The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Bushcraft...

[stabman]

I was watching that show Alone on History Channel, and I couldn't help but notice how annoying it was for the contestants to get a fire going in such wet conditions.
It made me wonder how well I'd do with fire in wet conditions...I generally head out to the woods when it is nice.

Well, this past Saturday was perfect to find out.
Environment Canada put out a severe rainfall warning, and there were flood warnings and flood watches...ended up being that a bunch of the surrounding area DID flood while I was out in the woods.
You see, I did head out there...with two 6' by 8' tarps I bought at the dollar store, and a bunch of knives (which weren't from the dollar store ).

My brother and I set this shelter up within 40 minutes of arrival (perhaps less...too busy working to look at exact times).
9 poles (which were cut at the site, and sharpened on one end), some scrap nylon rope, and dollar store tarps worked out great. :thumbup:

We then split a bunch of deadwood, which was really friggin wet on the outside. In this pic it's my brother using his RD9; I split the rest with my blue handled monstrosity (which also cut all the poles), and I put them in the shelter as they were split, to keep them dry. My brother then further split them so we had various thicknesses of kindling.

You can see our under-the-tarp chopping block log in this pic:

You saw fire in the last pic...here's the fire beginnings:

We had gathered all our materials under the tarps, then made a fire "plan of attack".
The rain never stopped, but it slowed a tad for a short bit, so we ran out and made the fire right then.

The fire got bigger though...

The secret to keeping it going despite flood level rain was to provide a wooden "roof" for the fire at all times, so the rain couldn't ever douse the coals.

You can see the wetness:

The knife that did most of the work:

Note the high tech leather jacket I use as rain gear.

I had brought a bunch of other knives to test out, but it was too damn wet, and all effort had to be put into fire, and cooking the food.

Here's a Boker Plus War Toad:

It was okay at cutting, but not awesome with the factory edge.
It's better now that I have improved the edge, but it did work great for posing with this moth

The insanely tough tree we cut down a previous time was still there (somehow it had fully seasoned rather than rotted, though dead), and my brother decided to make a handle for the splitting wedge/old axe head I gave him recently:

All in all it was very successful.
I had planned on testing out how much of a protective barrier against animals could be made despite crummy conditions...and the answer, as I found out, was none, for that day at least.

The shelter held up very well to big winds and driving rain, rain that flooded almost all the surrounding area, and turned the forest into a swamp.

 

[stabman]

The rain was totally non-stop...and pushed it over the top so that this June shattered the rain record in this area for the last 75 years! :thumbup:

 

[craytab]

Cool

 

[stabman]

Cool

Everything was cool...except that this time it was too wet for toads...I had wanted to get a picture of the War Toad alongside a toad.

I did get to see a frog swim across the trail out though, which was a new sight.
Also got the see a dry creek bed running with fast flowing water; never seen it with water in it before.

 

[Sonnydaze]

The guys on "ALONE" had a lot more trouble than you did. Good job; looks like you had fun besides.

 

[stabman]

The guys on "ALONE" had a lot more trouble than you did. Good job; looks like you had fun besides.

Having a second person there makes it easier.

It was a lot of fun though, and having the shelter turn out like it looked in my head was a great bonus. :thumbup:

 

[kniferbro]

Looks like a good time :thumbup:

How do you like the show?

 

[stabman]

Looks like a good time :thumbup:

How do you like the show?

I'm liking the show so far.
I think the most interesting thing will be what makes various folks leave.

The first two to leave were due to psychological factors; fear of predators.
Will others leave due to extended isolation?
Lack of food (there's food there, but can they get enough of it)?

Myself, I could see getting sick as a likely thing...or going insane due to bug bites after a while.

It will show some factors to consider that many of us probably haven't thought of.

 

[cbach8tw]

Thanks for the pics of you getting out there with a friend to show your fire skills. Can you tell me what the big boy was that did the chopping and pole set up? I thought it looked like a ML knife, maybe a Hudson Bay cousin.

 

[stabman]

Thanks for the pics of you getting out there with a friend to show your fire skills. Can you tell me what the big boy was that did the chopping and pole set up? I thought it looked like a ML knife, maybe a Hudson Bay cousin.

That's this one that I made back in 2011...

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/868146-Behold-Stormbreaker-(with-WIP-pics)

It gets the job done.

 

[22-rimfire]

My kind of fire! :thumbup: What did you start it with? Looks like the perfect time for a mason jar full of diesel fuel.

How's your book doing?

 

[stabman]

My kind of fire! :thumbup: What did you start it with?

I used a piece of Vaseline impregnated paper towel.
Next time there's rain like that, I'm thinking that I'll try the ferro rod to get a small fire started inside the shelter, then transport it to the set-up in the pit.
I wasn't sure how well it would work in the driving rain, so I stacked the odds in my favour a bit.

Getting the shelter up first seems to be the main thing; wood that didn't get put under the shelter fast enough after splitting got really wet really quickly.
Having a dry spot to stage things from is great.

Each time out is a chance to learn something new.

How's your book doing?

The book continues to sell, albeit slowly.
So far I still have to maintain other sources of income.

 

[ocnLogan]

Great work .

I know you said the wood as wet on the outside, but was it still pretty dry inside? Also, did you feel like the fire took any more work to get going? Did it burn wood faster than normal? Also, did you do anything special to keep it up off of the ground?

