How It's Crafted: Char Cloth

Out of the Water and Into the Fire: Utilizing Your Cotton as a Resource

This week we are still moving right along with our cotton series, but I feel that we are finally at the point where we can start testing things out. We are going to see which of these, between your everyday bandanna and the flour sack towel, would be better utilized in an outdoor situation.Utilization could mean  anything from wearing it, cleaning up messes, or first aid uses. I'm looking into what it can do when cut into strips. Specifically what I want to do is see if I can filter water with them, or turn them into char cloth.

What I have to test with is a jar of water with a nice layer of dirt down at the bottom. The water is still slightly discolored even though most of the dirt is down at the bottom. What I am going to do is test and see which between the bandanna and the tea towel will have the most water, and the cleanest water in a period of time. So what I am going to do is place the dirty water on a surface that is elevated above the two clean jars I will be filtering the water into. In this case I just placed a bread pan on my kitchen table, set the dirty water on it, and one clean jar on each side. I then wet the bandanna strip and the flour sack towel strip, place one end into the dirty water, and one end into their respective jars. I then wait about 5 hours and come back to see my results.

As you can see from the picture on the left, that is as much water as I got from the flour sack towel after 5 hours. There was even less water in the bandanna jar. Neither of these did a great job purifying the water, and it took entirely too long. It would be even better to set up a simple tripod water purification system. The next thing we are going to do is try to make charcloth. I've cut a strip of bandanna and a strip of flour sack towel. The flour sack towel I'm sure will make great charcloth because it is 100% cotton. The bandanna I'm not so sure because it does have polyester in it, and I am unsure of how it will affect the composition.

Okay so now for the charcloth, I am again going to cut a strip of each fabric. I am then going to roll them up and place them in my Altoids tin. I would show you how I make charcloth, but I am going to save that for a "How It's Crafted" hopefully to premier in the upcoming weeks. Now as you can see, I have a larger piece of flour sack towel than I do bandanna. This shouldn't be a problem because if the charring process is working correctly you cannot over char.

Upon checking my cloth I notice that both have charred very well. I can tell which is which easily by quantity. But the flour sack towel is still identifiable by the fibers leftover from where it was cut, and the bandanna is identifiable because of how it got thinner as it was cut. Now to see how well each fabric catches a spark with a ferro rod. Both catch well. I will admit in the past that I have had trouble  turning bandanna into charcloth, but it worked this time which is all that matters to me.

I hope you guys are enjoying this cotton series, we are almost done. Next week we are going to be doing a review; it's going to be a pretty cool review and one of the last reviews we will be doing for a while. This will definitely be one of the last reviews for the 10 C's and you won't want to miss it! As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Wax & Wick: Choosing A Candle For the Tin Can Lantern

Last week we talked about electric illumination devices and chose one for my pack. This week we're going to be talking about the candle lantern, or specifically the candle inside them.  Now if you want to know the ins and outs of how a candle works, go to YouTube and search "how does a candle work," there is a lot of great information there. I am just going to give you the overview.. A candle is made of a wick and a hydrocarbon wax; that is, hydrogen connecting to carbon. When you light the wick, the wax begins to melt releasing a gas which is what keeps the flame burning. You can prove this by lighting the gas above the candle.

What we have today is a contest between three candles. We have a stick candle, what I call a squat
candle, and a tea candle. They will be competing in four different categories: being lit from a spark, how bright they burn, how long they burn, and overall cost effectiveness.

For the first test we must first char all the wicks of the candles. I then got some ferro rod  shavings on a board and was then going to try to use those shavings to ignite a spark from the candle. The only candle that was able to participate in this test was the stick candle and it did not cast a spark. The next test was to get some charcloth in a char tin and cast a spark. This gave us a nice hot ember to try to light our candles on. This time the stick candle and the squat candle got to participate however both failed. I was able to get an ember on

the squat candle, but was not able to light the wick.

