(pictures will be added a little later)
much of what I'm about to type is nothing more than stating the obvious, but it's the idea of preparing raw fire starting materials and storing them ahead of time, specifically geared towards the urban/suburban prepper.
Most of us keep a little baggie of dryer lint or some other fine media for the purpose of catching a spark somewhere in our BOB's, and we'll just cut and split whatever larger branches we'll need for our larger kindling on-site. Well that's all fine and good for a BOB, but what about us urban/suburban guys who don't have much of anything around to cut down and split? What if you're somehow prevented from getting out of town in time and you're trapped for a period of time in the city or burbs? (I personally will be fine in that respect simply due to the fact that the New Orleans area, while densely populated, is one of those cities with an abundance of plantlife, not exactly a concrete jungle)
Well, for the past several weeks I've undertaken multiple woodworking projects using natural tree branches that I cut down out by the river (I live about a 5 minute walk from the bank of the Mississippi River) and because I'm such a slob, my shed floor is (was) still covered with shavings. Everything from large chunks 1" thick to tiny feather-light slivers to sawdust from my rasp. I was getting ready to start sweeping it all up when it dawned on me. "It's a damn shame to sweep up all this good kindling and get it all mixed up with all the dirt and cigarette butts and whatever other nasty crap is on the shed floor".... *mental lightbulb clicks on*....
Long story short, I filled up a big garbage bag full of the larger stuff, and a few gallon-size freezer bags with the medium stuff, and a few sandwich bags with the really tiny stuff. I picked it all up by hand so as not to get any of the other nasty shed-floor-crap mixed into it. I also swept up all the sawdust and bagged it. It's mixed up with that nasty concoction from the floor but it should still be fine I guess.
My whole idea is to keep the stuff stored away at home so I have a quick and easy source of fire starting material (obviously). Southeast Louisiana is a very wet place year-round, and it would be a bitch to search for dry wood
in an emergency or otherwise stressful situation in this type of environment.
I think it would benefit all preppers to do the same if you haven't already. Any time you work with wood, save the shavings. If you don't have any projects planned for the near future, just go chop down a branch or two and chip them up with your hatchet and bag them up. (leave the bags open for a while so as not to trap the moisture from the fresh wood inside the bag). Keep it in your shed or garage or attic or whatever.
I'm gonna be one bad motherfucker with my fire raging on sloppy wet ground
