Where there's smoke, there's fire. Or is there....?

So, we spent this past weekend at Justin's grandparents lakehouse in East Texas and just had a grand 'ole time. Pam & Steve (wonderful in-laws) just got a new boat and it was so fun finally getting to take it for a spin. We fished a little, Justin ski'd (skied?!!hmm..), watched most of our sports teams lose their games - boo!, did a little yard work, slept late, and ate some goooood home cookin'. It was 80% relaxing. That 20% of non-relaxation time was made up of Justin and I venturing out and attempting to accomplish a real 'survivors' task. What were we trying to do, you ask? Well, I'll let you take a guess from this short video clip. 

Yes, folks, we were trying to create fire with sticks. Which, I am now convinced is almost like trying to create fire out of thin air! Anyhow, recently we have been hooked on watching survival-type shows on The Discovery Channel. Some of the favs that are DVR-ed lately  "Man, Woman, Wild", and "Dual Survival." Ok...these guys (and gals) are some serious outdoorsmen and we have watched them time and time again, create shelter and fire for themselves in times of need. They always say these are the two most important things to do first. So, while at the lake this weekend, the most logical thing for us to do was try and build our own fire. We wanted to know that if ever put in the situation, we could do it. As you may have noticed above, there was no fire. However, what was not fully captured on film was our relentless fury to produce a flame. I'm not kidding...our sweat and blood went into this task. We would like to think we had all the right elements and experimented with different wood types, techniques, and angles along the way...all of which were exhausting. I kept telling Justin that "nightfall and the cold were quickly approaching," so as to maybe create a more urgent mental sense of desperation for this fire. Ehh...it didn't work. BUT, I will say that we had positive attitudes (they say this is also really important in stressful situations), some smoke and lots of heat goin' on! After pumping out several minutes of this exhausting bow-drill technique (yep, learned that from TV), the drill wood was SO hot that it would burn your finger and you could literally smell a fire...but sadly, no ember produced. Eventually, our positive attitudes burned out much like our non-existant fire and we wanted to watch the Rangers game. So we did. True survivors if you ask me ;)


Though I was an Indian Princess many moons ago with my dad (yea, I just heard you laugh and that's fine...it was an experience;)), I thought this would have been one of the skills they taught us. Guess I missed out on that lesson and we will just have to keep watching survival shows until we get it. Either that or make sure we have a lighter on us if we are ever stranded in the wilderness. :)