For the second test of illumination, we are going to go back to the same track that we tested out our electronic illumination devices. First up is the tea candle which we have to get right up on the sign to see. The same with the squat candle. The stick candle performed slightly better than these other two due to the fact that it has a larger flame. Now none of these did well in comparison to the electronic devices, but this is what we are working with.

For the third test we are going to take a fresh version of each candle, put it into a lantern and burn them until they go out by themselves. For the stick candle we will be using and open top lantern due to the height of the candle. The tea candle burned for 3 hours and 50 minutes, the stick candle for 4 hours and 6 minutes, and squat candle for 6 hours and 15 minutes. I really thought the stick candle would burn the longest since it appears to have the most wax and there fore the most fuel to burn. However, I think where it was in an open top lantern a lot of the gasses that keep the flame burning simply escaped out of the top. Also the squat and tea candles have a metal base that pulls their wicks down. I think for the stick candle there was a moment where the wax was lighter than the wick and it nose dived.

Now looking at cost effectiveness. The tea candles come in a pack of 50 for about $3-5 so individually they are between five and ten cents. Next is the squat candles which are 50 cents a piece and can be purchased individually. The stick candles are 88 cents a piece and are purchased individually. Two tea candles can burn longer than on squat candle, so if you are looking for over all cost effectiveness, the tea candle is the way to go.

Before we talk about which candle I will be using, let's talk about why each candle got the ranking it did. In third place was the stick candle, which technically got a disqualification simply because it does not fit in the lantern. It's not the candle's fault, it's not the lantern's fault, it's just reality. The tea candle is ranked second because it was always playing second fiddle to either the squat or stick candle. It only really excelled at being cost effective, however, I'm not just looking for a cheap candle, I'm looking for a powerful one. The clear winner to me is the squat candle. I almost lit it with a spark, it was only average in illumination, but it burned for an entire 6 hours. Plus, to me there isn't much of a difference in 5 cents and 50 cents.

You may be wondering why we put so much into working with these candles. Next week we will be reviewing a candle and candle lantern that can supposedly burn for 9 hours and I wanted the best candle I could find to contend with it. This will also be the last blog of the year aside from our Christmas special so you definitely don't want to miss it. As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

I Will Survive: Comparing the Survival Water Bottle to My EDC Kit

Last week we finished building our EDC Kit and we talked about the three characteristics we want our gear to have: familiarity, compactibility, and re-usability. We packed away all of our stuff into a fanny pack as well. We valued this kit to be about $57, however I only spent $10 on my kit for the fanny pack. The rest of my gear I already had lying around the house. I did not buy gear for this kit. This week we are doing the review. That’s right, this week we will be comparing the survival water bottle to my EDC kit.

First let’s get into the survival water bottle and see what we are getting for $20. The water bottle itself is a 1000 ml. plastic water bottle with a red carabiner attached to it. I have some black 550 paracord at the top of the water bottle, one bandage (the card says there were supposed to be three),

an aluminum carabiner with a compass and an LED flashlight. It also comes with a tiny pocket knife with a tiny nail file. The next item I remove is an orange safety whistle, and a floating compass with a container that stores matches, however, no matches were provided. The last few items are a survival blanket that reflects up to 90% body heat, an emergency poncho which I can see from the package is very thin and will not last long, (I may be able to fly it like a tarp), and an emergency sewing kit with a button and a latch pin. I am not satisfied with what I have for $20. I do not feel that it meets the criteria of 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. My final note is that repacking the bottle was extremely difficult and all of my gear was crammed back inside.

I am going to be testing the survival water bottle in the same location where I had my 3 Day Camp. I

am going to attempt to set up my shelter, start a fire, and boil water. Now, I am not going to spend all day out here trying to accomplish these tasks with this kit. If I hit a road block that I cannot overcome or at least overcome quickly, I am going to say the test is done. I am going to follow this same practice with my EDC kit as well. One flaw I am going to point out with the survival water bottle right away is that I had to dig a box of matches out of my car to add to the kit, because the kit itself did not provide them.

