Freezing my butt off and burning hair

Greetings my fellow Zombie Survivors! 

I know I said last week I was going to tackle siphoning gas, but guess what? It got really freaking cold outside and all I wanted to do what stay inside and curl up with a warm blanket in front of a blazing fire. I'm serious, I'm talking -6 degrees some days, and single digits the rest of the time. "So," I said to myself, "if i'm holed up inside and it's freezing cold and I need to make a fire how would I start one?"

The answer lies within the everyday household appliance: the dryer

If you're holed up inside a home chances are you really don't have much opportunity to go out and collect kindling to start a fire. The is all based off the assumption you have a lighter (we'll have "ways to start a fire" in a future blog in the event you don't). The answer lies in dryer lint. Dryer lint makes a great, lightweight and easy to find firestarter. Scavenging a home? Don't forget to clean out the lint trap and grab any toilet paper rolls or cardboard! It packs really well for easy carrying and is much lighter than firestarters you would find at the hardware store or from gathering in the woods.

First I raided my dryer. My husband and I have two cats, so between the two of us there was more than enough fuzz and hair caught in the lint trap. In my house, I'm the one responsible for the laundry. I have a really bad habit of forgetting to clean out the lint trap (much to my husband's chagrin), so there was plenty to spare.

I ended up with something like this:

 Then it was time to go outside. After bundling up with enough layers to put an eskimo to shame, I took this baby outside and lit it. I didn't actually end up making a fire. I'll have "how to make a fire" sometime in the future, don't worry about that, but for this week I really just wanted to test the integrity of my makeshift firestarter.

It was super cold and windy outside, so lighting it proved to be a challenge. I brought with me my handy dandy cigarette lighter (gotta have one!) and after about 17 tries I finally got the sucker lit.

It caught remarkably well and smoldered pretty decently despite the wind. I was super impressed with how long it lasted and didn't burn up as quickly as I would have guessed. The smoke itself was pretty stinky though. If you love the fragrance of burning cat hair and fuzz barbeque smell, this method will definitely jive with you.

Eventually it got to windy I had to chase the darn thing across the driveway to stamp it out, but all in all I would give this one an 10 for feasibility and how easy it was to find and make!

Stay tuned for more zombie survival adventures next week!

~Z.A.S.G.

scientia potentia est