Fire Starting aids on a boondocking trip

When out boondocking, you will find a need to start a wood fire under many different conditions. One of the worst things to do is try to use the weekenders method of starting a fire. They always seem to take the biggest log and soak it with charcoal starter. Soon, they have used a whole container of starter and have a bonfire. You can smell the starter everywhere. The best way to start a fire is to start small with kindling. Don't get in a hurry but just let the fire grow.

When it is wet, I always have dry kindling stored for use in the wood gas stove. If it looks like rain, gather wood and put it under a tarp for later. Here are a few methods for starting a fire easier than using a match.

Alcohol
I have alcohol for my alcohol stove but I rarely use it as a fire starter. If you do use it, just use a small amount and remember it burns with an almost invisible blue flame. For me, I like to use a lower cost alternative to alcohol. However, if you don't often use a wood fire, it is very convenient and works well.

Candles
Small birthday candles or any candle can be used to start a nice fire. The birthday candles work best for starting small kindling in a wood gas stove. I have even used a wood gas can stove to start some large pieces of wood for an open wood fire. I skip the large fire, except in case of a cold morning, because it just burns up too many resources. It doesn't take a very large fire to cook a meal. Smaller fires are easier to extinguish anyway.

Dryer Lint or Saw Dust
Homemade starters can be made with dryer lint or saw dust. The paper containers can be anything from a ketchup cup, toilet paper rolls, or paper egg cartons. The lint or saw dust is used to fill the cup and then coated with way. These make handy fire starters from throw away materials.

Firesteel Starter
I always carry one of the Swedish Firesteel starter. You can get a spark that burns over 5000 degrees to start most fires. These can be purchased from most camping stores and are part of my emergency kit. Once you try one, you will love them.

How to stay warm on cool nights

When doing frugal boondocking as a vagabond, you want to minimize any use of environmental heating or cooling because this costs the most. The easiest way to do this is to always pick a warm weather site. Select your current camping site based on the months high and low temps. Where less clothing when it gets warm in the afternoon and put on warm clothes for the night time. These two things go a long way to eliminating the need for any environmental heating or cooling. Reflectix in the windows help also.

An unexpected change
You can get a rather cool evening when you least expect it and no one wants to shiver while they try and sleep. I try and stay in places that are 40F degrees and above at night but I am not always successful. If you get much below 32F, you will have to protect your RV systems from freezing which is much more work than just sleeping comfortable. Of course if you are hooked up at a campsite, you can handle much lower temperatures but must still worry about freezing water lines.

Radiant Heat
The body loses anywhere between 20% and 50% of its warmth through radiant heat. This heat can be reflected back to the body to make you feel warm. You will be surprised how much warmer you will feel when you do this small thing. The trick is to have a reflective barrier not touching your body. The heat then will not be conducted through the barrier but reflected back to warm your body.

Space blanket
The first thing you should buy is a space blanket. These blankets were developed by NASA and are a thin sheet of plastic coated with a metallic reflective surface. Keep one on hand for those unexpected cold snaps. Since I like to hike and cap away from the RV, I always have one. You can also make a reflective barrier from Reflectix.

Sleeping bag
I also have a cold weather mummy type sleeping bag for hiking and tent camping . I sleep in it right there in the RV on those unexpected chilly nights. The bag I have is good down to 5F so it is really all I need to stay warm at night. It saves having to use any kind of heat. In the morning, I will get dressed and use the space blanket to help warm up while the coffee is brewing.

DIY camping and hiking equipment

I have talked about this before but hikers and sailors have space and weight limitation for their equipment. Hiker sites have some very nice homemade camping equipment. Sailboat owners who use a lot of the same systems as those found in RVs. A blue water sailor is just another form of vagabond who travels around the world. As a vagabond, I have learned a lot of both these groups. One of the best things I have learned from the hiking sites is how to build an inexpensive alcohol stove. Yellow Heet is a good source of fuel. You will need a small pot to use with these stoves. Hikers use a small aluminum pot which can also be used in your solar cooker. 

