Chimineas and Charcoal: Heat and Clay
I checked the smart plug data for the porch string lights the other night, mostly procrastinating on grading, and worked backward from it to figure out how many nights I’d…
Coal in a Chiminea: Hotter Than Wood
The reputation coal has around chimineas is that it’s basically wood’s hotter cousin, same fire, just turned up a notch, and you can just swap one for the other without…
Regular Bricks for a Fire Pit: The Budget Route
Every fire pit forum I’ve ever fallen down a rabbit hole on says the same thing with the confidence of someone who’s never actually tested it: regular bricks will crack,…
Lava Rock in a Fire Pit
Lava rock has a reputation problem, and it is entirely the fault of every 1970s gas grill photograph ever taken. Say the words “lava rock” to most people and they…
City Backyard, Fire Pit: Squeezing One In
My mom stood in my backyard with a tape measure hanging out of her coat pocket, looked at the eight feet between my back door and the fence, then looked…
Indoor Fire Pits: Love the Idea, Not the Reality
I have typed “can you have a fire pit indoors” into a search bar four separate times over the past two years, always in November, always on the first night…
Artificial Grass and Fire Pits: A Meltdown Waiting?
Okay so I currently own four fire pits. FOUR. One of those little tabletop propane ones that looks like a marshmallow toaster, one cheap steel bowl thing from a big…
Charcoal in a Fire Pit: Not What It Was Built For?
I’ll tell you the honest version of this story, not the version where I look competent, because that one’s a lie. Two summers ago I bought a fire pit off…
Fire Pit on a Concrete Slab
I bought my first fire pit off a clearance rack in early October, the kind of purchase that made complete sense at 9pm on a Tuesday and almost none the…
Not All Bricks Survive a Fire Pit
Corinne stood in my backyard last Tuesday, hands on hips, looking at the pile of brick I’d hauled home over about six weekends, and said, “Isla. Some of those look…