The first thing I did was use the paracord to suspend the plastic water bottle over the site where I am going to build my fire. I tied the paracord off to a tree, threw the length over a limb, tied a loop in it, and clipped the water bottle to the loop with the red carabiner. The goal is to get my water to boil by controlling my fire. Normally I would use a tripod to boil water, however  I do not believe I could cut down or carve one with the tools provided by this kit. This attempt failed

I used my matches to start my fire. If I had not supplied the matches I would have had absolutely no way to make fire. I could have added a lighter instead, however, the kit was designed to use matches. While setting up, the branch above me became over encumbered and fell out so I had to improvise and suspend the water bottle from a much less distance. I filled it up with 16.9 oz. of water so that it will be boiling the same amount as my EDC kit.

Unfortunately I was not able to get the water to boil. While trying to control my fire the water bottle began to melt and warp. Also the tripod type branch I was using was dry enough that it started to catch as well. I probably could have waited a little longer, but I was not satisfied with how things were going. If you don’t know how to boil water in a plastic bottle pre-emergency, you are not going to know how to do it in the actual survival situation. I’m ranking the bottle a D, not an F, because you cannot purify water in it, but it can hold a significant amount of water and that’s worth something.

For the shelter I decided to use the poncho as a moisture barrier and I used the survival blanket to wrap up in. It is very noisy and if I were to sleep like this I would definitely wake up any time I moved. Other than that it was kind of nice. I rank the shelter a C. If rain were to come I would be left completely out in the open. If I had a fire to sit next to it would be even better, however the blanket says to keep away from fire. I may even consider getting one of these for my EDC kit.

Now that we have finished testing out the survival water bottle, it is time to test out my EDC kit. Right away you will notice that there are things I can do with this kit that I couldn’t do with the other kit, and actually there is one thing that I could have done with the survival water bottle kit that I could have done, but chose not to. We will talk about why a little later.

I will be testing my EDC kit the same way I tested the survival water bottle according to the rule three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food. My first order of business is to make a shelter. What I did was lash a branch horizontally to a tree with my bank line. Next I found some small rocks and folded them into the corners of my poncho, tied off the corner to keep them in place, and then tied the corners to the lashed branch. I took a long stick that was smaller in diameter to the one I lashed to the tree and used my 11-in-1 card to saw it in half. The stick was mostly greenwood so the 11-in-1 card had some difficulty getting the job done, but it did get the job done. Next I used my Camillus Seize to carve the two half pieces into tent stakes. I repeated the process with the stones in the bottom to corners of my poncho, attached them to the stakes, and then staked them into the ground. This results in my poncho being set up like I would my tarp.

The reason I did not do this with a survival blanket is because I was having so much trouble with the

survival water bottle kit, I just wanted to get any kind of shelter together. I absolutely think that the survival blanket could do this, and it is roughly the same size as my poncho so I think it would do it well. The only problem being with that kit, if I chose to make the survival blanket into a shelter, I would have nothing to cover up with at night. If you have a extra survival blanket in your kit I highly recommend that you try to do this. Unfortunately with the survival water bottle kit, I just don’t think it’s worth it.

With the assistance of my lovely wife, we did a weather test on the poncho. I sat underneath it with my moisture barrier, the black contractor bag I included in my kit and she prepared the water hose to spray down my shelter.  Now the water from the garden hose was a lot heavier than any rain I would typically experience, but it held up well and no water got in. The hood of the poncho faced downward and while it did move and buck with the water hitting it, it did not open up to let the water in.

Now I am going to test the abilities of the second contractor bag that I packed in my EDC kit. First I

can get into it and use it like a sleeping bag if needed. While standing the bag comes up to my arm pits, but lying down I can hunker down into it and it will retain my body heat fairly well. The next thing I am going to test is how well it holds water. I filled the bag up just enough for me to be able to lift it and also so it did not rip out the bottom of the bag. It held up well, I have plenty of contractor bag left to tie it off and store it, and all I have to do is untie it to get more water.

Speaking of water, now it is time for our boiling test. I am going to use the same amount of water as well as the same type of bottled water as I used in my previous boiling test to be fair in judging which boils better. I used my lighter in my combustion kit to light my tinder and get my fire started. After that it was just a matter of placing the metal water bottle into the fire without the plastic lid on top and waiting for it to boil.

