Fire burns brightest in the darkness

Writing blog posts by the campfire is just about as perfect as it gets for my introverted self.   Super relaxing and puts me in a pretty instant happy place.

Sashabear, quiet, and a fire.   Heaven.

Said fire was a bit of a splurge.  Which makes it all the more fun ;).  We were always intending some landscaping this year - gardens are the primary objective and 2 trees.  And in our plan there was a fire pit.  We were planning a traditional “dig the whole, put rocks around it” type of situation.  Which we have space for but may or may not technically be legal in suburbia (we hadn’t really investigated ;)

But then a friend sent me a pic of her relaxing w her new fire pit, including a recommendation.  This is not a friend who generally (ever?) suggests products without being asked her opinion.  And since it was a perfect night for such a thing and I like fires, I clicked through.

And discovered they’re on sale right now.   Flipped it to C who mentioned he’d looked into them before but usually too expensive.  But… sale - one that brought it into the same price range as our DIY plan.  They are also far more legal.  Win ;)

It arrived quickly (like 1-2 days?) and after finding a handful of firewood away I went.   We have the stand to put it on the deck but I haven’t been that brave yet lol. 

I don’t *love* the look of it - far more C’s style than mine.  But we’re going to get a surround for it so then that’ll solve even that “problem” ;)

Because there have been a lot of questions, I figured I’d try to answer them here:

• advertised as smokeless.  This depends on how you interpret “smokeless” lol.  It literally smokes less than a normal campfire.  By a lot.  It is *not* smoke free.  At the start of the fire there is just as much smoke as always.  The difference is once it gets hot (10-15 min in) there is very little smoke.  And, what smoke there is in the start tends to be better funnelled so is easier to avoid.
• It is light and easy to move around; slightly awkward because of the shape but I had no problem moving it myself.
• It has excellent airflow so is both easy to light and easy to keep going.  Downside - that excellent airflow means it consumes logs *very* quickly
• The outside stays cool to the touch longer than you’d expect (although it does get very hot!) and cools completely within about an hour of the fire going out
• The fire is still “real” snap, crackle, pop, look and smell like a normal campfire
• You are limited in size of logs.  This has not been an issue for us at all with “average” size logs donated to our collection (thanks Janie!) but if you’re doing the splitting be aware of limits
• It throws a lot of heat - but said heat isn’t dispersed very far.
• Clean up is quite easy; would’ve been even smarter if the *whole* bottom came out but it’s still quick and easy to do.   It’s smartly designed so that when it comes time to put it away, all the pieces (eg the deck/grass stand) can be stored inside it and it has its own carrying case.
• You will need *some* tools - dropping a log in without tongs is seriously hazardous and given the small size a poker is pretty critical.   On more traditional campfires these things are also helpful but it’s easier to reasonably safely do without.   My poker atm is a stick I found.  Lol this has taught me that like the average child, I still drawing in the air w fire ;). Lack of tongs has burned me once already.  They will be here in a day or two.
• Plus side - portable.  If we decided to move again, the deck and gardens have to stay here but the fire pit comes w us. 

If you decide you’re interested, the one we got is a SoloStove Bonfire 2.0.  It seems to be the midsize of their options.  Enjoy!