Conservation of Fire I - Mud Pots
Long before the human being could produce fire, they could only "steal" it, and then conserve it. This period of learning how to conserve fire before knowing how to make it lasted hundreds of thousands of years, maybe even a million... We started our conservation of fire workshop this weekend with a trip to the Don River near Old Mill Station. There by the river's edge we dug up mud and proceeded to make little pots that we'll use later to conserve fire. The idea was to make a little mud "oven" with a hole towards the bottom for blowing in air, and a hole up top for the chimney. Mixing in dried grass helped to keep the mud strong and flexible, and who knows what else got mixed in there along with it (geese and duck crap for sure). Making Mudpots Now we'll let these dry for a good while and then the next step will be to fire them in an open fire to get that good, old "bake