A day out in the woods

This past Saturday, I went out for a few hours' hike. I went to a local town forest, where there is ample room for rambling. I had a new stove I wanted to try out too-an Emberlit wood stove. This was the primary reason for going out (other than for my mental health!!!), so, I will do a dandy little review on it.
The Emberlit stove is a collapsible, wood burning stove, that comes in either SS or, from what I understand, titanium. The website lists the weights at 11.3 oz for the SS, and 5.45 oz for the titanium. They are either $35, or $55, respectively. I went with the SS one myself.
The stove comes completely unassembled. There are 5 parts-4 walls, and the bottom. The walls all attach with little slots, and the bottom has tabs on 3 ends, that also slide into slots. One wall has an opening at the bottom, to allow for fuel to be put it.
Assembling is dead simple. Attach the back, and 2 sides together, insert the floor, then the front side. The front side requires a little twisting to line it up, but, once assembled, this this is rock steady.
To use, simply light a fire inside it, and feed it. You dont need large pieces of fuel-I used pieces about a thumb width, once the fire was going. This burns quite efficiently-all the heat is directed up to the pot. There are small holes in the sides, for airflow. Water boils fairly quick-I didnt time it, but I would estimate it took 5-6 minutes to boil 2 cups of water. Honestly, this is where wood stoves are great-you dont have to worry about burn times, as fuel is limitless. But, it is certainly comparable to alcohol or canister stoves.
Some of the plusses of this stove:
Simplicity
Ease of use
No fuel to carry
Sturdy
Cheap
Nothing to break or wear out
Some of the cons of a wood stove:
Dirties your cookware
Fuel must be found (although, here, in New England, that isnt an issue)
Cannot use in a tent (you shouldnt use ANY stove in a tent, but, even vestibule cooking, I would advise, as the flames are unpredictable)
Must feed the stove on occasion

A few take aways from this; based on this ONE test, I was satisfied with the performance. My plan is to go out in less than ideal weather, and try it then. One can ALWAYS find dry wood, but, I want to see how hard it is  to do so.
I use a flint & steel exclusively for lighting fires. I would suggest taking some sort of priming source-PCJB, jute twine, tinder quick-to get a quick light. I did this with ONLY natural tinder, but it did take some time.
Prep of fuel is key, as it is for any wood fire. Its better to have more, than less. And, if staying somewhere for a couple days, or even overnight, get enough for several lights, for ease of use.
For this particular stove, you get a better burn if you keep the feed port stuffed. If there are gaps in the fuel, flames have a tendency to lick out. This doesnt provide optimum burning of the fuel-and increases boil time. I find that keeping it stuffed, helps with both. That way, the flames only have one real route-upwards.
A feature I liked about this was that, you can use fuel as long as you want-I wouldnt go any longer than a forearm though-so long as they can fit into the fuel port. As it burns, you keep pushing it into the stove itself.
Again, I have only used this stove once. And, that was in good weather. As I plan to use this as a primary stove for a while, I am sure I will encounter other things, either good or bad, with it. As I do, I will post. But, based on this one outing, and no other stoves of this type to go by, I think I have a winner with this one!!!
Now, some pictures (also one of a coyote I came across):
Here it is, in the package:


Here it is, disassembled:


Here it is, assembled:


Here is what I used for my fuel source:


Here is my fire prep:


Here it is, fired up:


One more:


Water, at a boil:


And, last up, coyote!!!