## hpr1296 :: Intro to camp fires

 
I've always felt a little awkward in social situations, and I'm always looking for ways to get over that feeling. One way I do that is to try and make myself useful, and one useful thing that I know is how to light and keep a small fire going. No one else ever seems to want to do it, and it's fun if you do it right. Admittedly there isn't much to it, but that just makes it all that much easier to learn. It isn't quite as intuitive as you might think if you've never done it, especially if it's a little damp out. Use tinder (paper, dried grass, cotton balls, etc...) to get the flame going, light your kindling (small twigs, pinecones, split sticks) over the tinder, and increase the size of your kindling until you have a good pile of coals that can sustain the burning of split logs. Keep your logs and sticks as parallel as you can, make sure air can flow freely through your burning pile of wood and don't let your coals spread too thin. If you're good, you should be able to get a fire going with just a single match and no accelerants (which are usually illegal anyway). If you're really good, you might even be able to do it with just a spark.
