Brrrr! It is COLD here in Michigan! And I hear rumors that it is going to be the coldest winter in 10 years. Yikes! I know I have mentioned that around here we heat primarily with wood stove. There are some definite positives to heating wood, especially when you heat (as we do) with fallen trees. But like anything, that can be debated.
Whether you heat primarily with wood, or you just like a nice toasty fire in your hearth, there are greener ways to light your fire. You can make your very own fire starters using materials found in nature.
- On a dry fall day gather small sticks, pine cones, pine needles, and dry leaves in a bucket.
- Wrap them in little bundles with paper-you can use newspaper, or I used packaging paper. Make sure each bundle has a little bit of everything and tie with raffia or small string.
These little packages serve as kindling and paper all in one and make a wonderful smelling, family and earth friendly alternative for starting cozy fires.
Has anyone tried this? Something similar?
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3 comments:
It's not yet cold enough here in the south of France to start up our wood stove but we will probably start having an open fire in the evenings from this weekend.
I make the same starters as you do except that when I can I substitute the pine cones with old wine corks. They work in the same way i.e. they catch alight easily and burn slowly and my chimney sweep tells me the create less gunk in the chimney.
syrahsuzie-
That's brilliant! Thanks for the suggestion! I had never heard of that before. And thanks for visiting! Hope you'll come back!
These are great tips! We are all so concerned with keeping our yards "neat" we often overlook the obvious usefullness of what others might consider trash. Good tip about the wine corks, too.
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