#Of course just lighting candles or turning on the stove and small campfires is what I mean by fires nothing more. Nothing less

[lonely-goblin-with-a-jar-of-dirt]

Literally yesterday at 2am... and I think I'm in love, but they wanted to go slow into a relationship, and I'm alright going slow, cus so is my brain °● W °●

Sooo... that TV spot huh?

(has this been done yet?)

[boomboomjaz]

𝕝𝕖𝕥 𝕚𝕥, 𝕤𝕟𝕠𝕨

suna x gn!reader

genre: winter fluff

word count: 1491

summary: a trip with your best friend to a cabin, but it doesn’t stop snowing

author note: a holiday gift for robin @bokuwu-kowo​ for the holiday exchange in alice’s server. if you would like to see what more of us wrote, you can check it put in this link masterlist

The winter holidays are the time that family gathers together or the start of a hallmark moment in someone’s story. Where people sing holiday songs and watch hallmark movies. Going out to ice skate or enjoying a winter breeze with warm coffee in hand. Nothing can go wrong with the most magical time of year, right?

With different winter holidays coming around and everyone’s family being hectic about the holidays. It was just becoming unbearable especially when everyone wanted to know what their present was going to be. So you and your best friend Suna agreed that the two of you needed an escape.

“It’s too cold. Let’s go somewhere warm,” Suna argued.

The two of you sat on his bed trying to find a nice location to escape to. So far Suna wanted someplace warm to visit. But the prices for those types of locations were a little…

“Rintaro Suna. I know you see that we can’t afford that with our collective broke student budget,” you explained. “Everyone is trying to warm up or have some special Hallmark movie moment in their life right now. We are better off with something cheap for the weekend.”

“My cousin has a cabin that we can probably borrow.”

You stared at Suna in disbelief. He couldn’t have told you this sooner so the both of you wouldn’t have wasted time picking a place to go. But at least the two of you moved onto the things you could do at the cabin. Maybe a small hike, a campfire, or perhaps building a snowman. Otherwise, the two of you would probably just relax and not think about your responsibilities. 

___

The trip to the cabin was long and tiring with everyone traveling for the holidays. The train was packed and then trying to find a bus or cab to take the two of you to your destination. You were surprised that Suna survived the trip because he was complaining about wanting to get some sleep. But the second the two of you arrived at the cabin, it was lightly snowing.

To see a door that would lead to a bed excited Suna as he ran in with his luggage. You followed behind him taking in the scene. It was decorated like a hallmark movie scene. You were half-convinced that you stole someone’s movie with Suna.

Suna looked up from his phone while he laid on the couch to look at your shocked face. He let out a chuckle.

“My cousin’s wife heard we were coming to stay here so she came to make it look ‘presentable’. I think she went overboard,” Suna explained. He continued to look at you in a half daze before he remembered something. “Y/n, there’s no service here so we have to connect to the wifi.”

After connecting to the wifi, the two of you settled in. Turning on the heaters, putting away luggage, making a quick grocery run to make dinner. While some of the food was cooking, you and Suna even went outside to sled on the small hill nearby.

The two of you would run up and down the hill to sled down while the other person tried throwing snowballs. It was fun to goof off without family judgment or the stress of trying to impress anyone nearby. The two of you could just be yourselves in a place away from wandering eyes. 

But soon it was time for the two of you to go inside and have a nice dinner. You set up the table while Suna got the food. And while the two of you ate, you watched Frozen 2 and chatted about the most random things. How the semester was going, how you want to scream and yell sometimes, how you always wanted to take a small vacation like this…

“You always wanted to come to a small cabin in the middle of nowhere with no signal with me?” Suna asked. “Are you trying to kill me?” 

“Yes!” You yelled while giggling. You grabbed your spoon and pointed it at him. “You figured out my secret plan now give me what I want.”

“A kiss?” Suna asked. You put the spoon down and looked at him.

“Suna, don’t play with my feelings like that.”

Suna looked at you with a dead serious face. Paying close attention to your body movements and how you felt uncomfortable. He was quick to change the subject about how the lizard from Frozen didn’t really play a big part in the movie. 

