Need to remember to pack a honey packet to feed the ants. For amusement when you're surviving, I mean.

Amusement? Do a Scott Grady and eat the little SOB's. Get your protein AND flavor in one easy nibble!

Funny no matter how you look at it!

Anyway, just finished a weekend camping with the scouts. We were in a cabin, but spent the whole day on Saturday out and about in the cold.

The scouts were being challenged by tests of their various skills. The last being starting a fire. The night prior, I gave a demo of fire starting using various tinders and lighting sources. They really liked the Spark-Lite!!! I tried using it with Wet Fire tinder, but didn't have any success. This was a piece I took right from the packaging. It wasn't even in my kit. Anyone else have issues with it? It seemed very chalk like. I also decided that I was going to remove my magnesium block from my kit and allocate that space to something else. Seemed too much effort to scrape a pile of shavings. Oddly enough, I had used the block before and didn't have as much difficulity with it. I really wonder if age has more of an effect on those blocks than you would think.

They were told to gather the necessary components for a fire along their hike. I ran the fire starting and gave them a cotton ball and a BSA Hot Spark. Of course, I had to make sure that I could do this to. So, when they were doing their other checkpoints, I gathered up my supplies and got my fire going within minutes.

You can't believe how much complaining I got from them asking to use matches. I looked at them and said that they had no problem getting the cotton ball to light. The problem they were having was getting their tinder/kindling laid out right for a sustained fire.

After it was all over, we had a "debriefing" in the cabin and I explained what went wrong. We went back out an hour later and had them collect their tinder and kindling again. This time, every team got their fire going with one cotton ball.

Many scouts liked the components of Doug's PSP and I think a few of them were going to invest in one. They liked how loud the whistle was!

Wet Fire Tender: Chalk it up into powder&shavings then hit it with the sparklite.

Mg Block: Don't toss it. It is the one thing I have gotten to work without question anywhere/anytime/any conditions. Instead of shaving with a blade file with your multi-tool file for powder. Then get some shavings with a blade. Make a dime to quarter size pile and spark it up. If it fails, you are going to die anyway because there is no oxygen in you environment.

Good Luck

Wet Fire Tender: Chalk it up into powder&shavings then hit it with the sparklite.

Mg Block: Don't toss it. It is the one thing I have gotten to work without question anywhere/anytime/any conditions. Instead of shaving with a blade file with your multi-tool file for powder. Then get some shavings with a blade. Make a dime to quarter size pile and spark it up. If it fails, you are going to die anyway because there is no oxygen in you environment.

Good Luck

I've never been able to get the Mg block to be useful. THe shavings always flare for a split second and die away, having ignited nothing in the vicinity, except the hair on the back of my hands. Am I doing something wrong? Personally, I'd rather take the same weight in matches or lighters, since I'm more comfortable with those.