A float on Miracle - 20ft narrowboat

I use a small gas blow torch to get my kindling going nicely. I find it a lot easier and controllable than firelighters...

I'm not doing it in an enclosed space though... (safety first)

at scoot & harrong, its the damp. I can feel it in the wood and the paper. I've had the fire full pelt now for 2hrs and I'm in a T-shirt. I went and got the T from my closet and it was cold and like the sheets had been pre-woodburner slightly damp.
I've now opened the closet and bathroom doors in an attempt to fry, erhm** DRY** everything out.

Scoot, it's amazing how much easier it is to have fire with a good supply of oxygen! I do know Ever so pretty, (it looks like a biohazard symbol) and functional!

Normal paper is no good, even if perfectly dry it just flash burns with little heat then smoulders and generally fails.

You want the cheapest, thinnest most advert strewn free papers (not with colour ink though). Builds a decent starting fire (better use too much than too little and have to do it twice, which ultimately uses more material), with lots of air.
I find even with vents fully open, its not enough. So for first 5 min I will run with door open, lick turned and then pushed too.. Hopefully the paper lights, them lights the other paper, then burns terrifically hard, which gets the kindling going etc.

Though some days you can be a pure win hard god of fire and it just doesn't happen, this is the winds fault, you get funny back pressure down the pipe and nothing short of an atomic bomb will get it lit.

ehm, today I am FIRE GOD.

ehm, today I am FIRE GODDESS.

ftfy

dip a rag in the diesel tank. old trick to start old engines on a cold day

Dont try this^ most likely lead to a sooty explosion!,plenty of dry colour free newspaper,not rolled up to tightly,and dry kindling.leave the ash draw opentil its roaring.It may be worth sweeping your chimney,as you wont light your stove easily if it`s blocked ;)

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Is that a real skull?

And, if so, who was it?

Dont try this^ most likely lead to a sooty explosion!,plenty of dry colour free newspaper,not rolled up to tightly,and dry kindling.leave the ash draw opentil its roaring.It may be worth sweeping your chimney,as you wont light your stove easily if it`s blocked ;)

not at all. if the fire is lit and you put diesel on the fire, it can be dangerous, but if you put a rag in and drop a match it, the diesel will maintain the fire.diesel DOESNT explode, it is a controlled burn.

i usually get a small napkin sized rag and dip it in the tank so there is only a few table spoonfuls of diesel on the rag.

during the winter, working boatmen would put a diesel rag into the air intake of the engines to give the engines some 'pre-heat' in order to have some temperature in the cylinders for the engines to fire.

Will diesel even catch fire from a match? I thought it wouldn't, which is why diesel engines have glow plugs rather than spark plugs?

I don't know, I'm not saying you're wrong, just asking.

Wasn't the point that the boat has a petrol powered outboard so if the OP was misunderstood there could be a disaster?

No idea. I'd imagine that any sort of flammable liquid going on the fire in a tiny, wooden boat is a no-no. Sounds like Jaqcui's nailed the fire-starting thing anyway.

ehm, today I am FIRE GOD.

yes bombcup you are right. sorry i keep forgetting it has an outboard.

i would say if you haven't already, try and speak to some of the working boats in passing and get their number. they supply the boaters with much cheaper fuel, gas, wood and coal than boat yards and the money goes towards keep the traditional boaters on the water. plus they will keep you updated with their movements and come to you to resupply you with winter fuel.

Is that a real skull?
`tis a cast taken from a real one,not sure whose...could have been someone who tried out that diesel trick though.

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after three nights on a sofa I am happy to be going home to Miracle today. Apparently all the work is now done. Yippee. I wish i felt better. I am so very sick.

Nov. 28.
An experimental piece of coal.

Since my purchase of the wood burner everyone who has been at the dock has questioned me about the success of my fire. For the first few days I smiled and cheerfully replied "it'sfine". Inevitably, looked at me knowingly, paused and then offered that I should attempt to burn a piece of coal – for longevity.

]If you get the embers and fire truly hot a piece of coal should burn. It will keep you warm all night

I have to be honest.

My fires make Miracle a toasty little oven. I can strip down to a short sleeve T-shirt and shorts and be still hot.

At least early in the night.

Cosy warm usually lasts until around 1 or 2am then I experience a gradual decent in temperature until in the a.m. the outside temperature is equal to the inside. I have even noticed that my subconscious “cave man” wakes me when my last carefully placed log inevitably falls, or pops or what ever it does signalling the end of its existence as a heat source.