__

The morning light hit your face. Or at least it was supposed to hit your face. You woke up, feeling cold as if the heater wasn’t working. You wrapped your blankets tighter around yourself and went ahead to open the curtains to the window. Instead of seeing trees and a typical cabin view, you saw nothing. There was a pile of snow right outside your window. 

This freaked you out. First, it was Suna hitting a spot close to home. Because of course, he would joke about something that made your stomach flutter. That made you wish he was serious when he said the word kiss. It just made you uncomfortable that it could have been a joke. Now, you had to shovel the snow outside your window.

You quickly changed into warmer clothes and headed to the front door. Only to open the door to see more snow. Quickly, you closed the door and sprinted to Suna’s temporary room. You jumped on his bed and woke him up.

“Suna! I think we are snowed in and I’m freezing!” you yelled. 

Suna didn’t waste a second to grab you by the waist and pulled you closer. Letting his body heat warm you up and burying his face in the crook of your neck.

“Are you warm now?” Suna asked. 

“Yeah?” You replied confused.

“Great because I’m hungry,” Suna responded. You nervously laughed as you removed yourself from his arms.

You could once again feel yourself falling in love with him. 

In the kitchen, you sat at the table while Suna tried turning the lights on. Apparently, the electricity went out so he had to light some candles. And for breakfast, he had to manually light the stove and make eggs for the two of you.

While Suna was invested in his breakfast, you were trying to come up with ways to contact the outside world. There was no signal in the cabin since the electricity was out. No way to call for help. And the only source of heat was from the fireplace, blankets, and body heat. Oh man, the body heat from Suna’s body that morning felt good. To be back in his arms like that. 

“Why are you so tense? Loosen up,” Suna told you.

You gave him a glare.

“Why aren’t you freaking out? We are snowed in a cabin together!”

“I mean, it’s not so bad. You don’t need to act so nervous,” Suna replied.

Nervous? He could tell you were nervous? But were you nervous about not being able to get out or being even more trapped in a place with the guy you like?

“Nervous about what?” you accidentally said out loud.

“ I like you back, y’know,” Suna answered. 

You pulled your blanket even closer around your body, trying to heat up as you looked at Suna. Dumbfounded as how he knew.

“Don’t act surprised. I knew all along,” Suna told you when he noticed your face in shock.

“How?”

“Y/n, the second that you started hesitating when I hugged you or just started tensing up whenever I teased you was enough,” Suna explained.

You sat there soaking it all in. He was really your best friend for being able to pick up on all the hints you left him. That he understood your feelings and you were like an open book to him. If soulmates existed, he would be your one true love. You would probably fight just to be near him. But how do you tell him you want to be more than best friends?

Suna examined you once more, carefully deciding his words. He knows how you can get when you overthink a situation. He wanted to be as smooth as he could be so you could feel more comfortable.

“We can be whatever you want, but I know you’re freezing and we can cuddle up on the couch to warm up- besides I want to hold you again.”

And that is how you found yourself on the couch. Under a blanket in Suna’s arms as both of you watched a downloaded movie on his phone. Completely forgetting that the two of you were snowed in. Because, honestly, this was your hallmark movie with your boyfriend and you wouldn’t have it any other way. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

So let it, snow. Keep the film rolling, you were in a wonderland.

[chobit92]

Six Sentence (Not) Sunday

I was tagged by @finefeatheredfarcryplayer

This is a snippet from my fic titled 'Home'. I hope to start posting it soon once I am done with 'Small World'. I thank you for your patience and hope you are looking forward to reading it. I am looking forward to posting it. I warn you though it is bloody long.

