fire it up

It's March, and I guess that means the start of spring? Not by us, 3000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  In other words, you never know when you will get cold and snow.

So we drive with our chains in the car, and flip flops in the back. The weather is very unpredictable. We have to be ready for anything. So when the weather is good, I go out in my yard and collect pine cones. These make wonderful 'fire bombs' in our wood burning stove, for when the weather turns baaaaaaaad. And we have our wood burning stove going all day and night.

Since my hubby cuts wood for our wood burning stove, I have plenty of saw dust which works great in this project....

Today's project is:
Pine Cone Fire Starters

You will need:
pine cones
wax (can be bought in a slab, or us your old candles)
sawdust or cut up pine needles or small dried wood chips
cupcake papers

These little beauties are a wonderful way to use the natural items we have around us. They are natural and very effective. IF you don't live the country, look into hiking into some of your surrounding areas that have pine trees. Not only will you have a wonderful afternoon walking in the beautiful countryside, but you will be able to collect those wonderful pine cones.

To melt the wax, you can use an old metal coffee can, filled with old candle stubs, or wax from the craft store. Put this can into a larger pot filled with water and boil up the water to melt the wax. You have to watch this constantly, because wax can flame up. I actually put this can onto my wood burning stove top and let the heat do all the work to melt the wax.

Put some of the sawdust or small wood chips or pine needles into a cupcake paper.  Take a bowl, covered with aluminum foil, and place the cupcake paper in here. This way, if the wax seeps out, it will go into the foil covered bowl and no mess on your counter.

When the wax melts, take an old rag and grab the coffee can and pour the wax into the cupcake holder about 3/4 full. I cover my work space with newspapers to catch any stray wax drippings.
Take a pine cone and place it into the middle of the cupcake paper. Let this cool.

You can have several bowls covered with foil and ready to go to hold the starter materials.

When this cools, you will have a wonderful way to start your fire without tons of paper.
Just light the paper of the cupcake holder and the dried pinecone will start your kindling and small logs in the fire. And if you used candles with scents, you might even get a little fragrance in your fire. These make nice gifts (for others who have fireplaces or wood burning stoves). Place them in an old basket you find at the thrift shop, a long arm lighter (you can find at the Dollar Store), amd some hot chocolate mix packages.

tip of the day:
If you sew, and have several needles, my friend Sheila gave me a great tip. The numbers on these needles can be so small and hard to read, so she paints the tips with different colored nailpolish so she can tell which needle is which. Put a little blot of paint onto a piece of cardboard with number of the needle in large numbers and store with the needles.

That's all for now....
:D