i agree that the size of the group dictates the size of the fire, if i go hanging on my own,the fire is small,waste paper basket size at max,the wood i collect in 5/10 minutes is more than sufficent to get me through a good few hours ,i utilise a homemade heat reflector made from baking foil and i use a heat shield/wooden back stop to reflect heat back to me, i have seen over the last few months imy forage for wood to burn has gone from say the immediate 25mtr perimetr of my spot(yep we all have them closely gaurded spots) but i am having to scavenge a little further a field of late due to repeated fires,all dead fall mind and i do feel that we are helping maintain a kind of cleaning up in burning this deadfall, natrually there is loads more that goes unoticed rotting away and returning back to mother nature but i see the point in more groups at this site would clearly deplete stocks quickly,however i feel i am the only one thats been here in a few years so i have a good supply to utilise,
that aside when i go hanging with the girlfriend the fire size jumps in size(must be natrual progression),my missus tends to be the one who does the gathering,setting up and lighting and mainting the fire nowadays and the sense of achievement she gets from doing all that is spectacular especially when you consider that she is your average pen pusher at a 9 to 5 job,yet in a few short months she has been bitten by the outdoor bug,if only i can stop her prodding the fire coals with her prodding stick...thats my job aaahhh.
i carry a swedish arm,y volcano stove in my car pack and often pull up alongside a laybay somewhere quiet and collect some dry stuff for burning,pine cones are great,just enough for a brew, its strange at first to be brewing up in this manner and people do look at you like your wierd but on more than a few occasions people have come up to me and staarted chatting about the stove,the fuel thats burnt,how good an idea it was ,something that can be used at the services on the motorway even, the flames are more or less kept to the confines of the stove and can easily be doused, but it brings back the social aspect of flame/fire socialising,even at this small aspect.
me i am in favour of fire ,not every time but most of the time i'm on my own it lends a certain calmness to the camp area,focuses you on non work related things and just has a real calming effect,i tend to do my cooking from the billies boiling water from the coals,simple foods like corned beef hash and baked beans,minimum fuss stuff so the coals are great for that rolling boil.
natrually no one has mentioned the booze angle either, if i go with the missus we alweays take a couple of beers and a bottle of wine, and by firelight we can get slightly drunk and relax and talk cr4ap for hours which we wouldnt normally do at home.
natrually natures fire extinguisher comes into play often if you have a bladderr the size of a golf ball hahaha thats me btw.
one last thing i will say is that your site has to be right for a fire, i wouldnt have one if i knew anyone could see me or the camp i have period,too many idiots getting leathered so attracting of attention has to be considered, this itself once again comes down to size of fire and wood types and wind direction, seems daft going to all the trouble of finding a concealed hide/camp area for you to enjoy only to have it lit up like a christmas tree or act like a signall flare as the woods smoky as hell.
thumbs up for the wood fire from me and her indoors though