Wednesday, June 16, 2010

fire starters

My boys will be off to camp next week so this week we are getting everything together. The camp gear was pulled down, inspected and inventoried. Oh the things one finds left over from the last campout. Like a mess kit that still had some seafood stew in it eeeeeeewwww! I am glad I didn’t find it, bugs didn’t find it and I didn’t have to clean it!

All the rest of the gear is in order and minor disposable items are needed: batteries, food, rope, bug repellent, more batteries, duct tape, more food, lighters/matches, and fire starters. So tonight we made fire starters, lots of fire starters.

We made them out of cardboard egg cartons, saw dust, and old candles. I used soy and bees wax candles and sawdust from untreated wood to keep the fire starters more nature friendly.


Isn’t the soy wax pretty? It’s all white and flakey, kind of reminding me of snow on this hot day.


When the soy wax melted we added all the left over bits and parts of candles.


Then we filled the cartons with sawdust and poured the wax over it.


I hope they don’t try to light a whole carton at once. Never mind they are boys of course they will. I bet their Scout leaders will let them because they are big boys and want to see it go up in flames too.  Maybe I should cut them apart before they go to camp; is that spoiling their fun?

3 comments:

  1. Sawdust instead of lint from a dryer--good idea. Year old seafood stew. Did you save the mess kit or toss it and get another?

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  2. It wasn't year old just a couple months; though any amount of time makes it gross. The mess kit is all stainless steel so after a good scrubbing and sterilizing it’s back to normal.

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  3. That sounds like something Anthony would do - with the mess kit! Tony had him empty his backpack (a week after his campout). He swore nothing needed to be put away...it was FULL of muddy clothes. Boys!

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