Fire Starters 101

   Every Friday/Saturday as we are doing our weekend task - like picking up groceries, stopping at the farmers market, checking out our own garden for fresh veggies, and maybe a stop at the local library or whatever -  we drive by signs stuck in peoples' front yard that announces that they are having a yard sale or garage sale.   Now we don't really need any more stuff.  Still there is this luring attraction that leaves us thinking that we should check this sale out. Maybe this one will have an item that we have spent years hunting for.   Or an item that is worth hundreds of dollars and the seller is unaware of its value and is only asking fifty cents for this treasurer.   Well, that does not seem to happen to us.  Most of the time, there are tables of baby clothes  (we have to pass on that phase).  Or there are tables and tables of strange looking dishes or glassware (nope not for us).   I'm always hoping to find a cheap tool.   (I have discovered that not to many people sell their tools at a garage sale.)    Maybe I'll find a little stack of hard wood that someone wants to sell for a $1.00.   (That almost never happens.)

     A lot of times we come home empty handed.   Once in a great while I have been lucky to find a pile of scuffed up half burnt candles that someone wants to sell for a quarter.   Sometimes there are even candles in their "Free" box.   If cheap, candles are items I can not seem to pass up.      One by one I haul them home.   I throw them in a box that is located back behind my sacred wood scrap pile.  (I grow fearful that the public might start to view me as having a "hoarder" problem of some sort.  But there is a plan.)  

    This past week I convinced my two grandsons, Carter and Dayton, to come and visit grandpa.   One day during that visit we roll the vehicles out of the garage, we push the tools out of the way, we pull the box of smelly perfumed candles out of the wood storage area,  we find my hidden stack of empty egg cartons, we dig out my bags of wood/sawdust chips that I saved from previous projects, (talk about hoarding) and we set up our little fire starter lab.   

   The three of us have done this in the past and without looking back I think I have even blogged about this before.  I have to say that the boys are getting at an age now where we have become a little more efficient with the process and the whole procedure goes pretty fast.   Of course while the grandsons and I are having a good time, Grandma always seems to be a little concerned about the safety issue of our lab.   I do have a couple old electric fry pans (purchased on a garage sale at a very cheap price) that I use to melt the wax in.   That is my role in this process.  (Grandma does not seem too concerned if I get burnt.)

     So, I melt the wax,   Carter adds and mixes the saw dust to the wax, and Dayton packs the warm waxed mixture into the egg cartons.    Once in awhile there is a little controversy as  to who is in charge.   Then there is the question of whether there is plenty of mix in the egg carton.  You know - the conversations that can occur on an assembly line.  After I make the "Grandpa is in charge" speech, (for the umpteenth time- I don't know how my crew can forget that) we seem to progress just fine. 

   Just so everyone knows, if you ever want to build a campfire these little buggers come in pretty handy.  You just pile up your fire wood.   You place one of the homemade jobs amongst the wood.    Some just peel back a little portion of the paper of the egg carton and light it.  I myself sprinkle a little lighter fluid on the egg carton and as the fire burns the wax melts and as the wax melts, the wood fire grows in no time.  

   Each egg carton is given time to dry and cool down and then each carton is cut into thirds.   A lot of these will be shared or given away.     Most of these will go to camper friends.   Still there are those who say they have no need of my  handy dandy fire starters.   They just throw a large amount of lighter fluid on the wood, strike a quick match, and have instant fire.    That works too, but I think these work a little safer and a little better.

Dayton 14 years old - Carter 11 years old. 

So, we ended up with 72 fire starters manufactured in our lab this year.   Used properly, this will start 72 camp fires safely and in a jiffy.   In this process I have managed to dispose of 5 gallons of wood saw dust plus another 24 empty egg cartons.  (I wonder if I should have my cholesterol checked.)

   Now it is time to run my little lab buddies back to Minnesota and who knows?   Maybe on the way down the road we might just happen to see a garage sale sign that will lure us to make another urgent stop.