who is firebox stove guy?

I love Firebox stove guy.

Firebox Stove guy is a guy who makes Youtube videos where he cooks things like pancakes, whole chickens, roast beef, and pretty much anything else you can imagine in the outdoors, using just broken up sticks and his signature product: the Firebox Stove™. I first subscribed to Firebox stove guy just about four years ago.

Besides my concerningly long-winded comments that he has liked, responded to, and most likely forgotten about, and the profile photo I have of myself on the Google account I use to write those comments, Firebox stove guy knows nothing of me. And I know very little about him.

After four years of religious viewership, I don’t even know his name. I don’t even know where he’s from.

That second one I’ve gathered what I can from where he shoots his videos: the red color of the rocks and sky as the sun sets again and again, the geology of his realities, the size of the fish he’s catching and the shimmer of the air around him.

From my own experience and knowledge, I try and place him somewhere on the western side of the central rockies, or maybe somewhere in the American southwest.

But none of that helps me create a name for him, and so he remains Firebox stove guy.

Despite all that, I don’t care. The fact is still Obvious to me.

Firebox stove guy is my friend.

what does firebox stove guy do?

Firebox stove guy makes videos. They’re not complicated and often contain the same small handful of things.

Firebox stove guy is making coffee in the morning light, flanked by his down-jacket wearing dogs or kids. Firebox stove guy is cooking an absurdly large chunk of meat in the desert, Somewhere.

Firebox stove guy’s kids are telling him about something and he is listening because he loves them and loves to listen to them yap.

Firebox stove guy is standing at the edge of a perfect blue alpine lake, bear spray at his hip and a fishing rod in his hands, casting for trout, that he will later cook with his Firebox Stove™, nestled underneath a bed of instant hashbrowns and finished with a small pat of butter.

Firebox stove guy is with his family. Firebox stove guy is with his dogs and goats.

Firebox stove guy is happy.

The videos are shot simply. Landscape shots are done with with a wide-angle lens, placed some distance away from him on a tripod and kept there. When he’s cooking, it may be a tripod mounted shot or just quick handheld footage of him pulling a pot lid away to reveal a steaming dinner or fish bones ready to be cleanly pulled from tender pink flesh.

There are few abrupt cuts, no dramatic editing.

Audio is similarly structured.

Viewers primarily hear the sound of boots on gravel and dirt, bear bells attached to the necks of goats and dogs clanging as they walk along. The ripping and tearing of skin from a freshly caught trout. The rustling of a jacket being put on by a person or being put onto a dog by a person. The sizzle of fresh fish hitting hot fat and the gentle clok clok of a fork against a plate as someone scrapes down their last bits of food. The snapping of small sticks and twigs as they burn in his Firebox Stove™.

Occasionally Firebox stove guy narrates.

There is never any music. No intro or outro jingles because the beauty of Firebox stove guy is one that has no beginning and ending; it’s just Firebox stove guy helping us see the ceaselessly turning joy of the universe that has always been and will always be,

That joy has always been there,

Firebox stove guy is merely showing us the handle.

uhhhh…. okay?

And that’s exactly it. It’s that joy that he Reveals.

That joy that I get from knowing that Firebox stove guy is somewhere, happy, speaking calmly, surrounded by nature and his loving family.

That I know that he’s giving his kids the experiences and exposure to these things which makes me look forward to giving my own kids the same experiences and exposure.

That his videos began as a simple way to promote his stove and evolved to become immersive and lengthy creative works expressing his love for nature and good food and his family.

In this time of uncertainty and isolation his videos remind me of the joy of the Earth and of Reality.

Of the beauty of sharing that joy with those close to you.