Hi all,
LOL yea a women with a axe is well interesting LOL
Tony no sweat there are shelters that I build and do not stay in either LOL. But it is fun to build them and all.
J Williams Yes I know I really put my fire close to my shelter. HERE is the deal YOU have to know your woods. What I mean is the trees.
You need to learn your trees in your area. Get a tree book and then start by finding tree that you know say like oak or ash or what ever in your area.
Then start a small let me say that again SMALL fire. It will make it safer to put it out ( and quicker LOL) if you really get sparks being thrown out every where. Say like if you get oak then see how it works does it pop or really crackle and throw sparks. Also do a time study and see how long the wood burns and what the flame is like and the heat it gives off and and stuff like that . So if you ever have to stay out, then you know if you just got that wood, how much you wood need to gather for the night or what ever. I have done this for years and with different woods and at different places ( I was in the Marines and too and I got to try some woods from around the world that I do not even have here in Neb.) That wa so cool to do LOL
One day I was using just Walnut wood and I was sitting by the fire and enjoying the.... well the fire LOL I had a bright chierry fire and nice heat comming from it and the smell of walnut is so awesome well I think LOL but I noticed that I could not hear it, I mean really I tryed to hear it burning and I was so quiet. I thought wow that is cool LOL
Well I know the woods in my area.
That sounds like I am bragging and I do not mean to sound like that, but that is what I do and have learned to know what wood to get for my fires.
CEDER wood sucks it pops so bad and so does osage wood that wood is freaking terrrible but boy does if give off the heat LOL. I am going to stay out again by a lean to to night( no sleeping bag or my wool blanket just my brown carhartt coat and the clothes on my back and my shoulder kit with survival goodies like coco LOL ) and I am not going to use any ceder or osage in my fire tonight LOL.
Mullberry has some crackle and so does whit elm but they really work good. I normally use ash, walnut, oak and mullberry, hack berry is ok to but it seems to me that the trees that have a berry do crackle abit. I have used red elm, (some from 1975 when the dutch elm desease came through and killed so many of them) that wood is a hard wood. If you take a 2 foot peice of that and several inches around and drop it on the concrete it sounds like you dropped a peice of metal LOL. It burns good too. I do not use cotton wood much or willow they are soft, I think cotton wood stinks smell wise too LOL. I will use the softer woods to get my fire going some times but then I put on the hard woods LOL.
Well I hope this helps ya some J.
Bryan
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