Why have an alcohol stove?
There are several reasons that I have alcohol stove. It is certainly inexpensive and I can keep a yellow bottle of Heet to power it. If I run out of propane, I can still cook a hot meal or if I want to stop at a picnic area when I am traveling between boondocking sites. I also enjoy hiking and camping away from my boondocking site for the night. The last reason is I love to build stuff and empty cans are readily available as materials.

What materials do I need?
1. some type of aluminum can( soda, cat food, tuna, beer, etc)
2. Something to punch holes( hole punch, drill, bottle opener)
3. sand paper
4. Razor blade or box cutter blade

The Tuna Can Stove 
Start with a tuna can, cat food can, or other small can, and make holes around the outside. The holes should be spaced about 2 inches about and be 1/4 inch in diameter using a hole punch. This type of stove will simmer and heat up a can of stew or small pot of food. If you want to boil water for pasta, make a second set of holes under that one. Here is the pattern and directions. Fill the stove with 1 ounce of alcohol and light.

The Soda Can Stove
You will need 3 soda cans to build this stove.  The soda can stove is a pressure stove that is more fuel efficient than the lower pressure ones like the tuna can stove.You will need a pot stand and a wind screen to use this type of stove.See the detailed instructions for how to create the stove.

These stoves are fun to build when you are just sitting around the campsite and if anything happens to one, you can easily build another. I use mine for quick boiling water in the morning for coffee, cooking while stopped at a picnic sites, and on my overnight camping trips. It is a low cost way to have a nice portable stove for hot meals anywhere.

Life by Rote

One day I began to look at why I was doing certain tasks each day. Was it because I really needed to do those things or did someone tell me they were necessary? Do you really have to go get your mail each and every day? What about housework? How many things must you do each day? There are a lot of things in life that we are taught to do. How many people eat 3 meals a day? Any reason not to eat 5 small meals or even one large meal and a smaller meal?

Too many "have tos"
We never seem to look at the tasks we have to do each day. They are just accepted as a part of life. Once they are completed then we have time to enjoy ourselves. However, for most of us, we wake up one day and the "have tos" take up so much of the day that the "want tos" get lost. It is only at vacation time or Sunday afternoon that we have any time to do the fun stuff. If your life has come to that point, it is time to make a change and start pruning.

Make it simple
So, when I wanted to make my life simpler, I sat down and made a list of each daily task. I then took a few of them and began to do them every other day. Then every 3rd day. I realized that I could live a little less structured in exchange for a simple life. All those things I learned to do by rote, I reevaluated and now I do so many less. Each of us have the same things in our life that complicate our life because we find we are stuck doing them each day, week, or even month.

Leave more time for fun
When you feel your life is too complicated then you can start to look at those things also. Soon your life will feel less complicated and you will have more free time to do what you like. If you get as excited about a simple life as I did, you find you a small trailer and hit the road. It takes very little income to maintain my lifestyle while it comes with no drama or complications.

A boondocking trip across the Southern States

I have looked at many places in the US for dry camping or boondocking. These are places to camp for free but do not have services so your RV must be self contained with its own toilet, electricity, and water. Most national forests will have a place for dispersed primitive camping but they aren't the only places. Don't forget the grasslands and I especially like the wildlife management areas for photography. When staying in areas that allow hunting, you must keep aware of the hunting season and its safety rules.

Across the south with no particular place to go.
My plans are simple. I started with the criteria that each site much be no more than 200 miles apart and allow camping for at least 14 days. Every 14 days, I plan to stay at a campsite with services so I can recharge my batteries, fill my water tanks, dump my holding tanks, and take that all important long hot shower. So, I spend no more than 4 days in a paid campsite every 2 months. By the way, the forest service does have some really reasonable campsites for a low fee that includes electric, water, and hot showers. Each excursion is planned for two months which includes 4 stops.

This group of 2 month excursions will take you through the south and you can put the trip together many different ways. It becomes a never ending excursion through the southern states for as long as you want to keep making the rounds.

1. Appalachian Excursion

2. Tennessee/Kentucky

3. Alabama

4. Gulf Coast

5. Louisiana

6.Western Arkansas

7.Eastern Arkansas