Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A to Z Honesty - V is for Vital Stove

OK CLASS, listen up! This here is an INFORMATIVE post, which means you will come away having lurnt something. I so rarely do "INFORMATIVE" posts that I thought you deserved fair warning. Those who have no room for new stuff in their brains can leave, now. *watching entire blogaverse unceremoniously leave* (And yes, I spelled lurnt like that on porpoise.)

That weird looking thing in the photo is a Vital Stove. Dave saw it online and ordered it from my ex's Home Hardware store in Haliburton but you can find it online or ask about it at your local outdoors store, like Algonquin Outfitters. In case you couldn't tell by the ginormous green canoe on my banner, Dave and I are rabid outdoorsy type people. One of the highlights of our outdoorsy year is our spring fishing trip to Kiosk, Ontario - part of Algonquin Park. In fact, we're going on Friday (CAN'T WAIT! WOOT!) and thus won't be online for five days because there is no interweeb in the great outdoors. I am going to pre-post the end of A to Z because I feel obligated to finish what I started but unfortunately won't be around to go blog-hopping or add comments. Forgive me!

We won't be taking the Vital Stove this weekend, however, because we will have our outrageously luxurious trailer with amenities like a microwave and a furnace (I know, crazy right?) but we won't have any fancy stuff when we go on our canoe trip into Algonquin Park this summer. It'll be just us, our canoe and enough freeze dried grub to send the astronauts into orbit. When you're packing everything on your back, the last thing you want is extra weight. A traditional camp stove is a heavy thing all by itself, but then you have to cart around either camp fuel or bottles of propane. All of it has to be carried in and all of it has to be carried out. You can get to resent things like camp stoves on long portages, trust me.

That's why this Vital Stove thing is SO COOL. First of all, it's tiny and weighs practically nothing. Plus it folds up to about the size of a Kindle. To use it, you unfold it, put a battery in the blower-thing, and load up the teeny fuel reservoir with bits of kindling and tiny chunks of wood. You just need a handful and it can be scavenged from dead stuff lying on the ground. You light it and then turn on the blower. (In the picture, above, Dave is adjusting the blower.) The blower pushes oxygen into the teeny tiny fire and suddenly you have a goldurned blast furnace! The heat coming from this ridiculously small stove can boil a pot of water in a few minutes!

So that's the Vital Stove. You can imagine how happy I was that Dave bought a new contraption that started with a V. That's him, by the way, under Misty's close supervision. Misty doesn't really care about the Vital Stove. All she cares about is if it cooks bacon. Honestly, that's all I care about, too.

41 comments:

  1. It looks so idyllic there. Great idea for a burner, but doubtful they are available here in the UK yet - I will have to check.

    Once again, appreciate you stopping by the hearth :) If you liked that poem, you should check my entry for the letter 'N' - it's another poem I think you might enjoy.

    Kind regards

    Mark

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    1. You can definitely get them in Europe! Google Vital Stove and you'll find a European distributor.
      I will have to check our your N poem and thanks for the follow, Mark!

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  2. I could use one of those since I never did get that flint or wood rubbing method down. And I think our camp stove rusted...it was from the 1940's.
    Have fun!

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    1. 1940s... heheheheh
      We had one of those... I think it used to be green before the rust set in. Rust may never sleep but it certainly likes eating camp stoves.

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  3. That looks an efficient little contraption - might be useful in a powercut (and maybe even in a bid to defy the utility company's bills! ;-p)

    I wonder if they're available here in the UK.....!

    Enjoy your trip, anyway, Cathy! :-D

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    1. I think it is - I was just telling Mark, above, about a European website - google Vital Stove and you'll find the distributor. They're really cool, eh? Kind of expensive - about $80-$100 here in Canada.. not sure how that translates in your neck of the woods.
      Thanks, Sue! I will try my darndest to love it!

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  4. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog to comment on 'the meat dog'! lol

    Looks like quite a camp stove! I'd rather go RV camping like you are doing this weekend. As for actual camping, not so much. As I tell people, my idea of camping is having no mini fridge in the hotel room. ;D

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  5. A great thing to have on hand for the winter during a power failure. Methinks I may order one.

