You as a young hoarder......When did you find the passion

Most of us on here have a deep passion for all things firewood right. Well as I sat here looking at that nice load of beech, I flashed back realizing for me this started when I was young. In the 5th grade we moved and added a wood stove to our house. We had no source off wood, nor a lot,of money. This was before the Internet, but we found a scrounge and my dad bought a used mcculloch. We brought the logs and limbs home. I got a 30 inch bow saw and we built a saw buck and I have been hooked since. I cut a tremendous volume of 6 inch minus limbs as a young lad. Bought my first Stihl when I was 18, which my father still uses. Sorry for long post, but I am reminiscing as it pours out right now.

So how did the rest of you start out on this path?

 

Started when I got my first house and started paying heating bills. This was a 1900 sq ft raised ranch with basement woodstove. After moving in we took down 4 trees, I decided to have the pros drop them and chip the brush. After spending 10 minutes on one small log with my dads poulan and ruined chain, I bought my first saw a Stihl MS290 and used YouTube to teach me how to sharpen. I am now a meticulous "over frequent sharpener" that would annoy most. When the Maple was dry the following year I learned the benefits of running the woodstove from Friday when I got home from work till Sunday night. That's when I got started trolling craigslist and offering to help any friends that had tree issues (other than dangerous drops). My little Subaru forester has probably hauled over 5 cords of free wood in its lifetime.

 

For me it started when I was 15 years old. I started cutting a load of 4 foot pulpwood and my father said, "if you start, you have to finish the load" (12 cords, of which I had 2 cords out when he said it).

30 years later I am still cutting wood. Our forest is still growing, and I still love the feeling of taking a chainsaw, making a mental point of where I want it to land, and then watching to see how close I can get.

Over those 30 years I have been "bit" three times by my chainsaw; chin, thigh and forehead, but as an older guy told me way back in 1994; "Once a logger, always a logger, it never will leave you."

I retired from a welding career 2 years ago, but a chainsaw fits comfortably in my hand (just not my Husqvarna 562 xp)

 

Late 60's Rural Arkansas, only heat we had was the big fireplace. Put a furnace in around 1972 I think, dad passed when I was 5 & mom 2 years later. Came to Michigan to live with an Aunt & Uncle. Grandpa heated with wood only, so he took me/us to the woods & taught trees & cutting. Made cordwood on an old buzz saw from the age of 8. I skipped a few years in my 20's when I had young kids 2 jobs & no time or wood stove. Moved to my current location in 1992, put in an old wood furnace & started buying saws. It's become a bit of an obsession now.

 

I started as a kid back home in yugoslavia as my parents and grandpa used the stove to heat the house as well as cook on it. I must of been 5 bringing wood into the house and when we moved to the US my father would make me help him as he knew I had a passion for it so we would scrounge wood and split it by hand. I didn't get my first saw until I was 25 ms250 and I still have it. I got more into it when I got my first house 11 years ago because oil prices were out the roof. I bought my jotul and that was all she wrote after. Now any time I see wood on the side of the road I'll pull over and take it. Hoard on fellas

 

We did not burn wood when I was a kid. When we bought out current home in 1980, a raised ranch with a fireplace on one end--upstairs, it didn't take long to realize burning 600 gallons of fuel oil was expensive. We tried burning wood in the fireplace but that didn't work well. We bought an Earth Stove insert and that reduced our fuel oil use by 75% or more. Been burning ever since and just got a new Lopi insert this past summer. We have our own woods so getting wood isn't an issue, just the cutting, splitting and stacking is for this 71 yo bod.

 

5 years ago, at 50 years old, I bought a house in the woods, and ...

 

Here are a couple pics of the new one. First pic was taken just as the install was finished. Second pic is of our first fire. Finished splitting the blocks I had the day before cataract surgery. Eye is coming along well.

 

I was probably 5 or 6 years old when my Dad bought and installed a Riteway wood furnace in the basement of the house. We had two fireplaces in the house but this was right after the OPEC oil crisis in 75 or 76, so I'm sure his thoughts turned to saving money by burning wood for heat. Mom and Dad still have the same 30-acre woodlot and the same Riteway furnace that Dad meticulously maintains and heats the house with every winter. He had a 1968 or 1969 vintage Homelite Super XL (ol' blue) that I convinced him to stop using in the early 90's due to it not having a chain brake, so he bought a Stihl 025 and later on a Dolmar PS-421. He still uses the Dolmar (he's 79 now) and still has the Stihl and the old Homie. He hauled all of his wood with a 1974 Jeep CJ-5 (sadly, gone) and a 4x6 steel dump trailer (still around and used a lot). I spent every winter, even on holidays home from college, helping him out with firewood. I never really took a break because I moved from my parents' house straight into my own home and married life, and my kids have grown up with firewood their whole lives. Dad taught me a lot, especially tree identification, and I continue to learn to the point where he's asking me for advice and help now. I guess that's what 40+ years of experience will do for you. I would spend all of my free time (in decent weather of course) cutting, splitting and stacking wood if I didn't have so many other things to do. Dad has been retired for almost 20 years and he will go out and just cut and load one trailer full on a nice sunny day, and then relax. It adds up fast when you have a lot of time to do that.

 

I let them take it. It was over 30 years old and I had no need of it. I am really liking the new stove and I have gotten a lot of help here on FHC in figuring out how to run it. It is a bit different from the old one that was a metal box with a chimney port and a door. Watching those secondaries fire off is a beautiful sight.

 

Growin up...we either heated with coal,fuel oil or electric. Parents never owned a home..so whatever the rental came with as far as heat.
When i was around 11..I used to go to the neighbor where my sister n BIL lived. He had an old pot bellied stove in his garage..so he taught me the basics of cutting some dead,down trees for the stove. I remember it was an old McCullough saw....never sharpened right...it was a pain.
Big jump in years...however...i started goin upstate in 1989 to hunt (my new BIL..LOL..was originally from there n migrated south. I became real good friends with the one brother n it became a ritual to cut dead stuff every August for him to burn that winter. He had to Stihls n we would go to town until we had about 10 sords CSS. We did that for 16 years until i no longer went up...
After that i told the wife....wife,when we buy a home we a burnin wood for heat.
Whats funny....we had a new 16' landscape trailer n 3 new chainsaws 5 years before we finally found a home that suited us. After that added 2 more saws,splitter n all the other goodies for wood processing.
Our new home had a fireplace w gas insert....we had that pulled out n installed an Enerzone...we are happy with it.
In a little over a year ....we got our 3 year plan well estabished with the 4th sittin in the wing...we have a total of 21 cords of firewood n still addin...we love it..
P.S.
When theres down time..there no better place to be than bein on FHC...thats my story n im stickin to it...

 

For me it started 2 years ago when I first started paying heating bills. Started with the crap stoves in my house and not enough wood.

 

reminiscent - farm old enough walk and carry sticks- not found memories of those misery whips though. Just wasn't the same after the folks got them new fangled electric thing a ma bobs in the basement and kitchen. 2010 back on my own - installed NC30 splitting and stacking 4 year plan, 2017 sold that place, back out in the sticks now installing Nc30 again, have apx 3 seasons worth ready to go and working on building up the reserves. 6 log mixed cord out back haven't started on yet . working on 2 cord plus of Ash here at shop buck it up split it and drag up to house stack it long edge of field - just might be ready by next season. Some sections of Ash I have nice and straight one piece about 10 ft long 32-4" at one end -got a 48" chainsaw mill going to try my hand at slabbing that one & a couple other smaller pieces, idea is to get enough so I can mill them into flooring for the new place. ( Not fond of wall to wall carpet) Only tool I need yet is a decent planner.