The challenge of making a fire in the rain is obviously finding tinder that is not too wet. We collect pine needles which can dry reasonably quickly. We also collected thousands of spaghetti-sized sticks. These too dry out and combust relatively easily. And we also battoned or split pine branches until we had many large splinters. This reveals the dry inner parts. Those are what got the fires going!
In Perkei Avos it says that a person should acquire a friend. I have been fortunate to make some serious friends that really stand by me. During the first session we realized I had a flat. No problem, my good buddy, YS was with us, he can take them down. Not so fast! He was stuck in the mud! BH, with my straps we were able to free him and he brought all the kids to their parents who were at the bottom of the hills. Near the paved road. The next challenge was how to get the next group up to the top of the mountain where my truck was stuck with the flat tire. I called another good buddy, JP , and he jumped into action, drove up to the meeting spot and ferried the kids up in two trips!!!! While all this was going on another good buddy, AF from Neve Michael came with his two sons. They patched my tire and filled it while I ran the chug! Without all their help, the night would have been a wreck. With them, it was seamless and exciting! Everyone should be blessed to have buddies like me!
