Lean-to and Rakovalkea fire

I can't believe it's been more than 5 years since I've updated this blog.  I have been on many adventures over the past few years - both near and afar - but somehow completely neglected to document any of them.  This post is a first step at changing that.

Lately, I have been bitten by the winter camping bug.  It's February 1st and I've camped out a couple nights so far this year - once on a calm night in tents with the kids, brother and nephew, and once solo in a bivy sack during a light snowfall.

I decided my next night out should get me back to using some basic bushcraft skills that have a way of getting rusty when using modern conveniences such as tents and bivy sacks.  I decided I'd make a lean-to for my shelter, and for warmth, a "Rakovalkea fire".  A what? ... It's a fire-building technique originally from Scandinavia that I discovered in the current issue of Field and Stream, which is dedicated to subjects about fire.  Some YouTube videos filled out my education on the subject.  With time at a premium lately, I had to break this project up into several days.  On Monday night, I went out and built the lean-to on the top of a hill.  The snow was crusty and there was no need for snowshoes so walking around in the woods was easy, but it was challenging to find enough green boughs for the roof.  Most of the trees where I was had no lower branches at all.  I finished it in about 1.5 hours.  It's compact but it should be big enough for me and minimal equipment.

Looking for an excuse to use my new bow saw, I went back to the campsite on Wednesday night to set up the fire, knowing this would take some time.  Twenty feet from the lean-to was an 8-inch thick dead spruce or fir tree (I didn't check which).  It was still standing but the top had broken off and there were some red needles on a few of the remaining branches.  Apparently you need 1 inch of thickness for each hour you need the fire to burn.  I felled the tree with a combination of hatchet and bow saw, then cut the lower portion into two 6-foot lengths.  Then I shaved off the bark and some of the wood beneath lengthwise from the two logs, creating flattened areas, which I then roughed up with the hatchet so it would grip the tinder (wood chips from the felling operation and birch bark) I gathered.  I then built the supports and spacers for the logs, jammed the tinder in between, and took a few pictures (below).  I will return in a couple days to spend the night.  I plan to put up a fire reflector behind the fire using an emergency blanket to push the heat into the lean-to.

Lean-to with the unlit Rakovalkea fire set up out front.

A close-up of the fire, ready to be lit.  The vertical supports prevent the logs from rolling down the hill.  The horizontal spacers let the fire breathe.  Birch bark and wood chips are stuffed between the logs.