One fire guy is ok. Two fire guys is a disaster.
If you have two fire guys, one fire and one girl, you better bring the guitar before you join them. You don’t even need to play it, it just has to be there to pacify the fire guys.
we’d drag discarded railroad ties down by a creek and drink beer and smoke weed. age 14-15. got beer by asking someone in line at the drive-up liqueur store to buy it. or go inside and shoplift something. was something to do i guess. not recommended firewood because they are soaked in creosote, but burn good. drinking not recommended. i managed to quit. friend never quit and died of liver damage 30 years later. cautionary note for anyone considering same habits.
The real trial is being this guy when other people decide they’re going to start a fire and by the time you get there they’ve done it all wrong and the thing is smouldering and coughing up smoke and barely staying lit at all as they cram handfuls of pine needles and barely dry leaves into places while there’s a full-ass log precariously balanced on top of it all and they’re saying things like “Maybe we should pour a little lamp oil on top of it?”
And then you have to be the adult and take over the whole operation.
That’s because burning shit is more interesting than talking to you idiots.
Fire is a fickle little thing that if not attended, will die immediately or get wildly out of control. It moves, breathes and eats. Every piece of fuel must be assessed for moisture, shape, size, and the potential to create smoke or embers. Fuel placement is critical, depending on the purpose of the fire, you can make it burn faster, stronger, longer, or create a good bed of coals for cooking. Fire gives warmth, and light while also containing desolation and death. It is a balancing act with dire consequences for falling off either side of a thin line of control.
Occasionally a log will pop or snap, and throw out a little spark show, and that is cool.
There’s also the grill master or chef character that gets to stay to the side of party cooking delicious things for people. That’s me, and my dad, and maybe it’s you.
What that does not include is the other guests being idiots or uninteresting people by default. Social anxiety is what is, but automatically thinking negatively of other people is a hole that is very hard to climb out of.
You could say the same thing about friendship but something tells me you don’t know about that one
I think you’re vastly overstating how delicate of a balance a campfire is in, but i wholeheartedly agree that the intellectual challenge of perfecting air flow, choosing the correct placement, and all that is a wonderful way to spend time
Proto-tv
I had a BBQ going one time and one of my friends was going through a rough patch and didn’t really feel very sociable but would disappear into the woods, come back with a log, chop it into firewood and then poke the fire a bit while adding fuel.
He didn’t say much that day and spent at least 12 hours just tending the fire and one of my friends who didn’t know him said “Man theres always gotta be the fire guy”
It’s like yea… Before we had much technology we had the fire and if we were fortunate enough we had a guy who really liked doing that. People have probably been saying something like this for a million years.
I was at a hotel up in the Alps in France that had a fire going and the staff put absolutely no effort into it so it sat there smoldering on life support. So I took a log and rearranged things boyscout style and kept that sucker going till it was too hot to get near. Everyone gave me the weirdest looks like I was some crazy American. Like nah dude, gotta keep the fire going, it’s the best part.
Man I fuck wit fire. Well, used to; my old, crippled ass can’t fuck wit much any more.
Point is that being the fire tender isn’t exactly a no skill job, and it comes with some serious benefits.
You gotta have at least a basic understanding of how fire works if you want to keep it going, and learn how to keep it controlled. That’s why fucks-wit-fire is such a coveted, but demanding, position. See, you gotta keep an eyeball on it. Stacking in fresh fuel in the right way. Keeping adequate air flow. Moving unburned fuel into the center. It’s a dance.
And for that effort, you not only get the delightful scent of wood smoke in your beard, and the glow of warmth across your flesh, you get to see the ever shifting beauty of the fire and the embers. A constant flux of colors and lights that seems alive. I’d hypnotic, meditative, and can be a spiritual experience if one leans that way.
Ash, drifting on breeze settles into your hair as sleep looms and you bank the fire, setting things up for the chilly morning to come, you look down at your friend glowing beneath ashes that only reluctantly settle in for the night.
You go to your rest warm, fulfilled, and at peace.
Mate i like your romantic narration and all but I have to break it to you, that delightful scent of wood smoke in your beard is actually a stink. That campfire smell gets everywhere and sometimes you have to wash your clothes twice just to get that stank out. Its still fun though.
