Sort of. Sorry about pic quality.
Of course I made a mistake. Should have left it outdoors while I heated it up to cure the paint. Now I’ll have to stink the place up a few times.
ETA: The paint stink isn’t as bad as I feared, and I’m glad I didn’t put it off. Looking at the weather report, winter is scheduled to arrive with fierce, angry vengeance precisely on Sunday. It’ll be nice if I can have any bugs worked out before that.
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.Â
– 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.
– Â 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
Joel, instead of apologizing for the photo quality, you should call that an art shot. And write something about how you were striving to express the misty solitude of the soul of the …
Um, never mind. (It does remind me of many years ago when Bo Derek was so hot that Playboy allowed her husband, film director John Derek (emphatically NOT a professional photographer), to shoot the photos for the you’ll pardon the expression “spread” they did on her. The qualify of the photos was such that a reader sent a letter praising the new photo art of “Instamatique.”)
Anyhow, YAY for getting the stove. And already getting it set up, or so it seems. Let us know if it keeps you toasty — and safe.
Vogelzang?
Please DO keep us updated.. I have one of those (Vogelzang) still in the crate for my littl slice of mountain solitude, and I’m curious to get some first hand reports on how it fares.
Yup, Vogelzang, most ubiquitous cheap stove on the market. Made in China, marketed in Holland, Michigan, not approved by UL or HUD or anybody, craved in every hermit’s hut in America.
Assembly is extremely easy, which will come as no surprise to anybody who’s seen one. There are a big seven bolts involved. Fortunately my ceiling box is already compatible with the six-inch stovepipe. This time I had some idea of what to buy, stovepipe-wise, so getting the whole thing actually attached to the house and ready to go didn’t take long. My neighbor D helped with the bits that needed two sets of hands.
I’m so used to seeing that big, clunky eight-inch pipe soaring up to my 10-foot ceiling that the even longer six-inch looks a little silly to me. But being brand-new, it’s certainly in better condition.
And now for some reason I’m thinking about Bo Derek, whom I saw in Tarzan the Ape Man. (I plead in my defense that I was kidnapped by an acquaintance. If he’d been a friend he wouldn’t have led me so astray.) Hot? Absolutely smoking hot. But a worse actress, there was none.
Good luck with the stove. I recall using that sort of wood stove on my honeymoon in the Adirondacks in November of 1983, both for warmth and for cooking. Hope you enjoy it.
Excellent. Nothing like a truly useful tool to embiggen spirits.
The house we’re in now came with a stove that runs either wood or coal, and since we can pick up just about as much coal as we want right on the beach (this place is pretty amazing), we’ve been learning how to run it on that. Thus far it seems a very agreeable arrangement, with fabulous heat value and less smell and fuss than with wood, and the resultant ash is a great anti-ice and traction treatment for the winter walkways. The stove design is pretty impressive to this noob, too–even with full-on raging heat that would boil water on the radiant top, the front vent tabs and plates remain cool to the touch. Was not expecting that…
We’ll see where we wind up after this winter, of course, but I’ve gotta say that I’m liking the SHTF sustainability profile of a unit that runs either of two things that we have in some abundance here.
Ah ha, a vogelzang in action. I was looking at these at of all places Lowes in San Clemente a few months ago while dreaming about lighting out of here for more bumpy and tree’d regions….someday. I was concerned that the ones I looked at didn’t have anything like a seal between the door and the body(I’m not sure what the heat resistant “rope” is called) but I recall stoves in Colorado having them to help regulate draft.
I join Beercan in interest in how this works for you.
Oh yeah, As for Bo being the worst? I submit Pia Zadora.
My Grandmother had one that looked a lot like that one for thirty years.
That damn thing would get so hot the sides would glow red and even the stovepipe would too.
It got hot like that so many times the sides actually started to sag.
On hers, you could actually take the whole top piece off and throw logs in it though.
That could get pretty exciting with it being in the kitchen and flames leaping in the air until you could get the lid back on.
I can already see it, you with the stove roaring and the front door wide open because it is too hot in the lair.
That thing outta be perfect for you.
I’m so glad for you, Joel! I know you’ll be much more comfortable. But you don’t mention where Zoe is going to take her naps now… LOL I suspect she won’t be going too near that thing.
Zoe has plenty of places to nap. She’s been known to climb into the oven. Which, since she’s black and so is the oven interior, is something I’ve been discouraging…
Got that same stove from Lowe’s last year, burned it most of the winter. It will get red hot pretty easily, and the damper that comes with it has way too many holes in it to effectively regulate the airflow. I ended up getting a more restrictive one and mounting it in the pipe about 2 feet up. Lots better. The door doesn’t seal very well, so you can’t hold coals much more than 6 hours or so. Keep a good bed of ashes in the bottom (where else?) or the bottom will get red hot and burn out. I would advise putting some bricks on the floor under it to protect the floor and give you a little thermal mass. Puts out lots of heat, is nice to cook on, and even nicer to sit by. Enjoy. 🙂