Last night after the kids went to bed I had to get out in the woods for awhile. I grabbed my BOB, threw it on my back, and headed out into the forest. As usual I evaluated my gear as I went along, but I decided to use the stuff I know works and just enjoy myself.It was pitch black and the wind was blowing pretty hard. If you’ve never been in the woods at night with a howling wind one of the things you have to watch out for are called “widow makers.” A widow maker is a tree branch that could come crashing down on your head and make your wife a widow. I was out hunting a few years ago and a medium sized pine tree about ten feet behind me went over with a hell of a bang and scared the life out of me. If you think it won’t happen to you think again! Watch yourself out there.
Anyway, after I got to camp I started a small fire, got some coffee going, sat back and just enjoyed myself. It seems like I’m always evaluating a piece of gear, or practicing a new skill, or sharpening a knife, or whatever and last night I just said to hell with it, laid back against my pack and enjoyed watching the fire burn.
Heating water without a pot holder.
It can’t always be about work and prepping and never having any fun. Every once in awhile you have to let go and enjoy yourself.
But this being SHTF blog I’ll share a tip with readers who may not have spent a lot of time in the woods. It’s a technique for heating a pot directly on the fire without digging your canteen cup into the flames. What you do is build your fire like a log cabin (I usually prefer a tipi fire myself), and once you have a small bed of coals you lay down three or four pieces of wood and then put your pot – or canteen cup in this case – directly on that fresh wood. To help stability split a one to two inch stick in half and lay them side by side with the flat side down. Put the pot on top of that and you have a good stable surface for cooking. Here’s the caveat: you can’t leave it on for too long or it’ll fall into the fire. Make sure it’s good and stable, set the cup on it, wait for it to heat up, then pull it off before the wood underneath burns up.
Simple, effective, and a good use of your resources. It heats faster because it’s on top of the fire and it doesn’t get as much ash and stuff in it as you would by digging into the fire. And do I have to tell you to use gloves or something when you pull it out of the fire?
Have you taken time out to have fun lately?
-Jarhead Survivor
9 comments
i have a few weeks of vacation scheduled, late October plus the first week of (rifle) Deer Season. maybe that will shake me out of the fear and dread i’m experiencing now. (even though I know i’m miles ahead of the truly un-prepared)
I concur Uncle. Hard not to get wrapped up in the fear and dread. We should be hopeful knowing we are ready to some degree. Even though I know there is a reason and purpose for everything sometimes it’s hard to accept. Jarhead you are right make time for fun. There is a place out at the back of my land that I use attitude adjustment. Make a fire, boil some water, make some coffee…..dark chocolate bars help. Only got away once with my teen age son camping this summer. Need to do that more. We have been going out to the chicken coop at night to assault some rats with pellets and air soft. Just like on the Unit (miss that show) take out the booger eaters with out hurting the friendlies (hens) or each other. The wife and I have a campfire down on the river and pretend we’re in a country song. Gotta find ways to enjoy this life. As Jack Nicholson said in the Shining “all work and no play makes jack a dull boy”
Irish, you need a little more water in your cup to get it half full.
Take a vacation outside of your head, you need no time off from work & can do that anyplace. Quick true story for you –
Someone I know was doing some cutting work in psychology regarding advanced rapport techniques, which became part of the foundation of Neurolinguistic Programming. He had, as subjects, patients from an insane asylum or ‘mental health hospital’ to work with.
On his first visit, the head psychiatrist, who discussed his techniques said they will never work because he said “they are out of their minds”. My friend said “no they are not & that is exactly where we want to take them”. Truer words were never spoken, most ways to mitigate worry is to get out of that battlefield in your mind.
thanks D’ja’c, and Jason for the encouraging words.
i’m eligible for early retirement, but not ready. there is no reason on earth that my job should be stressful, but to me,
it is. (and yes, for the most part it is all in my mind)
adding water to the glass to make it half full, would only further dilute the beer. i’ll add more beer instead. tomorrow i can buy more beer if i need it.
Jason your psychologist-researcher friend is entirely correct. (it’s a great quote)
i myself, plus many of my fellow employees probably would need to be institutionalized also, except that we are productive where we are.
I’ve had a canteen cup tip over and dump contents before when heating over wood – I laughed and laughed (not!). Gloves help a lot, but I also used a multi-tool’s pliers to further assist pulling off fire, hot spots can be felt through gloves and you get a hasty in putting it down.
Dumped a cup that way too – I’m setting all kinds of records, it seems :^).
Thanks for the tip on green wood – I’ll give it a try. Practice does make for better results.
I use a rock to prop the cup on. You don’t have to worry about getting excess soot on your gear if you place the cup directly on the coals.
If you just want a qwik brew-up , you can take three(or more) flat rocks. buld a U shape “box”,open at the top . buld your fire out of small very dry ,twiggs & small branches.If you do it right it’s as stable as a stove top,with very little smoke. It goes out qwikly , and is great for an “eat and run”. This works like a wood stove, and can be made as large or small as you wish. I use this a lot for RON camping .Ray
An efficient fire for one or two is a reflector fire. Using a back wall up to 2 ft, and side walls, you can direct your heat outward to your camp, instead of wasting heat in a 360 ring. Using good wood, you can quickly create a clean coal bed to cook quickly and cleanly. Shorts camps, use stone, but in long camps you can use a large back log. For heat and flames, prop your wood 45 degrees against you back wall with plenty of air space, and when the wood burns through, the stubs become chunks for the coal bed. To cook on the coal bed, just stop laying wood long enough to cook, and when you are done, the coal bed will start up your wood for flames. This fire lay was taught to me by Native American girl I backpacked with.
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