This post is a sort of a follow-up to the sawmill, logging post from yesterday. What to do with all of those leftover chunks, hunks, and slabs of wood that didn't make it into the board pile? Well, they're destined for the bonfire of course! I had seen a tutorial for making firestarters a while ago and I started making and collecting them, originally for my son who enjoys camping vacations, but he now has a portable propane campfire. Oh well, I kept on making them anyway... today my husband put a few to the test. I keep a clear plastic glass on top of the dryer with an empty toilet tissue tube standing in it (this containment cuts down on dust) into which I stuff all the dryer lint as it accumulates. You can fit a LOT of dryer lint in one tube, I pack it in firmly.
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When the tube is full roll it up in an empty cereal or cracker box liner;
twist the ends in opposite directions. |
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My husband sets the first one into action, it took a minute to catch but then it did a slow burn;
he had plenty of paper kindling too, which didn't hurt to get the fire roaring. I am thinking that the cereal and cracker box liners of old (wax paper) would be much better then this wierd plastic material used now, but it does burn. (Perhaps dipping this entire unit into a parrafin bath would improve the flammability level... however, that step's way too messy for me; I'll leave them as is.) |
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| I'm not sure how much my homemade firestarters really helped, but I'll probably keep making and setting them aside, until someone tells me to stop; they're items that I would throw away anyway, and they look really cute all lined up in a zip-loc bag! The bonfire has begun... |
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There's plenty of fuel, too, to keep it stoked... pass the marshmallows.
Life is Good! |