I am tagging @mrsfseed24 @spicyinsanity and @jacobmybeloved

 (Mara looks around the small cabin. The table is laid with two plastic plates and two plastic beakers. The bottle of champagne and bottle of whiskey she got from the kitchen at St Francis is sitting on the table along with plastic knives and forks. Several candles sit in the center of the table. Other candles are burning around the room and there are fairy lights hanging over the doorframe and draped over a desk as well as hanging from the ceiling above the double mattress on the floor which she has put her pillow and blankets on. It’s not a bad place actually. It probably looked nice once. She’s tried her best to make it look nice once again. She even has a small campfire going outside. She takes out her mirror and checks her makeup and hair again. She then looks down at the long navy blue dress she is wearing with a netted flower design on it. A gift from her sister when she saw her a few days ago. Something to wear to church she had said. Mara wondered whether or not it was Joseph’s idea. Maybe it was. But she likes the dress. She hopes her abdomen isn’t too noticeable. The dress isn’t tight fitting but it isn’t as baggy as she would like either. It actually accentuates her curves nicely. She puts her coat on over it. She’s a little chilly now. She is also wearing her black flat ballet pumps and the earrings that Bonnie gave her. She reapplies her lipstick, a sexy shade of red, then sprays herself with a little lavender body spray. She sighs and turns for the door. As she does the door opens and Jacob walks in flanked by a Judge. She stares at him surprised.). Mara: Hey! Jacob: Making yourself at home? Mara: Well I wouldn’t call it a home but I don’t think I’ve got it looking too bad. It’s...Cosy. Jacob: Um. I can see that. Mara: How did you find me? Jacob: Tracked you. My Judge helped. Just followed your scent and the tyre tracks you left when you stole the pit bike. Mara: I haven’t stolen it. I fully intend to return it. Jacob: Return it? Like you’ll return the stuff you stole from the kitchen? Mara: Well I really didn’t think you’d mind once you- Jacob: What? You think I tolerate thievery? Mara: No. Jacob: You think I tolerate someone who steals from me and my men, my family, then runs off into the night. Hoping to disappear were you? Silly girl. (She looks devastated.). Mara: No. I...I took the stuff coz I didn’t have anything to... (She indicates the table and Jacobs eyes flick to it.). Mara: It was meant to be a surprise. (She pinches the bridge of her nose as tears sting her eyes. Jacob frowns. She sighs and turns away from him.). Mara: Silly girl indeed. (She picks up her rucksack and goes to put her bedding into it. Jacob then notices the flower petals covering the bed and the floor. He frowns.). Jacob: A surprise? (She drops the rucksack and the blanket and turns to face him.). Mara: Yep. You weren’t meant to come out here. Not yet. I was going to radio you with some excuse to get you out here then have the dinner ready for when you arrived. I just thought...I wanted to...Do something. Jacob: This is a surprise? Mara: Yep. Pretty crap one huh? (She looks so upset as she opens her bag and takes out a small wrapped package placing it on the table. She smiles at him as a tear rolls down her cheek.). Mara: Happy Birthday Jacob. Jacob: This is for my birthday? Mara: Yes. Jacob: It looks a lot like a date to me. Not a birthday dinner. Mara: Well you didn’t want a fuss and you didn’t want dinner with everyone. I then contacted John and asked if we could have dinner at his place but he said that- Jacob: They’re busy. I already spoke to them this morning. We will have dinner Sunday as usual. Mara: Yes that’s what he said. So...As it’s your birthday and your family are busy and you don’t want any fuss I thought that we would have dinner here. I also thought it would do us both good to spend the night somewhere. Away from everything else. I have always loved these mountains. (She bites her lip. He is just staring at her.). Mara: So am I cooking us some dinner or packing everything up? (He is silent for a moment.). Jacob: What are we having? (She smiles.). Mara: Is pasta okay? (He chuckles.). Jacob: Guess it’ll have to be. (She opens her bag and takes out a bag of pasta and a tin of hot dogs.). Jacob: Hot dogs? Mara: Yep. Sorry I know this isn’t great. Jacob: It’s fine. Hot dogs and pasta is good. Mara: Okay. Good. (She turns on the camping stove and puts the hot dogs in a saucepan. She then takes out a bottle of water and pours some in the saucepan before placing it over the stove. She then picks up the bottle of champagne.). Mara: Drink? Jacob: Champagne huh? You are spoiling me. (She smiles.). Mara: Of course. You deserve to be spoiled. It’s your birthday. I have something special for dessert too. Jacob: I bet you do kitten.

