Papa's campfire building class

Kim had wanted Carl to teach her girls about building and lighting a campfire -- we had not had the opportunity to get that accomplished earlier, so we decided to try it on Tuesday evening. The weather was a little threatening, so he started the lesson in the garage...

There are two basic ways to lay the wood for a campfire...

Teepee style -- McKenna trying her hand at doing this style -- it is hard to keep it balanced so it doesn't fall over.

Log cabin style -- Lianna working on building this one.

Building the log cabin

Carl showing an alternative style to the log cabin using more triangle-shaped layers.

The important thing is that there be space for air to flow through -- and that you have sufficient kindling to help the fire get started. Carl sent the girls to collect kindling

-- and then he showed them that you would also want to place the kindling in a pattern like the log cabin style so it has air too.

Blaise and Thatcher got back from their play try-outs, and it appeared that the rain had moved past us, so we moved to the fire pit in the back yard...

Lianna and McKenna could show what they had learned in the building of the wood in the fire pit.

The kindling needs to go in the inside (middle) of the log cabin, so they built that. Carl emphasized that the kindling in critical to the fire catching on the pieces of wood.

Carl had gotten a couple of magnesium fire starters, and he demonstrated to the grandkids how you could shave off parts of the magnesium onto the kindling and how sparks could be generated -- but he said that starting a fire with sparks from the fire started might be more challenging that we were ready to do!

So we borrowed a lighter from Kristin. McKenna got to try first. It was really difficult for each of the kids to use the lighter -- it has safety features to prevent its use by children, and the features seemed to be pretty effective!

McKenna got a flame on the lighter, and got the kindling to start a little, but it went out after she pulled the lighter away.

Lianna tried next, but it was just too difficult to hold the thumb hold and pull the trigger,

... so then Blaise tried -- and his try worked! He got a good fire in the kindling.

Scott brought another lighter out that did not have the thumb hold safety feature. Blaise is trying it in this picture -- even just pulling the trigger was hard for smaller hands.

But the fire had gotten a good start, and marshmallows could be roasted and those who wanted them could have s'mores.

The kids adjourned to video games in the basement, and we sat around the fire for a while enjoying conversation.

Papa's class was a success!