I've been watching "Alone as well, and I was annoyed at the same thing that you were, especially in the first episode the guy that was striking the firesteel with the axe (and was shooting sparks into kindling sized wood). The first guy to light a fire actually... you know... did the work required (feathersticks, other actual tinder, while being out of the rain).

Personally, I know I have nowhere near the skills to successfully win a competition like that (I am severely lacking in the food procurement department), but feel like I'd have done better than most of the few shown so far with the firestarting.

That said, I wish I had the chance to go out and practice like you. For me to get to a place where I can do that is at least an hour and a half .

 

[stabman]

Great work .

I know you said the wood as wet on the outside, but was it still pretty dry inside? Also, did you feel like the fire took any more work to get going? Did it burn wood faster than normal? Also, did you do anything special to keep it up off of the ground?

Most of the wood was pretty dry on the inside, mainly because we grabbed a bunch of standing deadwood to get things started.
I started batonning a rather huge piece of wood, but as it fell apart, it was evident that it was wet inside (had been laying on the ground too long).

That mostly wet wood was still dryer than the ground though, so I used it as a base at the bottom of the fire-pit.
Then I broke up a bunch of twigs from some of the standing deadwood, and made a layer of them on top of the somewhat wet wood.
Then I put a layer of the dry wood from inside the shelter.
Then a "box" of moderate size dry wood was built atop that.
The "box" got some smaller kindling from the shelter put at angles inside, making sort of an inverted cone inside.
Then the Vaseline/paper towel was put in the cone, and more kindling placed carefully atop that.
Then the "box" got a "roof" made of two pieces of split wood.

As the fire was getting going, we carefully placed other split wood around the "box", along with some wetter sections--in order to provide structure and keep it from falling over.
The rest of it was a matter of keeping the "roof" going, even when the fire changed shape, and placing wet wood around and on top of it so it would dry.
In fact, once it was really going, the wetter wood made a longer lasting roof, so it provided a valuable function as it dried. :thumbup:

Getting it going seemed about as easy as other times, once the preparation was done. It did take a lot more preparation than when it's sunny out.

 

[Quiet]

Man, looks like a fantastic time. Reminds me of my Boy Scouts days when we'd camp every weekend in June in Georgia and get rained on constantly. Man, great memories. :thumbup:

 

[22-rimfire]

It's sort of a base camp fire and the kind that I will simply drag large logs or dead trees (ones I can move) over to the fire and put a portion into the fire once it's going good.

 

[stabman]

Man, looks like a fantastic time. Reminds me of my Boy Scouts days when we'd camp every weekend in June in Georgia and get rained on constantly. Man, great memories. :thumbup:

The Scouts seems like it was a great way to get some practical woods knowledge ingrained in people.
I was never in it, but I had my great uncle's old Scout manual, and it had a lot of stuff in it that you find in survival books today.

It's sort of a base camp fire and the kind that I will simply drag large logs or dead trees (ones I can move) over to the fire and put a portion into the fire once it's going good.

Once it's going, putting logs across it is a great way to "cut" them in half too. :thumbup:
It sure cuts down on effort expended.

 

[Quiet]

The Scouts seems like it was a great way to get some practical woods knowledge ingrained in people.
I was never in it, but I had my great uncle's old Scout manual, and it had a lot of stuff in it that you find in survival books today.



Once it's going, putting logs across it is a great way to "cut" them in half too. :thumbup:
It sure cuts down on effort expended.

Just so, and an excellent observation, honestly. I still have my BSA Handbook and my FieldBook. Both well worn, and loved. I still read through them from time to time.

 

[stabman]

Just so, and an excellent observation, honestly. I still have my BSA Handbook and my FieldBook. Both well worn, and loved. I still read through them from time to time.

I read a post or meme somewhere that said, "What they call survival, we used to call camping."

 

[ocnLogan]

Most of the wood was pretty dry on the inside, mainly because we grabbed a bunch of standing deadwood to get things started.
I started batonning a rather huge piece of wood, but as it fell apart, it was evident that it was wet inside (had been laying on the ground too long).

That mostly wet wood was still dryer than the ground though, so I used it as a base at the bottom of the fire-pit.
Then I broke up a bunch of twigs from some of the standing deadwood, and made a layer of them on top of the somewhat wet wood.
Then I put a layer of the dry wood from inside the shelter.
Then a "box" of moderate size dry wood was built atop that.
The "box" got some smaller kindling from the shelter put at angles inside, making sort of an inverted cone inside.
Then the Vaseline/paper towel was put in the cone, and more kindling placed carefully atop that.
Then the "box" got a "roof" made of two pieces of split wood.

As the fire was getting going, we carefully placed other split wood around the "box", along with some wetter sections--in order to provide structure and keep it from falling over.
The rest of it was a matter of keeping the "roof" going, even when the fire changed shape, and placing wet wood around and on top of it so it would dry.
In fact, once it was really going, the wetter wood made a longer lasting roof, so it provided a valuable function as it dried. :thumbup:

Getting it going seemed about as easy as other times, once the preparation was done. It did take a lot more preparation that when it's sunny out.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, I was a bit curious how you got it all sorted out. Since I haven't been able to practice it much lately, I live vicariously through others like this.

And I'd imagine that a paper towel soaked in vaseline would go up well enough to light just about anything. I keep a cotton ball or two soaked in vaseline in one of my little kits, just as a back up for a mental situation that looks quite a bit like what you just did.

And also, scouting was good. I learned a fair bit of what I know from my time in it. Although, new scout handbooks look nothing like the old ones did :/.