[shtfandgo]

New Post has been published on SHTFandGO Rocket Stoves and Water Purification Equipment

New Post has been published on https://www.shtfandgo.com/sick-of-survival-food-kits/

Sick Of Survival Food Kits?

Try These 8 Outdoor Cooking Methods When Camping

Contributed by Barry OK

When talking about survival cooking, we are not referring to you cooking up just whatever you have leftover in the pantry. Survival cooking is when we cook food without any of the appliances we are used to having around (no electricity, no gas, and usually no grill). If you prefer the option to do both, check out these rocket stoves that are easy to use for cooking. The need for a makeshift stove can occur at any time or in any place, especially now when there are so many strange things happening in a world we once thought as safe. The point is that cooking is an essential and if there is an emergency, the lights go out, or an attack happens you need to be able to survive. In these cases, whether in a rural setting or an urban area, knowing how to make a stove can help you eat hot food, sanitize water, and wash your essentials. Of course, if it is about cooking the way our ancestors cooked outdoors in the most primitive ways, then these stoves can also work for you and help you cook in this way is good for the soul. Best of all, whatever you cook on an open fire usually ends up tasting awesome. This is for when you are running low on your MRE supply and emergency food or ran out of power on your camping stove. This option allows you to be creative and be one with nature. Not to mention that it will contain less chemicals and be nutritious. Imagine cooking up a wild salmon you have just caught for your family, this is the type of cooking you can do everyday with today’s society. Learning survival cooking techniques is a fabulous idea as in all likelihood, some future events will shut down our electricity, put your home in danger, and may even compromise your kitchen. So whenever everyone else is eating out of an expired can you will be able to make freshly made meals, choosing the right camping stove will play an important role depending on what you want to eat. 8 Great Outdoor Cooking Methods One of the best parts of survival cooking is that it does not have to be perfect. In fact, chances are that with just a few ingredients such as salt, pepper, lemons, and vegetables; you can easily make a healthy meal. However, having all the proper equipment to create a cooking station in the wilderness could be tough. There are always options to just be a camping stove; but if you want to have some fun and create your own with what nature gives you. I would recommend cooking your meals the old fashion way with stones and fire, literally. So let’s start off with a few basic cooking techniques and beginners can learn for outdoor cooking with just a few basic items that are not hard to find.

The Homemade Grill The first thing you need to do is start a fire. This is about half the battle. Let the fire burn down to coals as it is easier to control than an open flame. Look for a section of chicken wire or a piece of chain-link fence or just about any heavy wire or metal frame that could make a grate. Place your home-made grate on rocks over the coals and let it get hot. Now place the meat on the grill and cook until it is done. You can make roasted tomatoes, vegetables, fish, burgers and just about anything you want this way.

The Spit This is the most ancient method of cooking and popular for pigs and wild animals, but it works for almost anything, including kebabs and chicken. Use a metal pole or strong wet branch and poke through the meat. Place one end of the skewer on a forked support (another branch) dug into the ground and then place the other on a support on the opposite end. This will suspend the food over the flame. At the end of the forked support, you can turn the skewer so the food is cooked throughout.

Earth Oven You can create an oven by burying food and allowing it to cook. Hold on! You are not going to get the food full of dirt. There is a technique here. Dig a pit and start a fire at the bottom. Allow the fire to turn into a bed of coals. It should take about 2 hours for a big fire to turn down to a smolder that you can use to bake food. Cover the fire area with large stones but allow the fire to breathe through. In other words, the stones should be closely spaced so the fire shows through. Afterward, throw a layer of grass over the rocks to add moisture and place the food over the grass or leaves. Add another layer of vegetation and then fill the hole with dirt. Bake for at least 6 hours to a full day depending on the size of the meat you are cooking.

Makeshift Stone Oven You can easily make an oven with stones. Just build a small oven, one that is just big enough for the meat. make it three sided with a roof. Leave a side open so you can slide the meat into it. Stack wood around the inside of the box and start the fire. The fire warms the stones enough so that you can cook. You can control the heat by adding wood or letting the fire die down a bit.