*Weird, but true. *
When i was a in primary, I desperately wanted to be popular.

Overcome by peer pressure, I stole a Twix chocolate bar from the Mac’s Milk convenience, erhm, very unsuccessfully. My father told them to put me in jail..

I was eight.

The repercussions of that doomed venture into crimality were so great that it alone stands in my memory as to why I never engaged in petty crimes as a teen.

I am no longer a teen, but the shadow of that day in 1981 still hangs heavily on my soul and is the reason for the disease I currently feel.

Tonight after half a bottle of sauvignon blanc and under the added influence of a logical and persuasive conversation with Lennart I have pinched, or “borrowed” a single lump of coal from the pile scattered across the pontoons next to the hermits boat.

I call him the hermit because for the time I have been here I have only seen the boats owner once, despite the fact that he lives here. The coal has been scattered out of two massive bags and lay derelict (if coal can in fact be derelict) on the pontoon unmoved since I have been here.

Yes, i am justifying myself.
I feel terrible.
I have just looked into the burner, the one piece of pilfered coal is turning white around its edges and has a healthy cherry orange-ish glow.

**This is a scientific experiment. **
It is now 20.34hrs and we shall see how things are in the a.m.

Jacqui, you seem to be using a text editor with its own native format. Can you edit in plain text?

sorry oliver, i don't know why it's started doing that.
I do write in another programme becaue i kept losing my posts when my dodgy dock connection died.

No need to apologise to me--it's you that has the additional work!

It inserts formatting tags into the text, which can happen if in your text editor you have its own native formatting switched on. This is handy if you're editing web pages, but you're already using an advanced editor to post on the forum. If you used a plain text editor, it'd be easier. Notepad++ is good, for instance (free software).

thanks, shall look into it! (it's hugely annoying to have to go back through everything.)

coal will provide a more intense heat but you will find it leaves more ash than wood, meaning you will have to clean the grate more often. potatoes potaatoes

It will last longer though. When I lived on my boat I had a little solid fuel stove (a faversham if anyone cares). If the fire was going when I went to bed and I closed it all down, all it took in the morning was a little more wood to get it going again.

Brickmans fire tip of the day: when it gets to the right time of the eve...

dont let the fire get too cool, throw a layar of coal down on the grate, then place 2 or3 chunks of the slower burning (stuff with knots, lots of heavy dampish bark etc) on top, open stove wide for 5mins to ensure it will burn, then over the next 5 mins (this is important) knock it right back down to as closed as you dare (often means vents closed and flue damper down to a tiny slit). Then marvel at how your fire keeps a decent heat all night (9hrs+) and might even relight for breakfast :)

The brick logic of this is that the coals like to burn hot, and the slower burning wood effectively insulates the coal, keeping them just under their temp they like to burn atand there go, you get a long low-medium heat burn.

Can't wait to come visit, Jacqui... :]

Nov 29.

Surprises.

Last week I noticed that Duckie has been scratching a lot since making friends with the orange cat.This in turn led to me picking him up casually off my duvet and being stunned to find no less
than half a dozen fleas remaining on the blanket.

I freaked. I squished them with haste and much swearing.

Cat in one hand and shampoo in the other carried my little grey flea bag into the dock toilets and held him in the sink until he'd been thouroughly bathed.

**He was not amused. **

Upon my arrival into town we made a trip to the vet and got flea oil. Now thoroughly dowsed, Duckie is flea repellant. This morning my plan was to spray the cushions of my bed. Can in hand, I began. On the second cushion i noticed a slightly dampness. I'd noticed this before going to London but had only cranked the stove.

Upon turning over the cushion I have discovered a weird yellow, white and black patch.

Its damp.

My inital rage concluded the cushion had been peed on in retaliation for bath. But then, in a moment of clarity I realised if that had been the case, it would have been damp on the top and I would have noticed that last night.

My only conclusion then is that it is mildew. I've taken pictures and am going to ask Alan if he knows what it isb to be sure.

I'm hoping its something I can fix.

The first surprise this a.m. came at 2am. I woke up and looked over to the other side of the boat to find that my doors were open. I closed them, noting that Duckie was not in the boat. At 4am, I woke again to find the door open and Duckie beside me. Paddy has yet to re-intall the locks he removed last week, today I think i will do this.

It seems Duckie had been very clever and found out how to open the door from both sides.

Surprise number 3 came when I looked in the mirror this morning. The right side of my face is
swollen and tender. Sinus infection on signifigance. It hurt to put my teeth together, to chew, to
smile.. great.