Nature 1 - Pitdog 1 !

[pitdog]

I woke up to rain today as I have for the past few days, this time of year the woods get very wet out here, not just damp....WET !!!!!

So I figured I'd give this one stick fire thing a bash, how hard can it be eh !

I quickly arrived at the Inlet where I'd start my task:

By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-27

I looked around for a stick that was kinda dryish but there was none to be found. I eventually just picked one, it was so wet it felt slimey and had mould growing on it. I started to feel a little retarded, here I was surrounded by Cedar bark, resinous sap and Fatwood and I'm trying to light a fire with a wet stick !

Anyway I figured that if I'm true to the ONE STICK then I'd have to chop part of it to make a batton so I could split the rest:

By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-27

With the rain still coming down I began splitting the remainder of the stick, damn thing wouldn't even split nice, just kept breaking up in small bits !

By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-27

As I made my dry curls I started to feel more confident that I could do this:

By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-27

After much frustration this was the closest I really got to a fire, damn thing just wouldn't take and my patience had gone !

By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-27

The thing is not to beat yourself up over this kinda failure, sometimes nature just wins out, that's why we hear about people that survive situations and those that don't. It's not always that they don't know their stuff it's just that nature had the best hand that day and they lost out.
Determined to pull one back against nature I resorted to what I know and found some fatwood !

By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-27

The fatwood fire laughed at the rain and I could easily have got damp wood to light at that point.Not needing a fire I put it out at this point and moved on.

Didn't notice the snail at the bottom of this pic till I got home !

By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-27

On the way back I found a dry spot for my knife !

By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-27

And yeah Maisy was with me as well !

By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-27

 

[a.l.hare]

Thanks Pit I always look forward to your posts. Both informative and beautiful ( I love your neck of the woods).

 

[pitdog]

Thanks Pit I always look forward to your posts. Both informative and beautiful ( I love your neck of the woods).

Thanks buddy, most kind of ya !

 

[TheGame]

Always have good pics, Pit. Thanks for sharing

 

[GoNadz]

Always have good pics, Pit. Thanks for sharing

Agreed. I like that first picture a lot. Looks like a pretty sweet spot!

 

[Mistwalker]

Cool stuff bro. Using regular wood shavings in a damp environment can be a real pain, even more so if actually raining. In the damp they have to be very thin and they have to be made pretty quickly before they can absorb moisture from the air. Isn't it cool that in our little rain forests we have the gift of fatwood

 

[Moosez45]

Good stuffe, brother, good stuffe. Goes to show, when nature won't let you have it one way, go get it another. Either way, your goal was fire, and ya got it. Moose

 

[jw2n]

Hey Pit, I was recently starting fires with one of my sons. I had mountains of good tinder and was using a ferro and fresnal. I absolutely could not get one going, no matter what I did. I can normally start one in a minute. After an hour, scraped some fatlighter and ignited immediately. Some days just dont work right.

 

[tknife]

Great pics, I always like seeing the booshway in action too. I really like that design.

 

[dialton]

Good stuff indeed (as usual)