The Dakota Hole Fire Pit Trial

For quite some time now I have been seeing YouTube videos about Dakota hole fire pits and, in my own way, just had to give it a try.  Out here in Manitoba we have some beautiful black soil so try not to drool on your tablet or keyboard too much as you see these few pictures of this trial ...
 At first I though it might be fun to try this with my knife, but then I realized I don't get enough well lit day to do it that way and grabbed an ice auger that I found when we moved in.  That sped things up quite a bit and now I find myself wondering if perhaps that may be a post hole drill ... So the goal with the fire pit side is to dig down deep enough that the fire will be hidden by the earth and you create channeled or focused heat.  Most folks seem to think that a foot or so is the correct depth but mine ended up being closer to 18 inches.  Not a big deal and with that blue tool, digging the air hole that deep wasn't going to be an issue!

 The first problem that I came upon was an old root about half the way down my fire pit.  If this had been fresh & green it wouldn't have presented much of an issue but since it was long dead there was the risk of an underground fire.  After filling that hole back in I simply moved a few feet over & drilled a new one.  Easy enough!

 Since there were now no roots to catch fire I was safe to dig out the airflow hole and connect the two pits with a quick tunnel.  I can honestly say there was a feeling of satisfaction when the two sides actually lined up properly on the first try.  I can also say that I would recommend taking the time to make a quick stick drill as it would have reduced my digging time quite a bit.  The general opinion here on the net seems to be that this tunnel should be at least wide enough for a fist to pass through it.  That's about how big I was going for ...

 I'll be the first to admit that my fire starting skills are in need of improvement and yet I did manage to get one going before too long.  As expected, there was a little smoke that drifted up from the air intake at first but once the fire pit side had warmed up an excellent draft was created and that stray smoke was no longer happening.  I would say that if I needed somewhere to cook more than a few times, this Dakota fire pit is an option.  For a single meal though, I don't think it would be worth the energy spent to dig it out.  Just my opinion though ...