My parents were city slickers, they only had a dial on the wall. I wanted something different. when I moved out I started the wood heater, only in a shop area at first but a year later in the house and been in this house for 30 years. so I guess a total of 32 years.
Parents have always heated with wood. Been making firewood ever since I can remember. Took a brief hiatus during the college years and right after I got married in our first house. Been back at it for the past 4-5 years. Call it 20 something years total.
Parents had/have an old Blaze King... I suppose as soon as I could move around I was working with wood. In college I missed the heat, but didn't miss out on the work (college breaks somehow always lined up with a wood cutting party or two). After college my first apartment had a fireplace, and now we're two years in with our new house and stove. I absolutely love it.
My dad bought a homemade stove in the early 70's back when there was an oil shortage and frankly I hated it.. Made me feel like my face was on fire! I bought my 1st stove (convection CDW) before this house was built and burned for 20+ years over the last 28 years..
Dam, I'm late again with another thread…. I better get with the program….. Ive been carrying in wood for some kind of stove since 1970. My parents first had a POS franklin stove from montgomery wards and it didn't heat worth a S#!T, Dad quickly sold that and they purchased a Fisher Grandpa in 1975. Been doing it ever since
I got picked up by the cops ~9yo for burning down some brush on a dirt pile -my first contribution to heating the earth, - well probably not as my older brother and I would build campfires all day with bowsaws and hatchets. Folks only had open fireplace which us pyros openly loved but I started cutting wood to make extra cash in high school while clearing farmland. My grandfather grew up on a sawmill in Fort Kent, Maine and obviously figured that coal was whole lot easier but he worked hard as hell and taught me how to run a chainsaw to level his backyard when I was ~12yo - Grandmother was on a girls vacation with my mother and aunts, her face was priceless when they returned to a bombscare of a backyard - he said I did it with a snicker. Hiatus from anything wood related from after college until '06 when I bought this house, burned the open fireplace until I put the stove in in '09 and shut the propane tank valve off -FOR GOOD Burning wood for primary heat=5yrs, 25yrs as a pyro......been drinking probably longer
Parents heated with wood until they took a job with utilities paid. We put in the Lopi last November and hit the ground running. Upgraded to the King this fall.
About 24 years and totally by accident. Our first wood burning experience was when we bought a new spec home that happened to have a zero clearance built-in cheapo fireplace thin sheet metal (with blower) with glass doors. Next house had a first-gen Fisher papa bear and now a "real" EPA stove. Soon to be another brand that works better. Thank goodness for the wise experience and suggestions of this site and others, otherwise I'd still be struggling with wet wood and burning chicken carcasses in the thing..
1965, used coal before that. Never knew of any other heat. Some of the wood in the early years was to young to be burnt. now i like to let it set outside for a couple years, works much better.