I dunno, back in my younger days camping with my family I was always up in the smoke and my clothes were fine. Had long hair, and it was never a bad smell. As I got older and did have a beard, I can’t recall it ever smelling unpleasant the next day, and I’m known for catching even faint smells after years of taking care of patients where faint smells can be a sign of something important.
Maybe it depends on the wood? I know a pure deadfall fire can be stronger smelling, and you can get some strange odors indeed if you buy firewood that’s been sitting, though I can’t think of any that stank.
Do you write?
Here and there, yeah.
Not me. I’m the guy trying to convince everyone camping is more fun without a fire
Wait what? Please explain.
Alright. Now I’m curious. Sell me on it. Cold food?
Cook on a stove. Way easier and quicker. Without a fire you’ll see/hear more wildlife. You won’t wake up with smokeface, puffy eyes, everything smelling like smoke. In my experience most camping injuries involve fire/firewood gathering. If backpacking, without a fire you’ll save a lot of energy. No holes in expensive nylon gear. I know going without a fire is sacrilege to a lot of people, give it a try sometime
Fair. Also somebody else pointed out that everything is on fire right now so you both make good points
Fuel stove, MSR Jetboil something of the sort. I use white gas and refillable canisters. Food’s faster, I’m lower impact. I love a good fire but it’s not what mother earth needs every night right now.
Okay her me out, yes a vegetarian diet, but also an earlier bed time. That way, in the morning you wake up feeling more rested. Then, because you never mastered fire, no big brain. No big brain, no jobs. No jobs, no climate change. Checkmate atheists?/s
Not a guy. Fire, good. Burn everything.
Goes camping, sits around campfire, phone in her face.
*facepalm
I think that’s fine and normal.
I once hiked to a secluded area for a nice scenic overlook and the best spot was taken by two people who were playing on their phones for the entire hour that I was there.
I know they’re just as entitled to sit there as I am and I have no right to tell them how to spend their time, but it still infuriated me. Then again, if they were reading a book or drawing a sketch I probably would have been OK with that. I think I just hate everyone.
o/
That’s me. Just not white? Is being white a mandate for this role?
Traditionally, yes, but it’s not obligatory. Fire does not consider the color of flesh, nor the gender of it’s attendant.
No. Hearth fire tenders are needed where they are needed.
You didn’t really campfire if you don’t smell like campfire
I definitely do not respect this. I respect someone who helps keep it going, not the dude fucking with it, and giving the fire swirlies.
My sister and I are both the girl version of that guy
What’s with the trend of mentioning that people are white and connecting it with things they do? I also see live streamers do this a lot (including in reference to themselves) and it’s strange to me
By acknowledging your privilege you don’t have to do anything to change it.
Your privilege to poke a fire with a stick?
Sometimes I don’t even vaguely get the drive-by downvoters. Like… what? Did I upset the Lemmy white supremacists this time?
Always some white guy in the comments going on about how white people doing white people things is not something worth mentioning.
Damn, I was about to comment the same, didn’t know doing so would turn my skin white.
I don’t think it’s outrage bait because again, often the context is someone talking about themselves, and no arguments are started. But this didn’t used to be a thing, so what changed?
@andrewrgross@slrpnk.net It’s definitely an American thing. Whites in America are called whites because we’ve disgustingly erased our previous cultural heritages throughout the generations. Colonial governments prefer homogeneity so they tell everyone “you’re not who you were before. You’re American.” Non-whites in the US have noticed this about us as well and in a shitty way they get punished for retaining their cultural heritages.
So in the internet age we joke about this lack of defined cultural tradition and make observational humor about filling that missing part of ourselves with odd things. Like being averse to spicy food (we’re not) or owning dogs with human names instead of having children (a thing poor couples of any race do).
This one was obviously a stretch, anyone can get fixated on the fire. I couldn’t tell you factually but I think camping is a more stereotypically white thing in the US so when you see a white guy take a particular interest in something unremarkable you can make a joke like “that’s his culture. Man is in touch with his history”
At least they haven’t taken garlic bread and sitting in chairs weird away from bisexuals!
People desperately want to associate aesthetic acts and preferences with demographics. I assume it has something to do with cultural desires to place people in neatly ordered boxes.
