Dos Perros
WKR
This past spring I picked up a titanium box stove for my tipi. I didn’t get a chance to use it in September (even though it would have been justified) but I have used it a bunch lately hunting deer here in Kansas.
I hunt the western third of the state so the drives are long and once you get out there there aren’t too many motel options. I can be fairly frugal, would rather buy gas and tags, so I’ve just been camping no matter the weather. Last season I slept in the bed of my truck, no topper, and luckily didn’t experience any weather (except for a nasty Thanksgiving blizzard that sent me home anyway).
This year I’ve been camping at a public camping spot so I can use my hot tent. It has completely changed how I do things. I love coming back to it, firing up the stove, eating a hot dinner (like carnitas tacos cooked on the stove top), and falling asleep with a movie playing on my iPad.
As some of you might know wood can be hard to come by in western Kansas, so I bring my own. I’ve found that wood cut to fit in a Pampers diapers box is perfectly long enough for my stove, and one box’s worth is enough wood for a long weekend.
In order to keep myself in good wood I’ve since bought a chainsaw, a handy little Stihl that does the job fine. I was mostly burning branches and stuff that fell in the yard, but I’m through that now. And then I saw a giant branch that fell off a tree on the way to my son’s school, about 8” round, so I picked it up and bought a splitting maul. I love splitting wood, really fun. Way more fun than picking up leaves or hedge apples. I cut and split the wood in my backyard, then have my son load up his power wheels truck and haul it around front for me. He loves his job too.
I have my eye on a couple other downed trees off the highway that will be mine when the time comes. It’s like picking up roadkill, kinda.
Anyway, just wanted to post this to say, I thought I’d just buy a stove to keep warm sometimes, but it has evolved into other purchases and changed my behavior in ways I hadn’t predicted. It’s a lifestyle. We hot tenters need a T-shirt or something.
I hunt the western third of the state so the drives are long and once you get out there there aren’t too many motel options. I can be fairly frugal, would rather buy gas and tags, so I’ve just been camping no matter the weather. Last season I slept in the bed of my truck, no topper, and luckily didn’t experience any weather (except for a nasty Thanksgiving blizzard that sent me home anyway).
This year I’ve been camping at a public camping spot so I can use my hot tent. It has completely changed how I do things. I love coming back to it, firing up the stove, eating a hot dinner (like carnitas tacos cooked on the stove top), and falling asleep with a movie playing on my iPad.
As some of you might know wood can be hard to come by in western Kansas, so I bring my own. I’ve found that wood cut to fit in a Pampers diapers box is perfectly long enough for my stove, and one box’s worth is enough wood for a long weekend.
In order to keep myself in good wood I’ve since bought a chainsaw, a handy little Stihl that does the job fine. I was mostly burning branches and stuff that fell in the yard, but I’m through that now. And then I saw a giant branch that fell off a tree on the way to my son’s school, about 8” round, so I picked it up and bought a splitting maul. I love splitting wood, really fun. Way more fun than picking up leaves or hedge apples. I cut and split the wood in my backyard, then have my son load up his power wheels truck and haul it around front for me. He loves his job too.
I have my eye on a couple other downed trees off the highway that will be mine when the time comes. It’s like picking up roadkill, kinda.
Anyway, just wanted to post this to say, I thought I’d just buy a stove to keep warm sometimes, but it has evolved into other purchases and changed my behavior in ways I hadn’t predicted. It’s a lifestyle. We hot tenters need a T-shirt or something.
