Day 2

Sunrise.



Was going to do sunrise tai chi, but made cowboy coffee and sipped it by the fire and watched the sunrise instead.



My monkey #1



Kids are hams.





My monkey #2



The girls wanted me to show them how to make fire. So I told them I would. Unfortunately, I didn't get to harvest the materials for friction fire. But I have since gotten some for next camp. This time it was the ferro rod. But whatever the method, preparation was key. So I had the girls gather and separate wood by pencil lead, pencil and thumb sizes.



You can't see the larger sticks in this picture. Then they prepared tinder bundles that they each practiced lighting with the ferro rod. Then they each made a tinder bundle to combine into one large bundle to light the fire. This time monkey #1 had the honors of lighting it. They learned to be gentle with the fire and not to suffocate it...like a baby. So when they smothered the tinder by throwing on kindling, I showed them how to make air spaces and blow it back to flame. Soon, they had a nice fire going. They kept it going all night, especially monkey #2, who was super focused and took really good care of the fire, even while the other kids ran off to play.



One of the other dads tried to help the older boys, who came later, get their fire going, since the younger girls were successful. The boys failed. They were too impatient and failed or refused to prepare.


Next up, nature shots and lake visit...