Barrel Stove If you can find a steel barrel you can cut it to make a stove. Cut a square out of the bottom. Punch a dozen holes about halfway up the barrel to create an air vent. cut a small square or hoe at the top (about the size of a can of tuna). This is a chimney. Start a fire on the ground and place the barrel over it.

Coffee Can Stove

Take a tin coffee can and remove the label and the plastic top. Punch three holes along the bottom of the can. Flip it so the opening is over a lit gel candle. Use the top surface for cooking. The heat will sanitize any bacteria on the surface if you let it sit before playing the food on top.

Cinder Block Rocket Stove Use a cinder block to make a rocket stove. Find four cinder blocks and make a grate. Stack three blocks in a horizontal way. Place the fourth vertically to one side. the holes make an L- shape giving you a rocket stove.

Brick Rocket Stove Find around 24 bricks/stone and some foil. Then move the bricks into a square and leave a hole in the middle for a chimney. Place the foil in the middle to separate the chambers so you can use the upper chamber for baking. Take Away: The ability to cook when you are in an emergency situation is very important. With a heat source, you can keep warm, sterilize instruments, cook food, and even let other people know where you are. Of course, you can cook over a campfire when you are in the forest but using one of the above ideas you can cook anywhere, even if you are in an urban area. These outdoor stove techniques can cook a full meal or just help you teach your kids about being prepared with guides like Survival Techie or check out these books and roast a few marshmallows in the process.

[ntrending]

How to build a fire in the wilderness

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/how-to-build-a-fire-in-the-wilderness/

How to build a fire in the wilderness

Yes, you did start that fire. And you kept it burning while the world kept turning. (LUM3N via Pixabay/)

Knowing how to start a fire in the wilderness can save your life.

Bud Ahrens knows this first-hand. A few years ago, while leading a dog sledding trip in northern Minnesota with Outward Bound, an outdoor education and wilderness company, he watched as a coworker fell through ice into a lake. She spent several minutes in the freezing water before the team could pull her out.

Ahrens, the program director for Outward Bound’s winter courses, knew just what to do, so he and his team got to work. They had a fire burning in 20 minutes, likely saving his companion from frostbite, or worse.

As you can see, understanding how to build a blaze in the wild, be it for warmth or cooking, can make a huge difference when you’re far from civilization.

Find your firestarter

A good fire begins with a quality firestarter. In some cases, that can mean something as simple as a store-bought starter or lighter fluid-doused twigs. But if you ever find yourself with no access to such tools, there are plenty of other options you can use to get some flames burning.

Aherns’ favorite is birch bark, and he often packs a bag or two of the stuff before heading into the wilderness. It contains a natural oil that’s water-resistant, so it will catch fire even if it’s wet. Native Americans often used the bark for baskets and canoes because of its moisture-shedding properties. If you’re harvesting bark in the backcountry, try to find some that has been blown off of trees. Each piece has many layers, so keep peeling until you find a dry one.

Spruce sap also makes a great natural firestarter. The flammable substance oozes out of injured trees and hardens into a resin, which can be snapped off and set ablaze. Still, Aherns warns that it may take several matches to get it going. Once lit, though, the sap will burn for several minutes, making it a great resource in wet conditions. While spruce is best, any hardened sap will do. Just find a blob that’s about the size of a wad of chewing gum, pull it off the tree, place it on the end of a stick, and light it up.

Other substances that make admirable stand-ins for natural firestarters include cotton balls coated in petroleum jelly, hand sanitizer sprinkled on small kindling, such as dry leaves and grass, or the fibrous inside of the bark of cedar trees. You can also make your own firestarters by melting candle wax, adding dryer lint, and coating a pine cone or two with the mixture. And for a fun way to start a fire and impress your friends, you can use Doritos, Cheetos, or any type of oily chip in a pinch. Simply light a corner of a few chips and place them beneath your kindling.

Give your fire room to breathe

“You need oxygen, fuel, and a sustained ignition source to have a fire,” Ahrens says. Those three factors form what he calls a “fire triangle”—neglect one side and the whole thing collapses.