Another thing that I want to show you my kit can do is make char cloth. The Altoids tin that is also

the container for my combustion kit can also be used to make char cloth in. Now I didn’t have any cloth packed in my EDC kit so what I did was cut a strip out of the bottom of my T-shirt, placed it in the Altoids tin, closed it, and put it in the fire. It’s as simple as that. Now I can make char cloth while I am waiting for my water to boil, which it did! To remove it safely from the fire, I used my bank line and a small stick to make a toggle, carefully slid the stick into the bottle, and lifted it gently out of the fire to cool. The char cloth actually turned out very nice as well. It blackened well and there were no white spots. Unfortunately the inside of the Altoids tin charred up pretty badly as well so I can no longer use it as a signaling device.

For my final thought, I like to think it is pretty obvious which kit is the winner, but we will still go ahead and break it down. Overall I was very pleased with the fanny pack, more so than I thought I would be. Everything I needed was at my hip and was easy to retrieve. The water bottle just did not have what you needed to survive in my opinion. I ranked the combustion kit in the survival water with a D, because I had to provide my own matches and in that kit that was the one and only way provided to make fire. For cover I ranked it a C because of the survival blanket, but I think there could have been more options in the way of cover. I gave the container a D, because I could not boil or purify water in it. It's saving grace was that I could hold a large amount of water in it. I gave the cutting tool an F, as it was pitiful. It isn't the smallest knife I have ever had, but it was definitely the worst knife I have ever had. I gave the cordage a C. It did it's job, however, I had 33ft. of  550 paracord in the bottle, yet in my kit I had 60 ft. of bank line that was much more compact. Moving on to my kit, I felt it performed above and beyond. My poncho worked very well as a cover, and I was even concerned it would rip but didn't. The contractor bags served their purpose as a moisture barrier and even held up to the task of having extra jobs, so to my cover I give an A+. My combustion kit had a rocky start, but I did have multiple ways of making fire and even created a fourth way to make fire while testing the kit so I give it an A. My container did it's job boiling water and my cordage did a fantastic job setting up my camp. I even had plenty left over. The Camillus Seize performed well in the field. I used it to clean up branches and carve stakes with ease. The 11-in-1 card had a rough start, but it did its job in the end. The final results are the Survival Water Bottle overall is ranked D, and the Fanny Pack EDC Kit is ranked A, at the lowest, maybe a B.

Next week we will be picking up where we left off two series ago. David Canterbury first started off with the 5 C's of Survivability, later he added an additional 5, which in total became the 10 C's of Survivability. We will be beginning next week with Compass. It will also be our first on location video. Make sure you don't miss out! As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

It’s not homework: 5 blogs I recommend you check out

Last week I told you guys I would more than likely be taking this week off to rest and recharge, and I am currently doing that. However, I thought this would be a good time to recommend just 5 blogs for you to check out. These blogs have been picked for their contents and how it will pertain to the next blog series to come out, but more on that later. Also these blogs will provide you with a lot of insight to the previous series “The 3 day camp” and the reasons I choose the tools I did. Now you could of course check out all the blogs, though if you don’t have that kind of time, just check out these 5.

First off from our combustion series I have to recommend “Cloth roasting on an open fire”.  In this blog I made char-cloth a key component to next fire mentality. Not only that, but it was also a nice wrap up to the entire series. After the char cloth was made I performed a few observations on it. I learned that super-hot char-cloth will begin its embering process if a gentle breeze is present. This make sense because of the 3 facts for fire which are heat, fuel, oxygen. The fuel is already super-heated turning it into char then in the presents of any airflow it begin to ignite. Lesson learned about letting your char-cloth cool before using it. So make sure you check this blog out before next week

Following next was my container series. During this time I spent a lot of times working with mess kits. Even going so far as to make my own. However, the first blog was about your water bottle and its importance. At the time there wasn’t much I could do in the way of an activity for this blog so it turned about to be a lot of lecturing. However, some important points came from there like “My criteria for a Bushcraft water bottle” as well as “what your water bottle should do for you”. Definitely want to check those out so you know which bottle to keep and which to pitch.

