Okay, dear readers, I’ll cut to the chase — as of mid-afternoon today, if we wanted to have a fire in the cabin (or if we had to), our woodstove is ready for it. The flue is mounted permanently. The chimney is up, capped and secured.
That’s a huge weight off my shoulders.
I still have a few things left to do. Most important, I need to put up a heat shield on the wall and ceiling. Second, I want to dab some high-temperature cement where the flue meets the stove. And finally, I’ll install a fresh-air duct that draws from outside.
The fresh-air kit we’d ordered arrived the other day, but it had been mangled (pictured) by USPS. A replacement is on the way.
I could give you a blow-by-blow of today’s work — conquering my acrophobia and getting up high on a ladder, or fitting the flue damper perfectly — but I believe I’ll share a gallery and leave it at that.
Though I didn’t say a word about knives yesterday, at the very end of the post I dropped an image of the walk-out kit (and boonie hat) that rides with me in the Ranger. It includes basic provisions for water, fire and first aid, among other things.
There’s a fixed-blade knife strapped to the outside of the bag, conspicuous in the photo. I’ve never talked about it on the blog, and you might be wondering what it is.
You’re looking at an RC-4 from RAT Cutlery. (For legal reasons, the company now is known as ESEE Knives, and the knife is called the ESEE-4.) I’ve had this blade for years, and it’s become one of my favorites to carry in the woods.
There’s nothing fancy about it — four-inch drop-point blade, 1095 carbon steel, plain edge, Micarta slabs. That’s pretty much it.
Mine lives in the optional “jump sheath” with MOLLE back. I had a guy make a Kydex firesteel loop for the rig, which I filled with an LMF ferro rod.
The made-in-USA RC-4 (ESEE-4) is a genuine stud of a knife — a no-muss, no-fuss, finish-your-vegetables-or-I’ll-kick-your-ass tool. It does everything I want a knife to do.
The street price for an ESEE-4 setup like this, minus firesteel loop and ferro rod, is $145. Without the MOLLE back, an ESEE-4 costs less than $120.
For that money, no other knife I know of even comes close.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB