Any millenials still heat with wood?

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I really think growing up in the days of no internet and cell phones has a lot to do with work ethic. When you have to actually do stuff to have fun as a kid you learn a lot of good skills like fixing your bike or building a tree for. Kids had to figure stuff out, now you just YouTube it.
 
I really don't care for prescribed generation-based behavioural stereotypes, but since they are very much part of the pop lexicon these days, you really can't ignore it...

Born in 81', I suppose that technically makes me a millennial (though I relate more to gen-x) — I heat with wood, otherwise I wouldn't have a reason to post here! Growing up, we had fireplaces, camped, and lived outdoors, but never really heated with wood. When my wife and I bought our current home, it had a woodstove and a modest woodlot nestled in a largely wooded, rural area. This was the first time I ever started heating with wood, and it just started as a novelty that somehow spawned into an obsession, hobby, and lifestyle. Before we bought this place I never even owned an axe, let alone a chainsaw. I also spent my youth moving around a lot, and most of my adult life living in the city. Those days are long gone.

I played video games all throughout my childhood, though strangely, as I grew older and moved out on my own (and as graphics and technology advanced), video games kind of fell out of favor, I preferred playing music instead. You could say that I am proficient with computers, I earn my living working behind a keyboard and am the lead CAD engineer at my employer (no, not 'Chainsaw Acquisition Disorder'; Computer Aided Drafting).

So, I'm very much a millennial in some aspects, but not in others. It's tough being in this position, as a guy in his late 30's who doesn't play golf or watch sportsball. I'd rather be cutting wood, playing the geetar, or perhaps brewing beer, shooting guns, learning a new skill, building or fixing projects, or just doing something other than passing time.
 
I’m in this generation but I will not heat with wood we use pellets and the reason is time if I’m running harvester I’m cutting 12 hours plus driving 2 hours and if I’m hand cutting it’s 8 hours of hard work that’s hard on the body. Guess I should also say I’m only 30.
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I really don't care for prescribed generation-based behavioural stereotypes, but since they are very much part of the pop lexicon these days, you really can't ignore it...

Born in 81', I suppose that technically makes me a millennial (though I relate more to gen-x) — I heat with wood, otherwise I wouldn't have a reason to post here! Growing up, we had fireplaces, camped, and lived outdoors, but never really heated with wood. When my wife and I bought our current home, it had a woodstove and a modest woodlot nestled in a largely wooded, rural area. This was the first time I ever started heating with wood, and it just started as a novelty that somehow spawned into an obsession, hobby, and lifestyle. Before we bought this place I never even owned an axe, let alone a chainsaw. I also spent my youth moving around a lot, and most of my adult life living in the city. Those days are long gone.

I played video games all throughout my childhood, though strangely, as I grew older and moved out on my own (and as graphics and technology advanced), video games kind of fell out of favor, I preferred playing music instead. You could say that I am proficient with computers, I earn my living working behind a keyboard and am the lead CAD engineer at my employer (no, not 'Chainsaw Acquisition Disorder'; Computer Aided Drafting).

So, I'm very much a millennial in some aspects, but not in others. It's tough being in this position, as a guy in his late 30's who doesn't play golf or watch sportsball. I'd rather be cutting wood, playing the geetar, or perhaps brewing beer, shooting guns, learning a new skill, building or fixing projects, or just doing something other than passing time.

I have an associates degree in CAD. After 6 months on the job I quit. I couldn't sit in the office all day. It was so boring and I kept falling asleep.
 
I’m 33, been heating with wood since I moved out of the parents house at 18. Fuel oil was pretty expensive in the early 2000s. I had to keep beer money some how. Started out with mid size wood stoves to an indoor furnace. Now I heat the house and family with an outside boiler.


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I have an associates degree in CAD. After 6 months on the job I quit. I couldn't sit in the office all day. It was so boring and I kept falling asleep.

I don't even have a high school diploma. Self taught on the job, been doing it for 13 years. In my industry, there are no boring days, quite the opposite — too much to do with distractions, phones ringing with hurried site supers and project managers, and fires to put out at every corner. I have to crank out submittals and detailed shop drawings within in mere hours of of receiving in order to meet turnaround deadlines for tens of thousands of dollar projects on a daily basis. Boring would be a reprieve...
 
I don't even have a high school diploma. Self taught on the job, been doing it for 13 years. In my industry, there are no boring days, quite the opposite — too much to do with distractions, phones ringing with hurried site supers and project managers, and fires to put out at every corner. I have to crank out submittals and detailed shop drawings within in mere hours of of receiving in order to meet turnaround deadlines for tens of thousands of dollar projects on a daily basis. Boring would be a reprieve...


I always liked the mechanical parts and assemply stuff and 3d drawing and 3d printing which was new then. Then I got hired at a company that did structural steel drawings. Drawing expansion joints, in 2d, for bridges was very boaring. Stair railings were boaring too.
 
I always liked the mechanical parts and assemply stuff and 3d drawing and 3d printing which was new then. Then I got hired at a company that did structural steel drawings. Drawing expansion joints, in 2d, for bridges was very boaring. Stair railings were boaring too.

Drawing the same old stuff can get old real quick. From time to time I'll have to draw the all too familiar drudgery that just needs to get done, though as often is the case with custom architectural millwork, it's always something new and different. I'd enjoy it more if I had more lead time, but inside the capital beltway, people abide by otherworldly standards that us common folk will never comprehend. I am stepping more into a supervisory and management role, but until I am able to hire more skilled draftsmen, I still am required to draw.

