DESERT CAMPFIRES

As our time winds down, we notice that we still had a lot of wood to burn and in a short time.  Our only obstacle to nightly fire is-wind.

If the winds kick up more than 10mph, then it’s a safe bet that you won’t be burning.  In some areas 10mph don’t seem like a strong wind, but out here in the desert, you have no way of  blocking.  So therefore, 10mph will seem like 20+mph. 

In the desert, you don’t have the rain and humidity like you do in other areas of the country, so everything is dry and with very little moisture to stop a spark it wouldn’t take much to  create an out of control fire.

Out here in the desert there is plenty of Iron Wood, Palo Verdes, creosol bushes, along with varies cactus that have died.  Although the wood is dead, we cannot pick up anything in the desert to burn.  Which means we have to find other sources of bringing in wood for campfires.

There are areas of business that will sell you firewood for a good price.  But for ma ny of us out here, we have learned to go to nearby farming communities and going to the business and picking  up old skids.  Most of the farming is commercial.  The place of business has smarten up to us out here and started to charge for the pallet.  Mainly we could pay anywhere from $1.00-$3.00 per skid; which isn’t a bad price.  However, we have found a few that appreciates us coming and removing their old pallets off their hands.  That way, they don’t have to pay someone to come and remove them.

One in particular is in Blythe, CA.  You just have to have a means to haul them out.  We have met a gentleman that had the truck and trailer and was very willing to take us to go over to Blythe and pick up enough skids to keep us burning for the remainder of our time here.

Now that we have the skids, burning them in whole really isn’t a smart thing to do.  However, we have met some that do, and let me tell you; those skids burned in whole can cause one heck of a fire!  We choose to cut ours up.  Some was done by hand, while the rest was done by a circular saw.

As our pile was getting down and we thought that one or two more fires we would be done, low and behold one of our nearby neighbors left.  Upon investigating their area, we notice they left a very nice pile of seasoned wood from their home state of Colorado.  So naturally, we just couldn’t let it sit there to rot the summer away. 

We thought to ourselves-wow, a real campfire, we for sure will enjoy now!  We only had one obstacle stopping us: that nasty ole’ wind….

Time to take action….We notice that other folks were having campfires, even with the winds we have been having.  So upon seeing what they were doing different, we notice that they built their fire rings high.  So it was time to rebuild ours and make higher sides.  It worked!  So the past several nights we have been enjoying our campfires extremely.  We mix a little of the season wood with our pallet woods and have a wonderful campfire.