Basic Firecraft

If you must eat, if you need warmth, if you just wonder what nameless thing crouches in the night, ready to pounce and make you pay for your indiscretions or sins,; if you fashion tools, if you would signal and communicate with others, or just enjoy social networking you can use fire. And when you have the skills necessary to provide fire when you need it, in any kind of weather, you are  in the way to becoming a true SURVIVOR. Just remember The Mother's rules and that though it can be called Canada's true national game and belongs lock, stock, and barrel, to Canada, it is not the most popular of-- Let's forget the BS--it is NOT a game or at least not one that anyone really WANTS to play.

The ability of making fire is important; it can even save your life. If you can't already light a fire, learn to do it-correctly and efficiently:

 A fire can provide warmth on cold days and nights.

 You can cook your food.

Purify (or at least disinfect-they are not the same thing) water.

You can signal for help (signal fire)

It can help you make and temper tools

It acts as a moral boost in an emergency situation. I'm sure you know the feeling one gets just gazing into a fire at night.

Our early Canadian pioneers-those of European or mixed European native decent- as did the earlier purely indigenous (first migrant) predecessors used fire as a basic survival tool. Whatever our distant racial heritage, fire helped all our ancestors develop this country, at the forge, clearing the land, cooking their meals, heating their homes and shelters, and in many other ways. The very first migrants, those we often called Indians of course, used it for warmth and cooking, making tools and weapons and as a signalling method as well as just a tool of survival.

Although obviously not made in their own image, to most primitive peoples of the world, fire was a god; and this is quite understandable as it raised them- in one way- somewhat above the so called dumb animals and made what we now call "civilization possible. The Greeks regarded fire as a gift from the gods they had created and come to worship. From away back in time, fire has been held in awe by man--even men who did not directly use it for warming themselves, cooking their food, lighting their way, melting their metals, or any of the basic needs. You only have to stare into the curling flames, to be lost in many dreams of comfort, fellowship, and safety in the dark.© Al (Alex-Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights reserved.