…I think mine fails.
Got bullied out of bed by the animals. Pulled myself together, grumped on down the ladder. Outside was as cold as it’s been so far at 33o. Inside it was mid-fifties. Time to start the first fire of the season. So I promptly did.
Half an hour later I looked around to find Zoe crouched contentedly on top of the stove, warming her toesies. I’m not sure what that says about my winter heating system, but I doubt it’s anything good.
They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
Little Bear 2009-2018
Laddie the Amazing Torso Boy 2011-2020
"Freedom Outlaw. It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it. It’s an attitude — from which actions always follow. It’s a do-it-yourself occupation. And a lifetime vocation."
- Claire Wolfe, Backwoods Home Companion, 6-07-10
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
- G. K. Chesterton
"If every Jewish and anti-Nazi family in Germany had owned a Mauser rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition and the will to use it, Adolf Hitler would be a little-known footnote to the history of the Weimar Republic."
- Aaron Zelman
"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force."
- Barbie
"Never underestimate the ability of shit to find a fan."
- F. Paul Wilson
"You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." The sophistry of villains - Bah!
- Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star
“Truth is, I’m not specifically interested in an armed society. What I want is a free society.”
- George Potter
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
- D. H. Lawrence
Aristippus passed Diogenes as he was washing lentils.
He said, “If you could but learn to flatter the king, you would not have to live on lentils.”
Diogenes said, “And if you could learn to live on lentils, you would not have to flatter the king.”
Sandy Hook was a Gun Free Zone. So was the Westroads Mall. And the Aurora Theater. And Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Should I go on? They were all Gun Free Zones.
– Reality
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
- Robert A. Heinlein
"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand
If ever a man should ask you
For your business or your name
Tell him to go and fuck himself
Tell his friends to do the same.
For a man who'd trade his liberty
For a safe and dreamless sleep
Doesn't deserve the both of them
And neither shall he keep.
- Frank Turner
Don't be afraid to try something big, just because you're an amateur. The Ark was built by amateurs. The Titanic was built by professionals.
- Anon
"Nothing scares a police officer more than the threat of being treated the way that they treat people every day."
- Anon
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
- Gen. James Mattis
"Lust for power is the most flagrant of all the passions."
- Tacitus
"The man who knows what freedom means will find a way to be free."
- F.A. "Baldy" Harper
"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude."
- William James
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
- Viktor Frankl
The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country.
- Milton Friedman
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
- William Faulkner
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
- Ernest Hemingway
"Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
John Moses Browning - The most badass Mormon who ever lived.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"
- Ronald Reagan
The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
- James A. Baldwin
"It is better to be a warrior in a garden than to be a gardener in a war."
- Anon
“I tried to live in such a way that, when dying, I would rather feel happy than scared.”
– Witold Pilecki
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
- Sallust
"Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark."
- Lazarus Long
Read, every day, something no one else is reading.
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
– Christopher Morley
“I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.”
-Frederick Douglass
ESSE QUAM VIDERI –
To be, rather than to seem
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
“A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.”
– Ida B. Wells
Do what thy manhood bid thee do; from none but self expect applause.
He noblest lives and noblest dies, who makes and keeps his self made laws
– Sir Richard Burton
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
– Winston Churchill
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Dance as though no one is watching you. Love as though you have never been hurt before. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.”
― Father Alfred d’Souza
You did remember the step where you apply flame to the wood after loading the stove?
Right?
Any progress finding out who actually owns (or even cares about) that other wood stove you found more or less abandoned? Might be time…
Actually, as handy as you seem to be, I am surprised you haven’t tried to build some variation of a rocket stove, yet…..
Think of Zoe as thermal mass.
Ian is determined to build a rocket stove in the Dome, and I think that would be a good application. I examined the concept carefully over a period of a couple of weeks and I’m still not convinced I want something running that hot that close to the floor of my very flammable cabin.
As to that other stove, I’m letting it lie. But I’ve been talking to some neighbors and going through their catalogs, and it does seem some wood stoves have come surprisingly down in price. Like $400 could set me up with a good stove and 6″ double-wall pipe. Somebody gave me a couple of hundred dollars not long ago and it almost went into a New Stove fund but I decided to shock Landlady silly and actually do the chicken coop/garden thing instead. I have all winter to repent of that at leisure. But it does appear another paying gig may become a regular thing, and if it does and I put the money aside, I could probably replace what I’ve got … sometime around spring. 🙁
I bought the Lil Sweetie from Northern Tool a few years ago. Total with shipping was less then $300.00. It heats my 20×20 family room easily usually only need to use one load of wood in the evening. Wood does need to be cut fairly short though.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200394664_200394664
Northern Tool has a good selection of wood stoves at a good price. I’ve been using the “Little Sweetie” for about 3 years now. Small stove but it heats my 20×20 family very nicely and is frugal on wood. It even has a top surface that can be cooked on. Delivered it cost me less than three hundred dollars.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200394664_200394664
Joel, don’t know if this might help – but I’ll toss it out. Back when I got my soapstone woodstove I was boggled by the prices – but I really wanted one. After checking around more I found out that manufacturers do have ‘blems’ or factory seconds – based on cosmetic defects and not operational flaws. I got my soapstone stove for about 2/3 of regular price and I’ve never been able to figure out what the cosmetic flaw actually is. It might not hurt to contact various manufacturers and find out what they do with their seconds.
Matt, I saw that little stove in a Northern Tool catalog I’ve got right here, and Landlady has one just like it, if not the same one. You say that’ll really heat a 20X20? Because that’s twice my square footage, though with my very high ceiling I do have a lot of cubic.
Joel, It will heat it. I don’t used double wall stove pipe though. In your case you might want the next size up. It has two burner covers on the top. My ceiling is only 9ft and the room is pretty well insulated. I don’t know if it will hold a load of wood all night since I generally let it burn down before bed time.