got in a good 6 hours of woods wandering today. Played with my Scrapper6, my jimmy LILE, and my Emerson Super Commander.
wandered far off the trail system in West Van BC, wandered over to several kinnikink patches and harvested a bunch of it to dry and add to my pipe tobacco. Gathered several resin rich pieces of fatwood, and then wandered down to the rocky shoreline to brew a cuppa.
Shaved off many fine shavings of fatwood and lit em up with the firesteel. Added more and more larger pieces of fatwood, until i actually had to move away from the blaze to avoid being burnt. It got HOT> the heat reflected nicely off the cliff face and warmed me up on this -3 Celcuis (-10 C with windchill) day. As the fatwood fire burned down I added Arbutus wood to make some nice coals. Once everything was glowing orange i put the GI stove and cup over it and brew me tea. Hot lemony goodness in no time.
Cleaned up the kit, packed it away and scooped the fire into the ocean. Covered the burn mark with a chunk of moss, it will grow well, thanks to the ash.
s i slogged thru the forest i checked every stump i could find for fatwood. Got a bunch more and as i emerged onto the trail got the heebeejeebeeeies i was not alone. Paused a minute and listened, looked around, swore i smelled aftershave.........Kept walking up the trail and paused to take a swig of water. Spied a obviously loaded fatwood stump and just had to break off a BIG piece. "ACTUNG! vat are you doing?" a thick accent voiced asked, as they racked and leveled their weapon....er wait......not quite that bad...it was just a parks guy curious as to what i as doing breaking off a piece of stump. "oh hello , i am looking for fatwood i explained". Buddy did not quite register what i meant. "fatwood! its resin impregnated wood, us woods types use it to start fires in the rain or in the fireplace etc etc". Ah he said, looking pale as my Scrapper6 became visible to him as i turned, "well, you cant do that here." "oh i said, ok, thanks for the heads up!" and i wandered off, 10lbs of fatwood under my jacket.
wandered far off the trail system in West Van BC, wandered over to several kinnikink patches and harvested a bunch of it to dry and add to my pipe tobacco. Gathered several resin rich pieces of fatwood, and then wandered down to the rocky shoreline to brew a cuppa.
Shaved off many fine shavings of fatwood and lit em up with the firesteel. Added more and more larger pieces of fatwood, until i actually had to move away from the blaze to avoid being burnt. It got HOT> the heat reflected nicely off the cliff face and warmed me up on this -3 Celcuis (-10 C with windchill) day. As the fatwood fire burned down I added Arbutus wood to make some nice coals. Once everything was glowing orange i put the GI stove and cup over it and brew me tea. Hot lemony goodness in no time.
Cleaned up the kit, packed it away and scooped the fire into the ocean. Covered the burn mark with a chunk of moss, it will grow well, thanks to the ash.
s i slogged thru the forest i checked every stump i could find for fatwood. Got a bunch more and as i emerged onto the trail got the heebeejeebeeeies i was not alone. Paused a minute and listened, looked around, swore i smelled aftershave.........Kept walking up the trail and paused to take a swig of water. Spied a obviously loaded fatwood stump and just had to break off a BIG piece. "ACTUNG! vat are you doing?" a thick accent voiced asked, as they racked and leveled their weapon....er wait......not quite that bad...it was just a parks guy curious as to what i as doing breaking off a piece of stump. "oh hello , i am looking for fatwood i explained". Buddy did not quite register what i meant. "fatwood! its resin impregnated wood, us woods types use it to start fires in the rain or in the fireplace etc etc". Ah he said, looking pale as my Scrapper6 became visible to him as i turned, "well, you cant do that here." "oh i said, ok, thanks for the heads up!" and i wandered off, 10lbs of fatwood under my jacket.
