g123, Old time camper, Warren H, Miller wrote in 1918
" An argument often urged against a night fire is that it spells
hard labor. Let me imbed this in thine ear like camp pillow--It takes just
20 logs of 5" timber to take you through an entire October night!
many's the time I've cut those logs with a 2 lb. camp axe at the withching hour of five pm. and never yet have I spent a chilly night, rian or shine.
You put six when you turn it at 10pm, six whe you wake up at 1 am.
and six again at 4 am. The other 2 are for the breakfast range.
Ok that is October right. Read on and you will get what I am saying.
I have tried that back in 2009 in Feb and then again in March.
I made a leanto camp. with a a space blanket. I gathered some dried grass for my bedding a few inchs thick. I slept in my carhart winter coat and with 2 long sleeve shirts long john bottoms and then winter hat and leather gloves.
I went out like as if I got lost and had to build a camp with my survival kit and
spend the night out. No sleeping bag or even a wool blanket;
I did not use a real long fire if I was going to do that now I would have used longer logs.
I cut my wood roughly 24" long. I was using 3.5" thick to roughly 5" thick wood for my fire.
I figured I would need more logs than 20 and I did. In Feb. I went through
24 for that night. I cut 30 logs that time in Feb. and then in March I did the same thing.
In March which was colder that night than in Feb. I went through. 27.
For my fire this is what I did.
I gathered a bunch of wood that was finger to double thumb thickness and started my fire at 7 pm. ( I had to do chores on the farm then ) that is why I started when I did.
The small finger stick and double thumb thick sticks I had a pile of them.
If you took to basket balls and set them side by side. that is what my plie looked like roughly. That burn for 3 hours I just added sticks as a I needed them to the fire. I cooked and made coco and listened to the night until 10 pm.
Then I started putting on my bigger logs like Warren Miller said to do , BUT I changed it some I put only 2 on at first. I had a nice big bed of coal by that time, so I only put on 2 logs I wanted to see how it went. I had plenty of heat that was keeping really warm. I did not see any point to putting on all six at a time them.
I did that the rest of the night and slept and dosed in in between putting logs on as they burned down. I ended up putting on 3 logs every 45 min. rougly.
until the next moring.
The temp in Feb. was 42 degrees and the temp in March was 27 degrees.
This will give you a idea on what to gather if you want to do that or what ever.
I am sure you have read or heard some say Oh you need to gather three times or 5 times more than what you think you need. Right off the bat that tells me that person read or heard some one say that and has no REAL experience doing a night out next to a fire.
I did get chilly at times as my fire burned down, but once I got my fire stoked up some and put more wood one and stuff like that I warmed right back up. and was able to go back to sleep until I the next time the fire burned down.
Warren Miller was dang near right on with what he said.
This is using Hard woods too, not soft woods.
Any ways I hope this helps you out some.
Bryan
" An argument often urged against a night fire is that it spells
hard labor. Let me imbed this in thine ear like camp pillow--It takes just
20 logs of 5" timber to take you through an entire October night!
many's the time I've cut those logs with a 2 lb. camp axe at the withching hour of five pm. and never yet have I spent a chilly night, rian or shine.
You put six when you turn it at 10pm, six whe you wake up at 1 am.
and six again at 4 am. The other 2 are for the breakfast range.
Ok that is October right. Read on and you will get what I am saying.
I have tried that back in 2009 in Feb and then again in March.
I made a leanto camp. with a a space blanket. I gathered some dried grass for my bedding a few inchs thick. I slept in my carhart winter coat and with 2 long sleeve shirts long john bottoms and then winter hat and leather gloves.
I went out like as if I got lost and had to build a camp with my survival kit and
spend the night out. No sleeping bag or even a wool blanket;
I did not use a real long fire if I was going to do that now I would have used longer logs.
I cut my wood roughly 24" long. I was using 3.5" thick to roughly 5" thick wood for my fire.
I figured I would need more logs than 20 and I did. In Feb. I went through
24 for that night. I cut 30 logs that time in Feb. and then in March I did the same thing.
In March which was colder that night than in Feb. I went through. 27.
For my fire this is what I did.
I gathered a bunch of wood that was finger to double thumb thickness and started my fire at 7 pm. ( I had to do chores on the farm then ) that is why I started when I did.
The small finger stick and double thumb thick sticks I had a pile of them.
If you took to basket balls and set them side by side. that is what my plie looked like roughly. That burn for 3 hours I just added sticks as a I needed them to the fire. I cooked and made coco and listened to the night until 10 pm.
Then I started putting on my bigger logs like Warren Miller said to do , BUT I changed it some I put only 2 on at first. I had a nice big bed of coal by that time, so I only put on 2 logs I wanted to see how it went. I had plenty of heat that was keeping really warm. I did not see any point to putting on all six at a time them.
I did that the rest of the night and slept and dosed in in between putting logs on as they burned down. I ended up putting on 3 logs every 45 min. rougly.
until the next moring.
The temp in Feb. was 42 degrees and the temp in March was 27 degrees.
This will give you a idea on what to gather if you want to do that or what ever.
I am sure you have read or heard some say Oh you need to gather three times or 5 times more than what you think you need. Right off the bat that tells me that person read or heard some one say that and has no REAL experience doing a night out next to a fire.
I did get chilly at times as my fire burned down, but once I got my fire stoked up some and put more wood one and stuff like that I warmed right back up. and was able to go back to sleep until I the next time the fire burned down.
Warren Miller was dang near right on with what he said.
This is using Hard woods too, not soft woods.
Any ways I hope this helps you out some.
Bryan