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    1. Online they're plugging it as a cure for world disasters... I dunno how much good it would be in a tidal wave...

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  6. That does look like a handy thing to have during a power failure. Otherwise, I'll stick to eating indoors...without the bug flavoring in my food.

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    1. Ok, that's IT - Laura Eno you are hereby ordered to get your kooshie butt up to Canada for some serious camping lessons! Come on! Get your bug dope and your Tilley underwear and get moving!

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  7. i need one of these for stormy power outages

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    1. I know! Handy or what? I'm wondering if you could cook Christmas dinner on these things!

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  8. I really wish you were one of the moms in my daughter's girl scout troop. Poor girls are stuck with a bunch of clueless about camping type mom leaders.

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    1. I dunno... a whole troop full of girl scouts kinda gives me the heebie jeebies, Johanna...

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  9. your family sounds so interesting and loving the stove thing---i think i would enjoy your kind of camping!

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    1. Welcome aboard, Lynn! Always room for one more person in the canoe!

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  10. We could have used that when we went to make our Sunday dinner last week. Midway, our BRAND NEW KENMORE GAS RANGE simply stopped working. The control panel went dark. Well, we managed, somehow, to get a dinner on by other means (microwave! fire up the grill!). Then, of course, I woke up early Monday with one of those lightbulb flashes: it may be a gas stove, but the control panel is electric . . . hit the reset button on the electric outlet and lo! Range is working. But none of this would ever have happened with the Vital Stove!

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    1. You have a BRAND NEW KENMORE GAS RANGE? So cool! Glad you figured out how it works (yep, still needs that old reset button - no matter how wonderful the technology, everything hinges on that fecking button...

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    2. Sort of an ultimatum, as the range we had died. And this was for real. You would have written a hilarious post out of our Sunday dinner: The mate was in PJs all day, and it was raining, and the dinner had to be grilled. I'm sure you get the picture!

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  11. Bacon and a V all in one post. You certainly are living right. Have a great getaway!

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  12. You mean real camping? As in, less than a three star hotel? The horrors...

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    1. Wot, you too Alex? You and Laura Eno are totally going to have get some roughing-it lessons.

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  13. Wow, that's quite the nifty little stove you've got there! And...wait- did you say BACON? I. AM. IN. LOL

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    1. No you're not!!!!! YOU are my inspiration for healthy eating! And you never eat bacon, right?
      Right????

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  14. VITAL STOVE! That's an awesome V word! All I had was Vagina.

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    1. BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *snorting diet coke all over the darned place*

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  15. Dang, woman! I just lurnt!

    Pearl

    p.s. I never heard of a Vital Stove before, and now I know about one. Cool!

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  16. If I ever wanted to go camping, this is what I'd buy! Great V post! I've neve been camping. Hubby camped his first 12 years of life and never wants to again!
    Have a great trip!!!!

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    1. Jenn Jilks! You have NEVER been camping????????? Put it on your bucket list! I swear, there's nothing like it.

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  17. Mountain Man and I are the outdoorsy types too!!! The baby stove looks AWESOME! Now I know what I want for Mother's Day...:)
    Safe Travels!

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    1. Let's go camping, Lisa! We'll bring the stove, you bring the marshmallows... I was gonna say bacon but then I remembered your V for Vegetarianism post .... OK, so Mountain Man can bring the bacon then!

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  18. Looks like a wonderful contraption. I like that you can pick up your fuel from around the campground instead of carrying it.

    My memories of camping-with-everything-on-your-back date back to my school & university days. Little propane stove - light but bulky, and all the heat got wafted away between unprotected flame and mess tin. Time to boil a pot of water measured in hours, not minutes!

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  19. Love it! I will have to order one for a few of my family members for the next holiday with an excuse to buy a present. :) They would love this stove!

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  20. Too tired, not lucid enough. Starting to look like a series of toilet photos... definitely time for bed. But darnit, I was learning how to cook in that!

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  21. That's a really cool stove. I can't believe it heats things up so fast. And you have a really awesome trailer.

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  22. Wow. That is an amazing stove. And an amazing time away. Jealous thoughts firmly suppressed.

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