We are trying to start the fire

We have started to get ready for our first camping trip as a family of three.  Sure, last may we went on a "babymoon" camping, but it is not the same as having a 9-month old attempting to get into everything.  And let's face it, Little Man tries to get into everything.  Just the day I was sitting on the floor with him and snapping fresh green beans that we got from our CSA, and Little Man decided that he wanted to try them.  Before I could wash any of the green beans he had 2 in his hands and was chomping away at them.  So yes, it was partly my fault for sitting on the floor while doing this, but someone had to keep an eye on him.

I digress...so we are getting ready to go camping.  We have started planning menus, have started making list after list of "stuff" we need, and we realized that we may (or may not) need fire starters for the weekend.  I told Paul that I would take care of them, having made fire starters for YEARS in this way, and being convinced this is the best way to start a fire.  Paul's ideal way to make a fire is to stack the wood and add an accelerant.  What can I say, I married and Eagle Scout, and my particular Eagle has some pyro tendencies when we are out in the woods.  I have been trying to convince him for years that the egg carton filled with dryer lint and wax is the best way to start a fire (after properly stacking the wood either in a tee-pee shape or log cabin arrangement), and most of the time he humors me and uses my methods.  Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised this week when he saved the dryer lint for me as we were trying to catch up on laundry, AND saving the paper egg carton from our CSA eggs.  Apparently I may have converted him to the "dark side" using an old Girl Scout trick.

While slightly time consuming, these fire starters couldn't be easier to make.  I always start by stuffing the PAPER egg crate with lint.  I try to pack it pretty tightly, and it never ceases to amaze me how much lint fits into those little wells, then I get the wax melting.  I know, as far as time goes, I should probably do it the other way around, but what I can say, I'm a creature of habit.  We have found that the best way to melt down candles for wax is to put the candles in a caning jar, and "double boil" it.  The jar get a fair amount of direct heat, but we have not had any problems, and this keeps almost all of the wax out of the pot we use.  The amount of wait time at this point will vary depending on the size of the candle (or wax pieces) that are being sacrificed to the fire.  Today I used tapers we had lying around as test candles for  our wedding, allowed them to heat up a little and then broke them in half, and they are taking forever to melt.  Fortunately I have an unexpected nap from Little Man right now, so I am able to eat lunch in the kitchen which keeping an eye on the melting wax, all while listening to "I want to fall in love with you," sung by Jars of Clay and have visions of the silly Christian Mingle commercial running through my head.  What a way to ruin a song for someone.  Again I digress.  Before pouring the wax into the egg crate I try to remember to cover my work surface with newspaper (multiple sections, layered over each other) so that when I spill it will be easier to clean up.

As I poured the melted candles into the crate, I realized that a couple more candles would have to make it into the fire, mostly because you want the lint covered with the wax.

With the extra wax, I decided to make some of those fancy fire starters floating around cyberspace that use the cotton facial rounds, just to see how they would work.

Once everything was cooled, into the bag of miscellaneous things that need to find a home on the camper they went.