 

Speaking of “pitching”, a blog called “pitch the tent and use a tarp” came from

the cover series. In this I used my square tarp that I had made from a rectangle tarp in the previous blog, to demonstrate different set-ups and flys that can give you great shelter options. Never in a million years did I think I would recommend a tarp over a tent. However, my problems with tents like: heat, moisture, and claustrophobia; these aren’t a problem in the tarp. And with a good moisture barrier and some bug repellent would could get all the benefits of a tent without the downsides.

Next in the cordage series, I wrote a blog called “time to get a little knotty”. This entire series was plagued with puns and I apologize for that. However, I do recommend this blog because it shows you the different knots that your cordage should be able to do for you. In this blog, I highlighted 5 or 6 different knots with included a fishing knot and a hitch knot, which lead in to the lashing blog the most popular blog on the website. Definitely will be important so check it out.

Finally in the cutting tool series I have to recommend “Sharpest tool in the shed”. Not only was it our first video episode. But it was the longest blog in process. I very proud of this review. The cutting tools shown in this blog all have specific purposes and different way of tackling a problem. I recommend this one, because knowing what each tool “can do” and “can’t do” will make more sense for the choices I’ll be making in the next series. However, that’ll have to wait till next week.

Now as for the series itself it will be on EDC kits. I will be going explain the importance of EDC kits and the problem I have with most of the ones I see. If ya want a Sneak-peak then here it is: NO PLASTIC BOTTLE. As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Cloth Roasting on an Open Fire: Creating Char-Cloth and Explaining the “Next Fire”Mentality

So, I made char-cloth. I went through a whole lot of trouble just to char some lousy bits of an old t-shirt. So here is my question to you guys: Is it worth it?

Let’s see what Dave Canterbury has to say on the matter. In his book, Bush Craft 101, on page 124 he says:

“By quick ignition of charred materials, you will have a guaranteed ember to provide needed heat for ignition of a bird’s nest.”

Remember when we talked about fuel in my last blog?  We talked about tinder or the material used to catch a spark, like the website. Tinder can take a flame very easily and even primitive fire methods like a bow/drill set can produce an ember to be placed into the tinder or bird’s nest. Then, provide oxygen and you should be good to go. However, using flint and steel can be difficult to get tinder started and a Ferro rod too if conditions are bad enough. The same goes for the magnifying glass. However, char-cloth can and will aid you in ember formation using a spark or the sun.

So let’s talk about how it’s made. When googling about what char is I get this phrase a lot: “The incomplete combustion of certain solids.” You can click here for where I saw it first. But incomplete is the key word here.

If you recall from my last blog, fire need three things: heat, oxygen, and fuel. If you take away the oxygen completely you have that incomplete fire. Now all we have to do is heat our fuel without any oxygen. However, oxygen is everywhere and you need this cloth for your next fire. Well we can fix that.

In one of my first blogs I showed you all my char tin. Now I’m not sure how in-depth I was about it, but the basics are a stainless steel container either with a stainless steel lid or cover to allow the gases to escape. You don’t want a 100% seal because then it could blow up. Some people even use their water bottles completely dried out and a flat rock to cover the hole.

