Bustomatic?

One of the most important parts of Second Nature's program is busting. This is basically the term we use for creating a fire. There are four parts to a busting set, that all play equally important roles in achieving the product of a fire. There is the fire board, used as the base for which an ember is created on. There is the spindle, used as the basis from which friction helps create the ember. There is the top rock, used to create down pressure on the spindle. And, there is the bow, used as the driving force behind the whole operation. This probably sounds confusing and the best way I could describe it, would be to show you. But, since I can't do that I took a shot at explaining it with words. Once you have an ember, you then place it into a next of bark and blow that into flames. The nest then has the ability to create a larger fire.

Busting has been one of the toughest challenges for me at Second Nature. In order to move up in the company and get promoted to a Level 1 staff and be able to actually do paperwork and be a "real" employee, you have to successfully create fire using a bow drill set and you have to do it in front of someone on the spot. For my three weeks as an intern, I was super nervous about this and worked hard to become a master at it, also called a "bustomatic". By my third week, I finally busted into flames.

When I got out of the field that third week, I took my test. I got my whole set prepped and busted an ember on the first try. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to blow it into flames so I had to keep trying. After about an hour of hard work and being ready to give up for the night I finally busted another ember and blew it into flames.

After a humbling experience with busting, I can finally take a breath and not stress over it anymore. However, it is still an important part of my job so I continue to work on it and try to improve my set. I only had one picture of busting and it's hard to see me, but I'm in the background getting ready to bust. I posted the other picture of me at work, just for fun.