I have an addiction. We don't even heat with wood but I have several back yard fires a year. I have a constant hoard of hard wood from our property. I get excited when a tree gets snapped off in a storm because I know sumpin is getting ran.
I grew up in urban St Paul and we didn’t burn wood. I don’t remember any relatives in SD heating with wood. None of my parents friends in Wisconsin burned wood. It wasn’t until we moved to NC that I met people heating with wood, go figure. The saws are a big deal for me too. A custom built wood splitter was a game changer. If I could get a custom built wood stacker this hobby would be better than biscuits and sausage gravy.
I don’t remember not liking it? But yet don’t remember liking it! It was something that had to be done. I do remember my brother and sister not liking it but they always made things more difficult than they needed to. Looking back cutting wood was some of my fondest memories as a child. Pretty sure that’s why css firewood is my favorite hobby. Maybe a way to connect to my late father? I dont know but hope my boys get the same lessons in the woods that I did. At 3 and 6 they are starting to get their hands on some wood but it’s so different. I’ve bought to many toys that make it so much easier. I hope they still get something out of it. Great thread Dennis
I've posted elsewhere on here about this, but I loved it. I traveled form Connecticut to Prince Edward Island, Canada as boy from 14-16 to do the hay in the summers. We did the wood on rain days when we couldn't do the hay. I loved it. We called it the "woodshed" which had traditional barn doors off of a bit of a garage/barn about 10 yards from the house. My best guess at what I know now is it might have held 5 cords. Could be much more... could be much less- you guys know how your memories from childhood work. I honestly loved it. And now that I'm "old" i still love it. My wife's goddaughter lives 2 houses up from us right now and she loves to run down and stack wood with me. She's about 12.
I did not do any firewooding as a kid. The only time I remember being warmed by a stove was one year deer hunting someplace in northern Wisconsin. Spent 2 nights in the cabin.
Great question! Yes, I loved it! We had a log cabin at 5,280' on Diamond Lake in the Oregon Cascades. You could be certain that the electricity would be out from November through March. The big stone fireplace took 4' long logs - several at a time. The kitchen cookstove took 14" splits. This was my sole job - keep the woodshed full, and the fires burning, and boy did I. Sometimes we would cross country ski into the second story, that's how deep the snow would be. There was a hand pump well at the kitchen sink, and we used oil lanterns for light and extra heat. After a couple days of good heat, the snow would all slide off the roof in one big swoosh! All the firewood at that location was lodgepole pine - you know - the pine so straight it makes lodge poles (for tee-pee's) and log cabins. I learned to use a chainsaw at 13, I must say, it was both my passion and ruination, as I am still an addict here with you all. This is Diamond Lake, and the mountain is Mt. Thielson.
I grew up in the burbs of St. Louis, we never heated with wood, but we went camping a lot and the fire was the centerpiece. My dad always tended it, and then one day he made a point of handing me the poker and told me I was now in charge of the fires. At 67 years of age, I'm surprised it's taken me till 3 years ago to get a wood stove. I love the whole process.
We didn't use wood when I was a kid and none of the neighbors in our town did either. It was only when I reached 12 and started going with my uncle to his bush to help him cut trails and burn brush that I became interested. He taught me a lot about tree species and making fires and how to put them out when you leave the bush. In my mid teens we started burning and cutting firewood where I was living at the time and I've loved it since. Been exclusively heating with wood since 1989 when we bought this house.
I always enjoyed it, outdoors with my grand dad. He was a good woodsman & a pole climber, he was absolutely fearless when it came to most things. Had the old blue Homelite XL saw. I'll never forget the first time he let me run it, he said don't cut your leg off, your mother will be pizzed. We made firewood for grandpa & grandma with a belt driven buzzsaw on an old Case VAC tractor, then also hauled a trailer load home to burn in our basement insert. Grandpa died at 78 from a widow maker to the head in 1983. I now take my 8 y/o grandson to the woods with me, he can run my mini skidder & the winch on the tractor etc. I truly hope he grows up with the same good memories that I have. He sure loves the equipment & does well with the splitters etc. Won't be long & I'll let him run a saw. I've drilled it into him to always wear his helmet & safety gear.