Generally, fuel means wood, and an ignition source is a match or lighter. The level of oxygen will depend on how the wood is arranged—if you stack it well, it will facilitate air movement so the fire can breathe and grow.

Start with the kindling. Aherns suggests digging a trench a couple of inches deep as your fire pit, then laying three small pieces of wood over the trench in a triangle that’s just big enough to support your tinder. Pile your tinder, place your firestarter of choice in the middle of it, and build your structure around it all.

Ahrens prefers the teepee method—where vertical pieces of wood are tented over a central point above your kindling—but the log cabin method—when wood is stacked in a square in alternating directions, as if assembling a Jenga tower—works, too.

Behold: the log cabin method of building a fire. (skeeze via Pixabay/)

Start with smaller branches and sticks that will catch easily, then add larger pieces as the fire grows. Be careful not to overcrowd the wood, or oxygen won’t be able to flow freely and your fire will go out. Stick with branches or logs no bigger than your wrist. Ahrens says larger logs don’t mean more heat energy, just a longer burn. And don’t worry if you can’t build a massive blaze—small fires are just as effective for cooking and heating as larger ones.

Light it up

Ideally, when in the backcountry or at a campsite, you’ll have access to a lighter or matches. If you’re relying on the latter, make sure to keep them in a watertight container in case of inclement weather or unexpected submersion. Ahrens also always carries a lighter on a lanyard around his neck, just in case. But those aren’t the only ways to spark a flame.

A flint and steel fire striker is a handy tool for the job. If you’re in a pinch, a knife, or even a hard rock with a sharp edge can stand in for the steel. To create a spark, strike the flint and steel together in a fast, slicing motion. With dry kindling, a spark is often all you’ll need to light a fire.

Set a fire in the rain

Building a fire when everything’s perfectly dry is one thing, but in cold and wet conditions it becomes exponentially more difficult. It can, however, still be done.

“There’s dry stuff somewhere,” Aherns says. You just have to find it.

Start by looking for dry wood and kindling at the bases of trees where branches and foliage may have protected it from rain. In an emergency, you can harvest small branches from the lowest parts of nearby trees. It’s not good Leave No Trace ethics, but sometimes you have to do what’s necessary to survive. Look for dead trees or branches and wood that’s fallen to the ground that might be soggy on the outside, but dry on the inside. When you do, carve off the wet outer layers until you hit dry wood.

Just because wood is wet on the outside doesn’t mean it’s wet on the inside. (LUM3N from Pixabay/)

If it’s raining when you’re trying to start a fire, protect it from above by building a tripod-like structure or two and stretching or draping a tarp or tent fly over it. Make sure to mount it high enough that the fabric won’t catch fire or melt. To maintain a secure fuel supply, put damp logs nearby or over a fire grate to help them dry out.

Extra tips and tricks

When getting a fire going, patience and preparation are key, Aherns says. To make it less of an ordeal, he suggests gathering all the materials you’ll need (matches, kindling, wood, etc.) before you begin so you don’t waste energy searching for more materials once you spark a flame. You can save time by gathering downed wood and starter materials on the way to the campsite if you know you’ll soon be calling it a day. Use your environment for ideas—Ahrens has used everything from pine needles to cattails as firestarter because that’s what was available nearby. Trial and error is a great way to discover what works and what doesn’t.

Don’t expect there to be an abundance of perfect materials where you camp, so the best trick is to always be prepared with fire-starting kits. Emergency provisions, such as food that doesn’t need to be cooked, are also a good idea in case you can’t find any wood or don’t have the energy to build a campfire. Waterproof and windproof matches are also quite useful in less-than-ideal conditions.

And if all else fails, Aherns says a gas stove you may have only intended to cook with will start a warming blaze. It’s somewhat difficult and not ideal (especially given the whole gas-canister-next-to-an-open-flame thing), but if you learn how to build a fire in the wilderness in any condition, it’s a last resort you’ll rarely have to rely on.

Written By Alisha McDarris