The Waco Kid

Cooking on an open fire The simplistic method is to just stick your cooking pot on or beside the flame. A lid will help to keep ash out. Cooking on a open fire does require a bit more attention and practice to keep the fire going as you need it. A few simple additions can make it a bit easier and flexible. 1) Hanging the pot from something like a tripod or overhanging support. This usually means having to a pot with a bail handle, round and oval pots are easier to suspend without tipping over. Height can be adjusted using this method. 2) Using a grill to support pots above the flame. This is hand for rectangular mess tins and you can adjust how far they sit to the heat. An other useful accessory is a pot grab, even on pots with lids and handles. You can buy lightweight ones or make them from wood.

How come this never used to be a problem? Surely women have huge experience carrying plates? In fact they should be regarded as experts in the field with centuries of going back and forth to the kitchen. Often also carrying food as well! Awsome. Sometimes the lack of respect for women infuriates me. 😡 Then I talk to my wife.

Isn’t that a ballistic level fart?

Wait, there was factual content on that post? I really like swords. Seriously had not heard of that useful link. 👍

WHAT Heresy incarnate is this you say brothers!!!! Look closely. I was messing with Olive PLCE and dreaming of Paddyflage and AUG. PLCE pouches fit perfectly on 50mm narrow molle cobra battle belts. I give you the bastard child of AliExpress and JS Franklin ltd.

On Sunday I deployed children. Had a brew, loaded mags, had a kip through the briefing, heated chicken tikka, had a brew, slept through game one, bombed up the kids mags, had a brew and a nap in game two. Packed up and recovered children. It didn’t rain. Best game ever.

FAMAS am bestest. I said it first.

MRE of the Day is…. Summit to eat Chicken Tikka! This is a dehydrated dry meal that you add hot water too. ”It’s slightly rippled with a flat underside”. The bag will stand up so you can mix and eat straight from it. The packet is tough and this has been kicking around my Bergen for two years with out puncturing. There are graduations for the fill level inside. A little small but legible. I found even with a lot of stirring there was a bit of powdery taste at the bottom. That said it was a good size meal and the flavour was pretty good, I had it for for breakfast with tea and coffee. Plus side for dehydrated meals are that they are very light to carry but you do need water to make them edible. I used a small folding spork to eat it from the packet but a longer tool, like the ORP issued plastic one, is a bit better to get in the corners. 🤘🤘🤘 3/3 for scran.

Not that I’m biased toward M81 m. But good to see two models of SIG in the same picture…… 😉

Using wood to fuel a fire Different materials burn differently, species of tree are exception. A summery can be found on the woodlands ways blog. https://blog.woodland-ways.co.uk/fire/which-wood-for-my-fire/ The most common in the UK are probably: Oak. Dense, excellent fuel long burning. Pine. This will spit and pop, this was used as a substitute light source historically. Especially the knots. Fatwood can be gathered too. Birch. Very available and the bark can be used as tinder. The Larch. The other major factor that is often referred to when using wood is “seasoning”. I’m not taking salt and pepper but drying timber to reduce the amount of water in it. This process can take months to years. If you are back packing or travelling on foot the best you can do is to gather fallen timber. In the winter it may be dryer if sheltered, in the summer exposed or windward wood is probably better. Green, wetter wood will be harder to light and produce more smoke. Stripping leaves (and sometimes bark can help). Green wood can also be more difficult to cut or split too. Cooking fires The most common open cooking fires are “platform” type fire lays. This is a layer of relatively large pieces of wood laid close side by side the a layer of smaller material at right angles. Repeat until kindling is at the top. Fire holes are a sometimes used as a “stealth fire. Long fires and star fires are long burning for overnight heat and light. A Teepee is the chassis bonfire for social occasions. It’s therefore good for cooking hedgehogs… I mean jacket potatoes. Po-Ta-Toes! Open wood fires require more work to gather enough fuel, light and maintain. They take time to get to optimal burning condition and to keep going. When you put out a wood fire it is important to damp it down and take out the coals as they can reignite themselves later. Open fires have pro’s and cons over stoves and more technological cooking systems. • Heat and light. Can be varied by fire construction and fuel. • Smoke. Depends on wood and how dry it is. • Ash and hot coals. Some fuels will produce more. They less obvious uses of a fire by products: Smoke for signalling, insect repellant (and certain food preservation). Ash for cleaning pots. Coals for cooking and heating stones for baking or heating water in non-metal containers.

Hints and tips for lighting wood fires. As the old saying goes “keep your tinder dry”. Tinder (not the website/app) is the material that you initially light with a spark or flame. Kindling. Small pencil thickness twigs and sticks used to build up the fire from tinder before putting on your main fuel when burning wood. What works with a spark: • Natural materials like bitch bark or very dry fine grass wrapped into a fist sized bundle, not tight enough to stop air flow however. • Dry newspaper screwed up loosely will burn very quickly. Quite often too quickly to work outdoors in a wind. But does work if sheltered or in a fireplace. • Shavings from a block of hexi or esbit. About an eight of a standard hexi block should be enough to ignite with a spark. • Cotton wool pre-soaked in petroleum jelly. • Sawdust made into blocks using molten wax. • Hammero tinder card. Thumb sized piece, fluff the surface fibres up with a knife. • Fire dragon fuel block, a small piece cut off can ignite other fuel. • Fatwood stick/maya dust. This is the high resin content wood from the base of a felled pine tree. If it’s good it will smell strongly of pine sap. If you are storing it keep it in a sealed container as it does dry out. Shave the fatwood to get a thumbnail sized pile at least. The man made/processed items are usually easier to light in poor conditions than naturally gathered tinder. Some other popular options, but I’ve only limited experience with: Amadu (proceeded horse foot fungus) Charcloth Pre-burned cotton fabric https://www.twineagles.org/char-cloth.html Potassium permanganate (and glycerin) Can also be use for water treatment and wound cleaning. I’m not convinced it’s better than other methods thought. General tips: Practice with the tools and methods you are thinking or using. Duct tape. A small square is useful to catch fine particles like maya dust or hexi shavings so it doesn’t blow away. Prepare lots of tinder and kindling before starting to start a fire and have them within arms reach. Fold up windshields can be used as surface to help contain tinder and once the fire is going make cooking quicker and save fuel.

I just assumed you are Lindybeige’s love child.

Because “Springtime for Hitler” was taken.

Time for that training scenario…. ”Annie were’s ya Oakleys?”

What I should have mentioned about collecting water is an overlooked hazard. Many of the more toxic plants in the UK grow on river and lake banks. Giant Hogweed being especially unpleasant and can cause serious burns on contact. Some key identifying features are shown by Hidden Valley Bushcraft here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NQAawyKfIDc&t=19