Stickin 'Mud' on a Shitty Wood Stove

I knew before i moved into the yurt that the woodstove was kinda moody.... it burned hot and fast - not the way you want it to burn for a long cold winter. Then when i was casually perusing the wood stove section of a Lehmans (non electric homesteading) Mag i saw this exact stove pictured....

Omgawd... the first words next to the glossy pic were "don't buy one of these cast iron stoves if you desire high quality." I laughed. and laughed. and then started to think of ways to work around it's poor quality...

While experimenting with pushing ash in the grill holes and also against the giant gap in the door, i felt like an uber genius when i thought of using a clay/ cob / -like substance to fill in the cracks and holes.

I could totally get toxic stuff to fill this in.... i could use glues and pastes and fire proof fiberglass ropes, but i hate chemicals. I hate ruining my home space with chemical stuff - because what i am looking for is to make things more comfortable, easier, healthy and pleasant.

!! Screw buying some creepy VOC goop..... cause for free i got some clay from a dug up pile of dirt on Dogget Mountain, and mixed it with rice flour. Anyone who eats gluten free knows rice flour turns to something awful and cement-ish when baked...
I mixed the clay, the rice flour and water in a bowl and started filling in the spots where air was leaking too much (causing the hot fast fires)......

and so far so good. There was some slight cracking in the clay, but i kept filling in the cracks as it shrunk and dried, making sure less air could get in the stove while the door is shut.

Now i have to do the smaller cracks.... like the cooktop and all around! and this doesn't solve the issue that the manufacturer didn't even bother to make the flue/damper fit correctly either! (lame and shame!) The only solution for that is to put a second one on there.

I am kinda glad about the cracks though, cause its fun to play with the clay... and i like experiments. :)))

XOoxOX

BURn Buuurrrnnn

That is my toilet paper burning. Yeah, sometimes i burned it before instead of compost it (it's a good way to start a bon fire)..... but this time i burn it with vengeance, witchery, science, and anger. I burn it to kill. I burn it it to rid the world of just a few more of the parasites which poison water throughout the world.
While I still wait for the test results to come back from the doctor about what exactly has invaded my body via my pond.... but i know what it is, the tests are just some scientific confirmation and a ticket to do more aggressive killing tactics. In the meantime... i burn things. I burn my toilet paper. I burn the junk i shovel out my composting toilet.
I burn with a motivation, an anger specific to an invasion of your body. Battle ground.
Sometimes I have moments of relief, while other times the pain from the parasites is so great that i sit slumped over and cry... i cry so sincerely that my bunnies and chickens and duck come to see what is wrong. The donkey will hee haw.
If a girl cries in the woods, do the trees hear her sounds?
I feel haunted by these parasites, by my own past which i forgot i had left behind until these last 5 weeks...
I refuse to live this way again. And so while i wait, i burn it away.
Piece by piece.
Note To Universe ::: pleasssseeee make this end, ASAP. please.



XOoxoXO