Back in Las Vegas we owned a gas fireplace which was as easy to turn on as flipping a switch, literally. Out here in Texas we own a wood burning fireplace, one in which we take great pleasure in using. My father or brothers are the ones that normally get the fire going and keep it going. I, however, needed to prove to myself that as a city girl I could indeed build a fire. Step one- learn to rebuild a fire from hot coals and ashes. Piece of cake, no problem, uh, how do you get the wood to catch? Well, this lesson was learned the hard way as my mother and I (both of whom had never lit a fire before) tried to get the kindling to light. After much huffing and puffing, exhaling and inhaling smoke we managed to get the kindling to smoke. Yeah! Oops we stopped blowing, back to square one. A half hour or so later we managed to not only barely keep from passing out and giving ourselves carbon monoxide poisoning, we were able, hallelujah, to get the kindling to light and the wood to catch, barely. It, however, went out quickly. Neither one of us owned to this failure until after we learned how to successfully rebuild a fire. I now know not only how to properly rebuild a fire, but now I can also build a fire, and keep it going. With the help of a fire cookie and a lighter of course. But, hey, a city girl can only learn how to be a country girl so fast.