Testing my firemaking skills

My firemaking skills are being tested. I'm pretty good at starting and keeping a fire going, but it's a constant task around here. And, it's wet. The hillsides are soggy and wet as we are actually on a sort of forest bog and the water runs down in trickles all over the place. It's foggy and damp even when it hasn't rained for days. Sydney and I noticed a little puddle of water about the size of a dinner plate. It hadn't rained for several days and the little puddle just wouldn't dry up. It was just starting to yesterday, and then it rained again :-)

The paper is wet. The wood is wet. The good, split wood - spruce that was chopped down last year- was near it's end when we were getting here so there is none left now. We're using small sticks and the dense rhododendron wood, which is really hard to start. Once you get a fire going you need to stack wood up around the perimeter to dry out so you can keep it going.

We are sleeping in a small camper (they call it a caravan) and it has a tiny wood stove in it. It's been getting down to 30-35 degrees at night. We stoke up the fire each night and get it until it's a sauna inside, then lay on top of our sleeping bags and try to fall asleep. Within an hour the fire dies out as it just can't hold more wood than that (And I couldn't take it if it got any hotter). The stove and the caravan keep the heat a little while longer, but within another hour the stove is cold. At some point in the night we're in the sleeping bags with blankets on top. It's no use stoking the fire at night as we'd have to get up every hour to keep on top of it. If you miss your opportunity then you have to restart the fire from scratch. Not worth it. I have also taken to bringing a hot water bottle to bed at night, but it's a balancing act as you don't want to touch it while the stove is hot, but you want to pull it in with you when you get cold.

Trying to keep warm. Perfecting my fire-making. Good thing as we have a week left!

Julia