Who are you, where are you from..and what do you do?

I can't believe I hadn't seen this thread! What a great idea.

Age: time worn, well seasoned, and experienced, getting close to vintage
Occupation: Computer Science Professor at Penn State
Location: 28 miles NNE of Gettysburg, PA near the town of Dillsburg (no it is not named after a pickle)
Married
Started burning "for real" 17 years ago
Hobbies include fishing (including fly and ice), horseback riding, gardening, and writing books

Age: in my 30's

Occupation : founder, co-owner and lead designer for Gear 4 Gearheads (own biz), co-finder of cool vintage things and co-collector of natural supplies for Kringles Country Store (own biz) and our co-op booth at The Mill antique shop, and a boring desk job too-DH is full time employed by the biz but someone needs to carry the health coverage, lol

Location: Western NY

Years Burning: This is our first season

Hobbies and such: who has time for hobbies?! Really though, anything car/truck related, photography, vintage automobilia and anything that interests me, scrounging for free wood, renovating the Cottage

Age: 32

Occupation: Opto-mechanical design engineer / being a dad to my 3 awesome kids

Hobbies: pottery, woodworking, guitar, remodeling/building my house, hiking in the ADKs

Years burning: Ever since I was a kid

Location: Western, NY

OK, I'll bite...

Age: 40 something
Occupation: Retirement Education Specialist for a large financial services firm (translated: I TRY to keep people from *&%$ing up their 401k's)
Years burning: Well, technically 7.
Years burning CORRECTLY: 1. Bought the house with the Sierra in it, and thought "burning wood? How complicated can THAT be?" 6 cords, 4 trees, 1 tractor, 1 liner, and 1 chainsaw later, I know.
Hobbies: Few left. Used to race motorcycles and street ride too, last wreck lopped my arm and dented my skull, so no more wahoo-type sports. Seriously, I do love just getting out in my woods with a saw and a cigar.

Age: 26

Occupation : IT Manager

Location: Central, ME

Years Burning: 1

Hobbies and such: Web development, electronics repair/design/development, automotive and small engine repair, guitar and wood cutting

Age:37
Occupation: IT Director
Location: Westchester Co, NY
Years Burning:8
Married, 2 kids, No pets. Wife and boy are asthmatics and as much as I want a dog, Id rather see them breathing right.
Here is a pic of me and the lady.

Been on the forum for a few months, so I guess it's time to join the party and mingle.

Real name: Scott (shocker, eh)
Age: 38
Occupation: Anti-terrorist response team member, aka, Nuclear Security Officer going on 13 years.
Years burning: >1 + hopefully many more with all the help from the fantastic people of this forum!

Married for 8 years and just moved into our new house in the "country" in April 2011. My wife owns her own business as a Dog Trainer and sitter. My hobbies include Photography, Biking, vacationing and hiking in the Adirondacks, fishing and puttering around the house. Oh, and of course, I'm in charge of stacking wood and bringing it in. The wife is kind of a "girly-girl" LOL. She can build a pretty mean fire though!

KatWill said:

Age:37
Occupation: IT Director
Location: Westchester Co, NY
Years Burning:8
Married, 2 kids, No pets. Wife and boy are asthmatics and as much as I want a dog, Id rather see them breathing right.
Here is a pic of me and the lady.

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Beautiful pic of you and your lady...

GAMMA RAY said:

KatWill said:

Age:37
Occupation: IT Director
Location: Westchester Co, NY
Years Burning:8
Married, 2 kids, No pets. Wife and boy are asthmatics and as much as I want a dog, Id rather see them breathing right.
Here is a pic of me and the lady.

Click to expand...

Beautiful pic of you and your lady...

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I agree

*waves, your are not alone, GF ;-P *

Age: 59
Occupation: retired 8th grade History teacher. Flight instructor before that (so was my wife)
Hobbies: piano, Jazz collection, Ham Radio (not very active), wish I could fly, but can't afford it w/2 kids in, or approaching, college. Target shooting antiques (shooting paper WITH antique guns, that is.)
Burning: Since about age 8, in a 1918 QuickMeal cookstove, which my extended family still owns. Don't get to use that much, any more, but it still works.
BTW: I'd like to have an Aston Martin DBS, but I'm a retired teacher.

1) Apple grower and owner of upick apple and pumpkin farm in way northeast NY by the Canadian border-
2) War weary veteran of New York taxation and crazy government red tape-
3) Disgruntled citizen ready to vote for anything but the current administration and do nothing incumbents-
4) wood burner since 1979-

Age: 52
Occupation: Field Applications Engineer
Location: Michigan (1 hour north of Detroit)
Married: 30 years to Lovely wife Lindy
Pets: Milo 2 year old adopted pit last month.
Interests: RC Planes, Fishing, Poker.
Wood Burning: 8 years (in the past) 2 months as of late
That's all folks.....

Age: 41
Occupation: Engineering Manager in hi-tech
Location: About 30min west of Portland, OR
Married: 13 years, 3 awesome kids: 5yr old boy-3yr old boy-2mos girl (our little princess)
Interests: Motorcycles (Ducati), playing guitar (too many), sport shooting (I'm a FFL), and firewood hoarding
Wood Burning: 11 years

Age: 62
Occupation: Program Mgr - hi-tech world/telecom technology
Location: North central Mass. border of NH
Married: 36 years, 2 adult children, no grand kids yet,
Interests: Jazz, Snow skiing, Photography, Motorcycles
Wood Burning: since 79 when we built our house

Steve L.

