On Thursday I had a hair-brained scheme to make the boys get up early and drive to the lake for breakfast by a campfire. But then I remembered that we didn’t have any food. Also, Brad was going to get up early to exercise. Also, Lloyd didn’t get in until after midnight because he was pulling wire at the new CDC. Oh, well. I woke up early and started a tiny fire in the fire pit out back. Brad came back from exercising and we talked by the fire and drank coffee. It was nice and we dubbed it the Council Fire and made fun of Lloyd for missing it when he woke up. Sorry, Lloyd. (No photos. I was in my jammies.)
There was another opportunity for fire later in the day. We went to Lincoln where Menards was selling a version of a Swedish fire log. It was $10, but Rachel was having a birthday and it seemed like it would be a funny candle.
Under the label you can see where it has a ‘wick’ of sawdust and wax. One match will light it, but be careful that it’s not windy. (It blew out a couple of times when people walked by it.
I learned some things. For starters, you really should light it at least 20 minutes before you plan to enjoy it. You can see in the banner picture that Sam was not impressed with the situation.
But…. after that twenty minutes, it got interesting. We moved it to the top level of their fire pit and Sam made a raging fire in the lower portion. It was great. Being up on the grate it got plenty of air (the grass was wet underneath so there was no danger of the lawn catching fire.) Plus, once they both got going we had multi-level fires!
Here is was after about 25 minutes:
Cool, huh?
It was very beautiful from underneath:
When it got a little dangerous we swung the grate over the other fire. I was in fire heaven.
It was ten dollars well spent, I must say. Happy Birthday, Rachel!
Lloyd says
At first I was like, “Meh.” But then I was like, “Wow.”
Brad says
Though the fire in the evening Fire Council was more impressive, I liked that I held fifty percent of the power at the morning Fire Council.
Deborah says
I saw those things at Menards. Does the whole thing burn up? How long did it take before you moved it over the other fire?
Lauren says
Yes, the whole thing burns up. The whole fire lasted about two hours, and we swung it over after about an hour. It ‘popped’ apart a bit when a section reached the exterior and broke free of the rest of the rest, but that wouldn’t have been nearly exciting if we had had it down on the ground. I think if I were to do it in a normal fire ring I would just make sure it was propped up on a couple of sticks so it would have good air flow.
Barb says
We burned one last night. Was lovely, but, yes hard to light.