Campfire smoke

[GrandpaKip]

While at Hunting Island campground, my wife and I were eating dinner outside. All,of a sudden a continual cloud of eye watering smoke comes pouring around the front of the camper and under our awning. There was a strong breeze at our location. I went around the front and saw our neighbor had started a "fire" in the ring. I could see no flames and I went up and said "Excuse me sir. We are next door and the smoke is really thick. Could you try to make more fire than smoke?" I tried to keep my voice as neutral as possible, but perhaps was not successful. He looked up at me as if I had two heads. His wife totally ignored me. The guy then looked back at the ring and poked at the logs, making more smoke. I realized I wasn't going to get any more response than that and left. With a fan, we were able to keep it clear enough to finish dinner. This lasted for about a half hour longer before clearing up enough to stand it.
Never had this happen before. I would have been embarrassed, if I had done this. Curious as to whether anybody else had this happen to them?

[IndyCamp]

flguppie wrote:
My mom always seemed to end up on the side of the campfire with all the smoke. She would always say; "smoke follows beauty". I tried using that line once and everyone laughed. Go figure.

Yeah, that's what my grandmother always said. She died years ago, but I still use it often.

[SwanInWA]

Just got back from a four day campout at Manchester State Park. With a statewide burn ban and 90° weather, this is what we sat around instead of a campfire:

[Tachdriver]

BossCamper wrote:
Our "campfire story"

We were camping one 4th of July and a young couple set up behind us. All they had was a dome tent and their car. The wife (I assume) was sitting in the tent looking out the scree door holding a miserable baby while her husband was trying to light a sire. I could tell they were newbies because he had a pile of 3" or 4" round logs .. no kindling, and he was dousing them with charcoal lighter fluid, lighting that, and standing back until the fluid burned out .. no fire, of course!

I decided I'd be a good Samaritan and went over with some kindling and my axe. Came to find out that they had never been camping before, and had just borrowed the tent from a friend. I gave him an extremely appreciated crash course in fire starting, split some of the logs, and helped him get a nice fore going.
Went back to tour trailer, talked it over with the boss, and since the mosquitoes were horrible, and the young wife had a fussy baby to deal with, and no place to sit, we loaned them our unused screened dining shelter that they could put over the picnic table (we have a screen enclosure that attaches to our awning roller, so we never use the screen house)

They were only staying the one night, and we left the site early to do some Geocaching, before they were up. I admit, I had some qualms about them possibly just packing up and leaving with the screen house, but when we got back in the PM, there it was on our table with a nice thank you note. I would bet they would have packed up after a couple of hours and left the night before if we hadn't helped out.

As for fire starter, I am always on the lookout for downed, dead birch trees where I can grab some birch bark, and I have a zip-lock bag full of it in my equipment. That's the best natural fire starter there is! Of course, we always camp in wooded areas so it's easy to gather some. If you have some kindling, even if it's wet, and a few square inches of birch bark, you can start a fire even in the rain. I used to do a lot of backpacking and we would gather some birch bark as we hiked to start our fire with each night.

...this.... is it.

[BossCamper]

Our "campfire story"

We were camping one 4th of July and a young couple set up behind us. All they had was a dome tent and their car. The wife (I assume) was sitting in the tent looking out the scree door holding a miserable baby while her husband was trying to light a sire. I could tell they were newbies because he had a pile of 3" or 4" round logs .. no kindling, and he was dousing them with charcoal lighter fluid, lighting that, and standing back until the fluid burned out .. no fire, of course!

I decided I'd be a good Samaritan and went over with some kindling and my axe. Came to find out that they had never been camping before, and had just borrowed the tent from a friend. I gave him an extremely appreciated crash course in fire starting, split some of the logs, and helped him get a nice fore going.
Went back to tour trailer, talked it over with the boss, and since the mosquitoes were horrible, and the young wife had a fussy baby to deal with, and no place to sit, we loaned them our unused screened dining shelter that they could put over the picnic table (we have a screen enclosure that attaches to our awning roller, so we never use the screen house)

They were only staying the one night, and we left the site early to do some Geocaching, before they were up. I admit, I had some qualms about them possibly just packing up and leaving with the screen house, but when we got back in the PM, there it was on our table with a nice thank you note. I would bet they would have packed up after a couple of hours and left the night before if we hadn't helped out.

As for fire starter, I am always on the lookout for downed, dead birch trees where I can grab some birch bark, and I have a zip-lock bag full of it in my equipment. That's the best natural fire starter there is! Of course, we always camp in wooded areas so it's easy to gather some. If you have some kindling, even if it's wet, and a few square inches of birch bark, you can start a fire even in the rain. I used to do a lot of backpacking and we would gather some birch bark as we hiked to start our fire with each night.

[OkSixpack]

SprinklerMan wrote:
I was having a hard time getting the fire started , the kids were playing with those long tube water squirters . I grabbed one and used it to blow air on the fire ,it worked great

A little lighter fluid instead of water, then stand back! And yes, I'm just joking.
Jim

[SprinklerMan]

I was having a hard time getting the fire started , the kids were playing with those long tube water squirters . I grabbed one and used it to blow air on the fire ,it worked great

[FLGup]

My mom always seemed to end up on the side of the campfire with all the smoke. She would always say; "smoke follows beauty". I tried using that line once and everyone laughed. Go figure.

[rbpru]

Recently we were camped at a state park and one of the TT was set up under the awning like a tent camp site. Cooking was done on the fire grate and dishes washed out doors. Those folks really loved to camp out.

[pira114]

When I have a fire, there's just no way anyone else gets smoke from it. It seems like the smoke follows me no matter where I sit!

[K-9_HANDLER]

Yeah there is often campfire smoke coming our way. Just kinda comes with the territory when camping in a campground where all your neighbors are just a few feet away.

[blksmith]

We don't usually have that problem. The State usually puts a burn ban out about the 1st of July until the end of Sept No campfires
TJ Smith

[Bird_Freak]

DutchmenSport wrote:

downtheroad wrote:

GrandpaKip wrote:
Curious as to whether anybody else had this happen to them?

Sure, lots of times. We don't like it, but it's camping and camping means campfires.

Unfortunately, yes! It's just part of the camping experience. The neighbor campers are not INTENTIONALLY making smoke. They ARE wanting fire! Their wood is wet (or green) or both, and they don't have enough dry kindling to get a good fire started. Smoke, smoke, smoke.... yes... happens a lot. Nothing you can really do. If it ever happens to you (and it may someday) ... you'll be the one with neighbors glaring down your "smoke"!

Actually, the neighbors handled themselves pretty good. They avoided confronting you and escalating a troubled moment even more. By your action, just going over, demonstrated you were pi$$ed.

No (man) likes to have his primitive Neanderthal nature challenged! Something as basic as building a campfire is one of those basic natures!

X2

[Halmfamily]

dewey02 wrote:

Halmfamily wrote:
I've used our air compressor twice to get wet wood burning. Its amazing how hot you can get wet wood burning with lots of compressed air.

This is true to a point. Most wet wood we have had to use is only wet on the outside layers. Once you burn through that you can have a good fire. I'll also lay the wet wood close to the fire to start drying it out. I've never been a "big" roaring fire person just want a good hot fire to cook over.

Until you remove the forced oxygen and the wet wood goes back it its slow burn smolder. Wet wood will burn. It just won't burn well or rigorously.

[jake2250]

I agree,, a fire is soothing!! Its a chemical reaction, and if my washer drum doesn't look like a jet engine in full after burner,,,then I am disappointed!!
Camp Fires,,,,,,,,Camping,,,,, Duh!!