Fire burning too quickly and not a lot of flame (newbie)

8686 said:

great comments here. Love it. Tons of help. Boy this sucks though. Read a couple articles too then came back here. Oh man. So here's the deal. It will probably take me all summer to cut up all that wood. It's 2 of those rows. I'll save it for the future burning, maybe 2 years down the road!.

So I'm guessing I should order some wood that's already been dried for next winter? I guessing the spring time (NY) is a good time to do this? i have never ordered wood before. Any suggestions? Do most people have it delivered? How much does it usually cost, and what type do most people get?

Thanks everyone. Learning a lot here.

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Great solution. Unfortunately you will get unseasoned wood. You'll be lucky to get non oak, that may be more seasoned than most.
Your only using a fireplace. Split what you have into 2x4 sizes, stack it in single rows in the sun. You'll probably be better off than you were this year.

I'm being a stick in the mud here. Half of me is happy for you because you enjoy burning wood and looking at fire. The other half cringes at the thought of spending $$$ on mediocre wood from a dealer just so you can blow the heat right out of your house and up your chimney. Then spend more $$$ by running the boiler/furnace to replace said heat.

But come to think of it....I did the exact same thing as you for many years. It wasn't until I got a wood stove that I became a heat miser.

Another alternative for you is "Wood Bricks". They are compressed hardwood, just like a giant pellet for pellet stoves. I imagine they would burn quite well in a fireplace. They come in packages of 6 or 8 so you could probably store them all around the house for burning next winter.

Go buy a nice Fiskars X27 splitting maul and splitting that wood should take no more than two days. I split more than you have pictured today! Splitting wood to me is a lot more fun than cutting it... although I like being in the woods cutting too. You'll be amazed that it wasn't that hard to do. Only problems come with gnarly wood, but the stuff you had in the picture looks straight enough. You'll be done before you know it, and the wood will season all the quicker.

8686 said:

I have a pretty nice maul from home depot. Works great. But for me it's pretty hard work. I love it though. You must be in some shape.

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To heat your home with wood you need to be strong and in decent shape. Usually with great pains also!