Nice stories all. My experience with firewood as a child was mixed. Grew up in SoCal, so there wasn't a great need for heat. My parents had a fireplace installed when I was about 10. We started off with some scrap lumber and various yard trimmings from neighbors. Stacking was OK, but it was exciting because of the prospect of burning fires. My Dad taught me how to lay wood for a fire and start it. I quite enjoyed that. . A little later we took down one of the trees in our back yard. It was only about 25' or 30' high. My Dad got a bow saw for the task. My Dad couldn't climb and I was the oldest so i got to climb the tree and do the limbing. We tied a rope to the branches one at a time, going from the top down. I cut partway into the bottom of each branch and then cut through from the top, staying away from the fall line. My Dad and brothers pulled on the rope from a distance in the direction we wanted to go. Then my dad cut the trunk and we toppled that too. We cut all the wood to length and my Dad split it with a wedge. It was great! I loved it. . I then got the job of getting out the stump. Pick, digging bar, & shovel to remove the dirt from around it and cut through the roots with the bow saw. This was NOT enjoyable. I dont think we managed to split it either.
We had a coal stove on the farm growing up so no firewood cutting duties. However, when Dad moved to town I would help him cut wood and hand split it then deliver it to the local nursing home so the residents could enjoy a fireplace. That thing ate wood like it was free because it was! That’s where I caught the gathering and hoarding bug.
My family never burned wood, or put it up. The only fire chores I had was taking out the buckets of coal ash. I started cutting and splitting wood when I was 11 after a neighbor cleared an acre of woods. I saw money laying on the ground. I hauled it by wheelbarrow to my yard, used an electric chainsaw to trim down, and split by hand. Maybe 2 cords worth through the summer. I sold it to my neighbors and brother in law for camping. I did like it, and didn't start again until I was 18, and needed wood for camping trips with buddies. My son might finally be understanding why I do it, especially after his 1000 dollar Christmas. He grumbles Everytime I ask him for help, but after a few minutes of running a saw or the splitter, he gets in a good groove, and can sometimes outwork me, especially when there is cash on the line. I have also learned not to say we are only working for 2 or 3 hours, but instead I say here is what I want finished today. Then he really moves his arse.
My father and mother built the house I grew up in when I was a kid in 85'-86'. He bought a brand new Jensen indoor wood boiler then. He still uses it today some 35-36 years later. Before that he had a regular wood stove. Me and my older brother were responsible for bringing in the wood each year (7-8 full cords). We also had to help my father cut and split the wood usually from standing trees. I didn't love it or hate it, it was just part of life to me. I couldn't have hated it too bad, cause I burn wood today and so does my brother.
Fond memories of tending (and sitting around) the old pot-bellied wood stove in the basement of our house. Autumn was always my favorite time of the year and doing firewood chores was something I looked forward to. I don't remember what type of saw my father had but I didn't get to use it for many years. Scrounging dead and down from our woods, loading the sawhorse, splitting smaller rounds, carrying splits to the basement, all was enjoyable and an expected event during that time of the year. Sometimes just the smell of someone with a wood stove going brings back good memories of that old pot-bellied stove.
I also remember that big furnace we had in the old one room country school. When I got moved to a larger school they had a coal furnace. I have fond memories of going to the basement of that school and sitting by the furnace while talking to the janitor and eating my lunch.
Can you imagine the ruckus that would happen if some janitor was found to be having lunch in the basement with a student now?! Probably national news...
I hated it. I specifically remember one instance, the morning after getting to 3rd base with a new GF at the time, I had to go with my dad to split firewood on the family farm with my grandpa and my uncle. I was 17 (will be turning 50 soon). I was pretty much acting like the typical teenager being forced to do something I didn't want to do. It was cold and I was cold...but my attitude was even colder. Looking back, I wish I could have a re-do. My grandpa is no longer with us, my dad is now 75 and my uncle is 80. It's times like those, as a kid, we don't appreciate in the moment and only tend to do so after it's way too late.