Don't do this

"The Egg and I"

Ma and Pa Kettle

"Green Acres"

geo

We pick up dried pine cones around this time of year then melt some candles or candle wax and dip the pine cones in a few times to coat them. Makes a great fire starter. A basket of these makes an excellent inexpensive Christmas gift too.

There is a huge difference between gasoline a kerosene. Kerosene is basically diseal. You can drop a match in the stuff and it will put it out (usually). It takes a good fire (or compression) to get the stuff to ignite.

Gasoline, on the other hand, is volatile and the fumes will ignite in a fireball.

Is it the preferred method to starting a fire? No. It is however effective when you've let the coals go out and the house is freezing. It is actually good more for warming the flue to get a draw going so you can get the wood going easier. Don't know how it works in an airtight, however, cause I haven't ever worked with one.

However, some people, that are lacking in some sense about why/how things work, are determined to Darwin themselves.

If you got any embers at all in a closed stove with kerosene you know hot coals and let it sit and start boiling, then light the match it will blow . Diesel will too It forms a gas . Been using old diesel for years to fast start a fire .

Anyone don't think the above method will clear the pipes and hand hair has a lesson coming

Kerosene or charcol lighter can poof some (doesn't usually)--however, if you don't have your face up to it, shouldn't be a problem. Hasn't been in the last twenty five years that they've used the stove.

If your squirt lighter fluid, gasoline, or the older formulation (been gone 15 years) of charcol lighter on something, stick your face up to it, and throw on a match...well, as the thread below said, you can't fix stupid.

Kerosene can cause a fireball and explosion when tossed onto hot coals or a lit fire. Dh lost his dad that way.

When I was a kid we had a brush pile that needed to be burned. We put a mixture of diesel and gas on it went to lunch. When we came back we could not find the pile. There was sticks all over the place where it blew up. I would not use gas any more for starting a fire.

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God must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them.

I know of a kid in western MO (chilicothe area I believe) who was burned to death with a mixture of gasoline and diseal. A whole bunch of people (farm type) were burning a huge brush pile. An uncle through a cup full. It went over the fire, ignited, and "stuck" to the kid.

It is not something to play with; although I still stand by the statment that compared to gas, diseal/Kero is not nearly as volatile.

Yes, kerosene can be explosive if it is poured on coals. I think the heat must turn it to vapor and the vapor is what ignites.

My best friend's mother had put in the wood, then poured kerosene from a gallon oil bucket on the wood and it exploded. They said there were coals in there which caused gas, and possibly the can had been sitting in the sun and had turned to gas.

I have a healthy respect for kerosene, but used it often to start fires in our wood heater. I always checked to be sure there was no 'heat' in the ashes.

Any kind of petroleum product on coal will make a volatile mix when they are a vapor. They mix with the right amount of air and fuel itwill make a fuel air explosion. I take old candles from yard sales and melt them and dip the ends of kiln dried alderfrom the cabinet shop to make long burn stick to lightmy tender. Some times I use pine knots, pine cones or a other things. Some thimes I use old cooking oil as a starter but it will flash to if doused onto coals.


I got an old popular mechanics book on farm tips. One of the tips was to ues draw nife or planer shavings soaked into oil or fuel and stored i nan air tight jar. I keep a little mixed all the time .

That's the ticket.

This is what is commonly referred to as "culling the herd".

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Ignorance is the true enemy.

I've seen the village, and I don't want it raising my children.

www.newcenturyhomestead.com

Yep , We have a Dr. that lives the next place over from us and let me tell you , for someone who is smart enough to become a Med. Dr. he sure isn't to bright at times.

One of his feasco's I made a comment about him not being the sharpest knife in the drawer and he actually thought I was trying to talk Medical with him. I just shook my head kept doing what needed to be done and let him ramble.

Actually its not necessarily a lack of intelligence at work here. And yes, you do have to be up there in IQ to become a lot of things. However the IQ of a person bears no relationship at all to the biggie.....COMMON SENSE. I have some long term friends...this family has another aircraft designer, an actual "rocket scientist"(the Apollo Program), a holder of a Masters in Chemistry and one with a Doctorate in Physics....all members of Mensa and all smarter than me...not a one of them has a ounce of common sense.

I have come closer to loosing my life and spent hours of high aggravation and terror during the times I have spent with these people than ever in my long life. Almost drowned, stuck overnight out in the woods over being ignored about a wrong turn, menaced by a dippy tenent in one of their goofy properties they bought in another state, etc etc. The list is too long.

Can't seem to tell them a thing...they just blunder through day to day living, surrounded by disasters...all of their own making. Hopping around like drunk frogs from lilly pads from precarious plans, ideas and hair brained schemes. Its remarkable. One of them did die from foolishness...didn't make a dent though.

I love them but am so happy we are living far apart! whew!

LQ

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" Live in the Sunshine,
Swim the Sea,
Drink the Wild Air"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing." D. Duck

The word that comes to mind is: Pilgrims. They might make fine neighbors, if ever they live that long.

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"Only the rocks [and really embarassing moments] live forever"

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

Not wanting to divert the thread but DON'T burn those old pantyhose or stockings. They are perfect for ties for your tomato plants. Just wash them and then cut them apart up the middle and you have a good length to tie up branches of the vine.

Not meaning to change topics, but am asking for safety sake. I normaly use the newspaper balls as a safe way to get my stove going. But folks talking of other alternatives...what all can I put on pine cones to use them as starters?

Adding chlorine to the gene pool. Is one of my favorite terms. I had a neighbor that was a registerd nurse and had retired. He bought a plot of land across from the house and was building a house and pond. His friend a house builder with a dozer and excavator did thework. Built a pond in sugar sand for 9000 dollars. Halfbuilt the house. Then the neighbor kept saying his friend had to hook him as his business was slow. he gotsome horses next and was feeding 5 horses from a 1 gallon bucket.


He had a horse he won from a rodeo and it was registered up north. He had it on 1 gallon 6 horse plan and no hay. He stood there and told a lady asking about the starving horses why that one was so thin. He said the horse was raised up north and they dont have alot of grass up there so he didnt know how to eat here. As his herd ate the grass there down to powder. This man was a nurse and a deputy both. i felt safer all the time.

Paraffin wax. Melt some in a double boiler or directly over very low heat. Whichever method you use, don't get the wax too hot, or it will burn. It doesn't take a lot of heat to melt it. Dip the pine cones in it or brush the wax on with a cheap brush, and then set them on something like wax paper to dry.

You can also save the lint from your dryer lint trap. Put it into cardboard egg carton sections or small paper cups. Top off with melted wax and allow to dry.

I won't bother to tell the many tales from the ER of people who have done dumb things with fire. Suffice it to say our motto is: You gotta be tough if you are gonna be stupid!

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Take your time, or someone else will.