Cotton Ball Firestarters, A.k.a - "poofers"

This is a handy fire starter That will not only give you an advantage in your B.O.B.s, but also pre-SHTF for camping, your wood stove at home, and a backyard bonfire for roasting weenies!

You will need to gather:
Cotton balls
Vaseline
Small zip lock baggies
Paper towels or a wet washcloth

To start off, pull up a good sized dollop of Vaseline in your index and middle finger. Spread this around one of the cotton until it is mostly or all covered. The more surface area you can coat with the cotton ball, the better! Don't do what I did the first time I tried to make these! I dipped the cotton ball in the Vaseline jar to 'swish' it around and coat it. BIG MISTAKE! It immediately began falling apart and became a greasy mess inside the container!

Now, just continue this process until you have your desired quantity of fire starters. Simply put them in the Ziploc baggies to store them! I use sandwich-sized bags, so I can fit four or five in it and not crush them too much. I then use the paper towels or wet washcloth to clean up the mess!

At this point, I actually put my thirteen (yes, I'm weird like that!), double-bagged, Poofer bundles into their appropriate homes. I have three B.O.B.s, so each one gets three (rotating out the previous ones). I put two bundles in my homemade ammo can first aid kit (US Army Ammo Box N335 8 Fuze PD M557) in the closet. I wax coated the interior walls of this kit many years ago. Of course, I also rotate out the two baggie-ed that are in there. I put one in each of my two vehicle's glove boxes, FIFO again. The thirteen I now have go in a large cylinder popcorn tin near the BBQ & smoker!

I do this once per year. I'm sure they could last longer, but I find it not only fun to do, but I feel relieved at the reliability of knowing my poofers are never more than one year old!


****side note, I get all of the supplies to do this project at the dollar store, so it is a very inexpensive tip!