Name: Rick....Age: just 52....Occupation: School Custodian for 9 years...was Volvo Master/ Nissan Senior Specialist (auto tech) for 23 years...Where: moved around a bit buying and selling homes for a profit....economy put an end to that, settled in S/W CT. near the NY border....Been burning seriously for 4 years, and getting more serious every year, can't ignore the savings....Hobbies: Camping, Home Improvement, now gathering free wood....married 21 years, dated for 11 before that, been with her a looooong time, shoulda married her sooner

Age: 50
Occupation: Candymaker since I was 12 (Family Business). Part time yard work.
Live in: Gatlinburg, TN and work in Pigeon Forge near Dollywood woo woo!!

Been heating solely with wood for 20 years, and partime for 10 years before that.
Interests & hobbies: Jesus & Church, My Wife, Wood cutting and splitting of course, Bicycling, Motorcycling (Use to race motocross and cross country, been a while though)Still have a street bike, Racquetball, Hiking,
Worked out with weights for years but have some arthritis now and don't really want to anymore.

Do my own auto mechanicing, Work more then I want to. Hope to retire early but I'm dreamin.
Love this forum!! Learned alot here. Just got out of the smoke dragon era and into the epa seen. Big improvement.
Hope to be out of debt soon Lord willing. Bout it for now.

Age: 28

Occupation: Maintenance Mechanic at a industrial plant. Fool around P/T on a golf course on the greens crew too. I started out as a small engine mechanic and now find myself getting back into it more and more. Officially started my own business last year and will be focusing on "getting it right" this year!

Been heating with wood since I was old enough to lift a split. Dad still has the old VC Defiant although it sits cold now.

Married to my beautiful wife (who somehow puts up with me) for 2 years now and we are expecting our first child, a boy, in about a week. She's due Jan 20th.

MasterMech said:

Age: 28

Occupation: Maintenance Mechanic at a industrial plant. Fool around P/T on a golf course on the greens crew too. I started out as a small engine mechanic and now find myself getting back into it more and more. Officially started my own business last year and will be focusing on "getting it right" this year!

Been heating with wood since I was old enough to lift a split. Dad still has the old VC Defiant although it sits cold now.

Married to my beautiful wife (who somehow puts up with me) for 2 years now and we are expecting our first child, a boy, in about a week. She's due Jan 20th.

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Congrats, my boy just turned 8 weeks old. It's a lot of work, but worth it.

Age: 44
Occupation: Consulting Engineer
Location: near State College, Central PA
Hobbies: running, outdoor sports, gardening, scrounging firewood, making soup
wife, three boys, no pets but we have a coop of chickens
years burning: 2 with current house and stove, plus a few years in a wood heated cabin in Alaska (back in the day)
vertical or horizontal?: vertical and all by hand

Age: Old enough to know better.

Occupation : Civil Servant. I worked for DMV for 17 years, then moved on to accounting office at Spring Grove State Mental Hospital. Seemed to be a logical transition.

Location: Northern Maryland, in Carroll County.

Years Burning: 1/6.
Hobbies and such: Growing Vegetables and flowers, Baking Bread, Canning my own food, Sewing my own clothes, and taking care of my Pop as long as he lives.

Haven't been around much lately, but i'll chime in.

Age: 39
Occupation: cardiovascular/biochemistry research (study development, stats data crunching, and QA manager)
Location: Northwestern corner of Vermont (north of Burlington)
Years burning: since i was old enough to help my Dad stack wood - with a break between college and purchasing my first home (4 years ago).
Other: Married for 9 years to my beautiful wife. We have a 3 year old son and a daughter due April 15th, and a 5 year old firewood guard dog. Hobbies include carpentry (fixing our old house) and woodworking, cooking and bread baking, music snobbery (indie/punk/metal), beer snobbery (IPAs please), science geekery, being in the woods with my son and pooch, cutting firewood (without the son and pooch), and being a counter balance to the Tea Party.

It's been great getting TONS of information from all of the characters here. Keep it up!

-Pat

firebroad said:

Age: Old enough to know better.

Occupation : Civil Servant. I worked for DMV for 17 years, then moved on to accounting office at Spring Grove State Mental Hospital. Seemed to be a logical transition.

Location: Northern Maryland, in Carroll County.

Years Burning: 1/6.
Hobbies and such: Growing Vegetables and flowers, Baking Bread, Canning my own food, Sewing my own clothes, and taking care of my Pop as long as he lives.

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Another one from the great CC. Not born, but raised here, now own my own house here south of westminster.
Isnt it springfield?

Stump_Branch said:

firebroad said:

Age: Old enough to know better.

Occupation : Civil Servant. I worked for DMV for 17 years, then moved on to accounting office at Spring Grove State Mental Hospital. Seemed to be a logical transition.

Location: Northern Maryland, in Carroll County.

Years Burning: 1/6.
Hobbies and such: Growing Vegetables and flowers, Baking Bread, Canning my own food, Sewing my own clothes, and taking care of my Pop as long as he lives.

Click to expand...

Another one from the great CC. Not born, but raised here, now own my own house here south of westminster.
Isnt it springfield?

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Nah, Spring Grove. Horrid commute. Live in the "Reisterstown" part of Finksburg ;-)

Age-quit counting
Occupation -police officer
Location -Northeast Ohio,back in woods
Married- to smokin hot woman ,not kidding either
Hobbies-hunting,mostly deer,turkey,trapping coyotes,their worst nightmare.Fine food and wine.
Thanks for a great informative site,and to the many that have helped me in woodburning,since I started in 2004.

Age 36
Location Southeastern PA(York County)
Occupation: Former jarhead, Former Park Ranger, Current federal agent
Married 10 years, 2 year old daughter, 5 month old son
When I started burning: full time, 1 year.
Hobbies: I used to FISH all the time, played hoops and hunt......Now I just have kids.