You keep a fire alive by putting the right wood in the right place at the right time.
Nothing tells you where a log belongs. Lay them flat across the coals and the fire chokes down to smoke; get them up off the bed with air underneath and it takes hold. A stick burns on its own; a log does not — it needs the fire around it. That is the whole game, and it is the same knowledge that keeps a real fire going.
THE WOOD
Tinder, kindling, and rounds in three sizes. Drag a piece off the stack, carry it over the pit, turn it with a second finger, and let go. It falls and settles against whatever is already there, and the fire reads where it came to rest. A large round will not catch on kindling — but stood on the block and quartered with the axe, it will.
THE FIRE
Heat lives in two places: in the flame, which is immediate and dies with the wood, and in the coal bed, which banks up slowly and is what makes a fire worth coming back to. Wet wood hisses and steams before it burns. Wood pulled out to the edge of the ring loses its flame. Coals left overnight are found cold in the morning — but not so cold that fresh kindling will not take.
THREE EVENINGS
ZEN — the endless fire. Wood keeps coming, it is saved, and it burns while you are away.
ONE BUNDLE — one stack of wood, once. Keep it alive as long as you can.
QUICK FIRE — cold pit to a roaring fire, against the clock.
THE NIGHT
Moonlight enough to lay the fire by, withdrawing as the fire takes hold until it is once again the only reason you can see anything. A headlamp for the cold pit — white, red, or off. A bench to sit on and watch. The sound of the fire mixed live from what it is doing: a bed of coals ticks, a blaze rushes, wet wood hisses.
No account. No network. No adverts, no in-app purchases, nothing collected. The fire is yours.
