woods.) That's why fire is always one of my advised skills to practice, especially for those who are new to the woods. You can never learn too much and you'll always learn more.

New winter things

It seems like every personal blog on the internet has a post that's like "Sorry I haven't posted so long!" I kind of started to forget that I made this/the reason I made it to begin with became obsolete. I started working with what can only be called a "nature connection" school, and since the people I've been working with have become a big part of my life I've had them to share my experiences with. Actually, a lot of my experiences have been with them. This summer I had kind of hoped to start following others and actually become some part of outdoorsy-folk blog network, but it didn't happen and I haven't felt a real need for it lately.

So with that out of the way I'm just going to make a few posts in the next few days.

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We've had an incredibly mild winter so far, but it's been nice to get out on days when we've actually had some snow accumulation. One day last week I had the urge to get out and do some stuff I really haven't done much of, some of it not at all. So I went out for a nice leisurely walk, visited some land I hadn't been able to see since about September, made myself a little fire, melted some snow, brewed some cedar/hemlock tea, and just relaxed. It was nice to get out just to do some simple stuff like that. And I learned that if you let your snow get smoky, the water is going to taste smoky as well. Wood choice has something to do with that as well, I suspect.

I haven't had a lot of chances to get out in the winter to try making fires, but so far I've found that it really isn't much of a problem. The only really noticeable differences from making fires in the other three seasons seem to be these: tinder availability and wood selection. All of the dried grasses, which are usually one of my go-to tinder sources (most of my fires are started either by friction or with a ferro rod), are covered up, as is much of the fuel-sized firewood. The fire I made that day was started using a ferro rod—sparked into some waxed jute twine and igniting birch bark. A good fire-starting tinder can be carried with you to get around many problems. Of course, had I used a match or lighter, I would have been set with birch bark. (One can, and I have, started birch bark with a spark, but it takes a little extra prep that I couldn't be bothered to do.)

In my walks I've been happy to see tracks pretty much everywhere. Places I walked regularly during the spring, summer, and fall are now dotted with tracks from various animals. I find tracks (and tracking) fascinating and wonderful, but so far it's been one of those things I've had motivation difficulties with. Often times I see a track, study it a bit, try to figure out who left it, perhaps I'll take a picture, and then move on. For whatever reason I've yet to get to the point where I'm measuring, journaling, drawing tracks. Hopefully I can motivate myself to delve deeper soon. And hopefully we'll be able to keep some snow around for it! For now, I'm glad I'm noticing them—my awareness has definitely expanded in this area.