We use our fireplace a few times a year. It's always a little bit of pain to start the fire - lots of paper is needed. I've been saving the lint from the dryer for about a year, but it isn't that useful in starting the fire. It doesn't burn - it just smolders. I did a little reading and it seems that candle wax is needed. We don't have many spare candles - but we often have extra bacon grease! With an egg carton and some stash yarn, I had everything to make fire starters.
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| First, lint is stuffed tightly into an egg carton |
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| Then a slice is cut off |
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| Then cut further into individual cubes |
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| Bacon grease is heated up to make it nice and liquidy |
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| J provides some stash (extra) yarn |
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| I pour the grease into the right-most lint-blob... |
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| ....then soak the rest and wound them up with the yarn |
So, lint + egg carton + yarn + bacon grease = fire starters. Since I don't want to keep bacon grease at room temperature I stuck the starters in a plastic bag and stored them in the freezer. Even a few months later they work great, burning for over ten minutes.
2 comments:
Two questions.
1. Doesn't it make the house smell of bacon?
2. Is it safe, as far as your chimney is concerned. Wondered how it would be when the chimney cleaner comes to clean it out.
If these are not an issue, think about a patent on this combination. Because it does sound like a winner.
There's not really any smell - maybe because the flue is open and the doors are closed while it's burning. As to safety - not exactly sure. It's probably not any worse than cooking bacon for the exhaust above the stove, and we do it as frequently or less. Since we get the chimney cleaned every year or two, I can't imagine that it's doing any significant damage. I guess in theory that we'll find out next time the cleaner comes.
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