Here is my pack basket. It’s a Cabelas Alaskan pack-board and an 11 gallon washtub. I use it to walk around and pick up little sticks and cow patties for my fire. Then I store the sticks under a big fir tree outside my cabin.
I have a pickup, a good chainsaw and a bunch of dead trees on my property to cut down but that is so unpleasant to me. Picking up sticks is what I really like and the fires they make are so much hotter than what you get from logs.
When I wake up, in winter, my cabin is usually around freezing. If I make a fire with logs, 4 hours later, sometimes, it’s only 50 degrees F (10C). If I make a fire with little sticks, in 1/2 an hour it will be toasty; then I throw a log on the fire and keep it that way.
It’s a joy to walk around picking up sticks with my pack basket and I can pretend I’m in training for a big hike.
Related post: Stove thermometer
I concede all wilderness expertise to you, but this one thing: Splitting logs. You build just as hot a fire if you use a splitting maul to make those logs a reasonable size.
I split the logs up, but no matter how small I chop them I can’t get the fire as hot as with little sticks.
I have a thermometer on my stove pipe and if I’m not careful it will pop over to 1000 degrees with little sticks.
Some woods burn hotter than others, there is a lot more to making fire and maintaining fire than some people think.
You need to have gaps between the logs in a stove fire, this helps the air to get up from the ash box vent and it allows the flames to reach the stove top.
I usually have a couple of logs running parallel with gap between and gaps on sides. Then another one or two on top slant wise, a bit like a log cabin structure. This allows the air to circulate and the flames. This set up will drive my oven temp right to the limit.
Le loup.
I have a really tiny wood box on my stove 16″ long by 8″ wide.