The idea is the container will be heated and the fuel inside will heat up too. Without oxygen in its presence though, it won’t make a flame. A very important part is making sure that the fire doesn’t get into your container. This happened to my first ever batch and I got a pile of ash. A lot of people poke a hole in their tins to let out the gases, but something like an Altoids tin with hinges are enough. But enough of this, right? Let’s get to how I made it.
So about a year ago when I first started bushcraft, I took an old T-shirt that was more ragged than regale. I cut it up into squares about the width of my palm and length of my forearm. Then I just rolled them up to save space in the container. You can see a pretty good example on the left of what they looked like when rolled up. On the right, I unrolled one to show you the length. I know some people prefer them in squares, but I like to rip off what I need. Either way you do it I’m sure will be just fine.
I have made about 32 of these. I make about 6 at a time and keep them in my Char tin at all times. The ones that are waiting to be charred will remain in a plastic bag that I keep in the house until needed.
The next step is to get them into the tin for charring. Like I said I roll them up and place them at the bottom of the tin. It won’t matter if they are packed or not just be aware of how much is going into it. Normally, my
char cloth isn’t made under survival conditions. I will use my last piece of char cloth to make a more char cloth. If I didn’t have them with me then I would consider using a bandanna or the clothing I was wearing. It is all about the next fire mentality. Just like in chess, you need to plan and prepare ahead. The next part is pretty important because this will make or break your char cloth. You need some sort of cover. As I said before the cover needs to not be air tight, however it must not allow oxygen to get into the container. So what do you do?

Put a lid on it. No, I’m not telling you to shut up, just cover your mouth. Of the bottle, that is. By punching a hole on the top of your container you allow gases to escape during the carbonization process. Now something common that may happen is the gases catching fire as they escape.
This isn’t a big deal as long as the fire doesn’t go down into the container itself. If it does happen, use some fire-proof gloves or two sticks to move the char away and let the process stop. Now if something happens and all you end up with is just your stainless steel water bottle then you are still in the game. Just place it in the fire WITHOUT anything inside. This will allow any water to evaporate out and your bottle will be ready for charring. Next you would cut up or just rip some cotton fibers. You could find some different plants and fungi that'll char too.

 In Dave Canterbury’s book, “Advanced Bushcraft”, he says this:


“Char can be made from many things you find in the landscape, including punky, decaying wood or the inner pith from some plants like mullein.”

Now here on Backyard Bushcraft, we believe in working through levels. I haven’t gotten too much covered in “Advance Bushcraft”, however I would like to know how to do some even if I wasn’t ready to practice it just yet.
Back to the charring, it commonly take about 10 minute or until the fire burns out. this has been said by Dave Canterbury in multiple places. Another way to check is to wait till the smoke stops pouring out. Now one thing to remember is that you can’t overdo char. Once it is done however, do not let it get exposed to air. The char being so super heated will cause it to start to burn. Remember the 3 elements to fire. Heat, Fuel, and Oxygen. The char is already a great fuel, plus it is super heated with just a gentle blow and it will begin to consume. This is also how the char works. With the cloth itself as a fuel, the spark or sunrays provides heat, then blowing into the bundle will make the fire catch up. After the tin is cooled, it is perfectly fine to get out and examine what you have created. I find the best way is to use a solar method. To me it is the hardest method of ember creation and thus proves I have made great char. I hope you get out there and make some Char Cloth too. Next week I will be reviewing some gear I have collected. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

"Keep Those Fires Burning" challenge

To celebrate the incoming spring season, I have decided to issue to anyone and everyone who reads this to participate in the first ever "Keep Those Fires Burning" challenge. The challenge is simple. Keep a fire burning from winter to spring. The idea for this is to instill the importance of maintaining a fire during cold nights during a survival situation. The other is to kick off spring with a fire. A common statement spread thorough-out the bushcraft and survival world is, "Without practice, you will lose the skill you've learned." Kicking off spring by building a fire testing parts of your kit. Sounds like just some good ole bushcraft fun to me.

So how to participate in the challenge. First is to have a fire started by 11:50 the night of March the 19th, this is will be the last minutes of winter. Make sure it is a decent campfire you can be proud of. Next, take a picture and post it on Twitter or Facebook with the hashtag #keepthosefiresburning, Bonus points if you live stream the event, which yours truly will be doing. After midnight take another picture and throw up the hashtag #anotherlogforyou. It's that easy. Just make a fire, take a picture, and post it with the hashtag #keepthosefiresburning before midnight. Then after midnight post another picture of the fire still burning with the hashtag #anotherlogforyou. Bonus points for doing it live. Tweet it @BPackBushCraft if you like or tag @BPackBushcraft on Facebook.

Looking forward to anyone who is up to the challenge. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.