Build a Campfire: Cozy Fire

You keep a fire alive by putting the right wood in the right place at the right time. Nothing tells you where a log belongs. Lay them flat across the coals and the fire chokes down to smoke; get them up off the bed with air underneath and it takes hold. A stick burns on its own; a log does not — it needs the fire around it. That is the whole game, and it is the same knowledge that keeps a real fire going. THE WOOD Tinder, kindling, and rounds in three sizes. Drag a piece off the stack, carry it over the pit, turn it with a second finger, and let go. It falls and settles against whatever is already there, and the fire reads where it came to rest. A large round will not catch on kindling — but stood on the block and quartered with the axe, it will. THE FIRE Heat lives in two places: in the flame, which is immediate and dies with the wood, and in the coal bed, which banks up slowly and is…