We have a very eclectic garden shop that we like to visit. I bought a chiminea there as a birthday present for my husband the first year we were in the house. I remember sitting on the patio in January (in folding chairs because we had not bought any patio furniture yet) inhaling the wonderful aroma of burning pinion, shivering, sipping hot buttered rum to stay warm. It is a great memory.
We buy our pinion wood there and I love to visit because it is like a New Mexico mini-vacation. As we were making our last purchase of wood for the chiminea, the proprietress gave us two sample fire starters to try out. We have used kindling, lavender, pine cones, commercial fire starters, but these little gems that she gave us seemed to be the ticket.
We decided to make our own and I think we have improved them.
What you will need:
- Paper dixie cups
- Saw dust (We used cedar shavings from all the planing that was done with the red cedar for the green house.)
- Cedar shavings
- Leftover candle wax (We use the bits and ends of pillar candles that have lost their usefulness.)
- gallon can
- crockpot
Place the gallon can in the crockpot and pour water into the crockpot to surround the can. Place wax in can and allow it to melt.
While wax is melting, loosely pack cedar shavings into dixie cups. When wax is melted, pour about 3/4 of a dixie cup full of wax into each filled cup.
The assemby line
Allow to harden.
Bury one completed cup up to the rim in the sand in the bottom of your chiminea. Stack wood on top and light fire starter.
The finished product.
Sit back and enjoy!