It pays the bills for now, at least until I formulate my exit strategy.
 
Growing up in a house where my parents kept the heat at 62 and every girl I brought home complaining about it made me want a warmer home.

Growing up with my parents, the house was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Never struck me as odd, if anything it made sense. House was cold but it wasn't like I was sitting outside, so I never complained much.

These days my house is cold in the winter and warm in the summer. Electric kicks on if it's getting too bad. Didn't use AC once this summer, didn't plan on it just happened. Usually we use it a bit.

I'm a firm believer you're better off getting comfortable in what life sends your way.
 
Growing up with my parents, the house was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Never struck me as odd, if anything it made sense. House was cold but it wasn't like I was sitting outside, so I never complained much.

These days my house is cold in the winter and warm in the summer. Electric kicks on if it's getting too bad. Didn't use AC once this summer, didn't plan on it just happened. Usually we use it a bit.

I'm a firm believer you're better off getting comfortable in what life sends your way.


It never seemed odd to me as a kid either. I put ac in my house 3 years ago and in 3 summers I've probably used it a total of 4 or 5 weeks. I only turn it on when it's going to be over 85 and humid. Usually its ceiling fans and open windows. Everyone I work with turns it on in May and off in September and then the heat goes on until May. My parents still dont have ac.
 
I'm 35, been heating with wood since I bought the house from my parents in 2009. It's my grandparents old house. They used to have a wood stove as the only heat source when I was growing up next door. I remember sitting around the stove in the evenings with hot chocolate. Now I have an outdoor wood boiler, central propane backup, and central ac. I love cutting firewood, and sell a decent amount, no advertising just repeat people. My day job is for the city doing right of way permitting and inspections for contractors.
 
I'm 33 and heat with wood since we bought our home a few years ago. We burn 8 to 10 face cords a year. I get my wood from a friend who is arborist so I get my wood in 4' logs. I haul it, cut it in 16", split and stack. I have a full time job + a 15 months old lil boy, hope he gonna help me soon! At least now he's super excited when I start a chainsaw. Promising.
 
I don't know how you guys can withstand being indoors without AC during the summer... I'd lose my damned mind.


When you are the guy installing ac you get used to it. Attic work is real fun in the summer. I guess it's just how I was raised. I feel guilty when I run the ac. Then I dont want to go outside and do stuff. Work outside all summer and the heat doesnt bother you when you aren't working.
 
When you are the guy installing ac you get used to it. Attic work is real fun in the summer. I guess it's just how I was raised. I feel guilty when I run the ac. Then I dont want to go outside and do stuff. Work outside all summer and the heat doesnt bother you when you aren't working.

Attic work in the summer sounds like torture to me. I mentioned earlier that I work mostly in an office at a granite fabrication plant, but I spent years working outside as a house painter, running equipment at a fabrication shop, or in my younger years - working as a line cook at a rib joint in the middle of summer — never got used to it. Hated it then, hate it now. I prefer being cool, because my body always runs hot, it's just how I'm wired. When I get in my vehicle, I only turn on the heat if I need to defrost the windshield, if someone else is riding with me, or if it's near 0°F. I wish I wasn't like this, because even in my preferred cooler months I can easily work up a sweat which can be dangerous in the wrong situations...
 
Attic work in the summer sounds like torture to me. I mentioned earlier that I work mostly in an office at a granite fabrication plant, but I spent years working outside as a house painter, running equipment at a fabrication shop, or in my younger years - working as a line cook at a rib joint in the middle of summer — never got used to it. Hated it then, hate it now. I prefer being cool, because my body always runs hot, it's just how I'm wired. When I get in my vehicle, I only turn on the heat if I need to defrost the windshield, if someone else is riding with me, or if it's near 0°F. I wish I wasn't like this, because even in my preferred cooler months I can easily work up a sweat which can be dangerous in the wrong situations...


I worked as a line cook for 3 years when I was a kid and didnt mind it. My body adapts well to the climate. I wear pants all summer and dont mind it. This was the first year I bought shorts. I sweat a lot it was 28 last night I was shoveling the driveway in a hoodie sweating my a$$ off. It was dripping off me. But I love summer time. The sound of country living at night with the windows open is amazing.
 
My 36 year old son and his family have a house they built in 2010.Although it has an excellent HVAC system with heat pump, he also put in an OWB and uses it during the coldest months of winter. He could use the heat pump all the time as it's very efficient but he like to cut wood and the boys like the fire in the stove.
 
I worked as a line cook for 3 years when I was a kid and didnt mind it. My body adapts well to the climate. I wear pants all summer and dont mind it. This was the first year I bought shorts. I sweat a lot it was 28 last night I was shoveling the driveway in a hoodie sweating my a$$ off. It was dripping off me. But I love summer time. The sound of country living at night with the windows open is amazing.

Oh yeah, despise my discomfort of hot and humid weather, I also wear long pants or jeans year round, even while working outside. I feel like I'd be missing more skin on my legs if not.

I guess to each their own, we all have our preferences.
 
I prefer... mild weather, a bit shy of cold.

But what I prefer and what I get are two very different things. So I try to keep the barking to a minimum. :)
 
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