Worried about wood....

If you can find semi-seasoned, get it and start drying it yourself. I don't know of anyone local to me to even get wood that good.

You are not the first one with that problem. The first winter can be a challenge but it sounds you are already taking care of the subsequent ones. Some options:

- Compressed wood logs like Envi-blocks, BioBricks etc. Certainly more expensive but less hassle than cord wood and guaranteed dry. Can be burned together with semi-seasoned wood.
- Look for someone who is well ahead with their wood. Offer 1.5 cords of green wood for 1 cord of seasoned one.
- Pallets: Often free at big stores, you just need to ask. A PITA to cut up but usually dry. Be careful to not get painted or otherwise treated wood.
- Lumber scraps: Maybe you have a furniture maker etc. close by?
- Build a solar kiln: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WoodDrying/wood_kiln.htm
- Go for pine: Split small with lots of wind and sun and top-covered you may have a chance of getting that decent until the winter.

Keep an eye on your chimney and clean it every few weeks.

Grisu said:

You are not the first one with that problem. The first winter can be a challenge but it sounds you are already taking care of the subsequent ones. Some options:

- Compressed wood logs like Envi-blocks, BioBricks etc. Certainly more expensive but less hassle than cord wood and guaranteed dry. Can be burned together with semi-seasoned wood.
- Look for someone who is well ahead with their wood. Offer 1.5 cords of green wood for 1 cord of seasoned one.
- Pallets: Often free at big stores, you just need to ask. A PITA to cut up but usually dry. Be careful to not get painted or otherwise treated wood.
- Lumber scraps: Maybe you have a furniture maker etc. close by?
- Build a solar kiln: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WoodDrying/wood_kiln.htm
- Go for pine: Split small with lots of wind and sun and top-covered you may have a chance of getting that decent until the winter.

Keep an eye on your chimney and clean it every few weeks.

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^ This advice . . . +1.

I survived my first year by burning pallets, ash that was standing dead when I cut it with the bark falling off and some tree tops left over from a cutting operation a year or two before. Not the best wood . . . but it got me by.

mwhitnee said:

I'm just starting to get into serious wood burning and burned 4 cords last year. I have trees in my yard that are going to be cut that should give around 4 cords for next year. They will be down in the next few weeks and I am going to split them right away.

Problem is, I have no good source for seasoned wood this year. I have been calling and searching everywhere and can get only semi-seasoned wood. It's really frustrating.

I have a Blaze King King being installed in the next couple weeks and am worried about burning semi-seasoned wood in it and destroying the cat.

I really want to burn this Fall and am really excited about it. Just venting I guess... :/

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I'm in the same situation for the most part....short on wood. I'm going with a Pallet of Bio-Brick to start the season. I've got a tree guy who for the past two years would drop off free log loads for me to C/S/S, but I'm too deep into other projects to even think of giving him a call.....also have a few trees I need dropped, but again, projects that need to be finished.....gonna be a costly winter at my household this year

Agree with the suggestion of pallets. Often free for the taking, all hardwood construction and ready to burn tonight. They're quick to cut up with a chainsaw. Mind your bar nose doesn't touch the ground and avoid the nails. We used to stand 'em on end and cut 'em.

If there's a sawmill nearby, they'll likely have a mountain of slab wood and tailings available cheap for the truck or trailer load. They may not load it for you due to liability issues but you can load it yourself. Take along some help and you'll have a load in short order. Can't beat the price. Slab wood dries pretty quickly, keep it top covered.

When I started burning in the '90s Dad and I would get pickup loads of tailings from the local hardwood flooring mill. All oak, dry, it was unfinished and clean for just a few dollars. That was some sweet firewood.

Are there any firewood sellers in your area that have a yard you can visit? Many of the ones I see have wood leftover from last winter piled behind wood freshly cut. Maybe they'll sell you the old wood if you ask for it. Most people don't care much about seasoned wood, so my impression is that many wood sellers don't care either.

Have you looked in to bulk kiln dried? We have a place around here that will do kiln dried by the cord, haven't looked into the price, but it may be cheaper than bio bricks.

The upside of this is that oil and propane prices appear to be headed even lower, so it may be the cheapest heating season in a decade. I'd go with the suggestions and get your hands on some seasoned wood now, split it smaller and dry it as best possible. Buying good seasoned wood may be a higher cost than oil in many areas.

My stove is going to be an emergency only stove this coming winter. I will have about a cord of fairly good hard wood in my wood piles but not much more than that. Since I am building the house where the stove will be located, I do have all of the cut off ends of boards I used during construction which might total near another half a cord of SPF lumber ends from 4 to 14 inches in length. SPF stands for Spruce/Pine/Fir. It is the basic dimensional lumber at your local lumber yard. For emergency heat, where I will babysit the stove, it should work OK. My Waterfurnace heated the space last winter for about $100 per month, so cost should not really be an issue in terms of heating costs. Actually, buying firewood would cost me far more to heat my new home. As much as I enjoy a fire, my stove is really a heat source for emergencies and ambiance, not to save money. In terms of saving money, I will wear out my new stove before it can begin to pay for itself unless the price of electrical power goes way up.

Buy semi seasoned asap, try to find a guy that has mostly ash, ash has a low moisture content and drys semi fast, get it in the sun and wind. You will be fine , still a few months of good drying time

With a cat stove, load up on softer woods. It will burn it almost as well as hardwoods. It will dry much quicker too.

Set aside hardwoods for next year or 3 years.

If you have a saw, and know someone with a wood lot, see if you can find some small, dead trees that the bark has fallen off; Those are pretty much guaranteed to be dry enough. Takes a lot of those to total 4 cords, though. But anything you can get is a step in the right direction.

I wouldn't count on that oak being ready for next year even if you took it down, bucked it up, split it and stacked it for next week.

The cherry should be good to go, that dries quickly, now start working on 2016-17 wood this year too so you don't run into this problem again.

The thing that takes awhile to figure out is that 4 cords of wet wood may equal 2.5 cords of dry wood. Oil is relatively cheap so by keeping the stove for emergencies and waiting a year you end up needing less wood for the same amount of heat. Saves on chimney sweeping also. In the meantime maximize drying of the wood you have by stacking in single rows up off the ground with a overhanging top cover.

A Sooteater cleaning system will let you clean from the bottom-up. Very handy, indeed. Check after a cord and see how you're doing. Don't forget to check the cap.

If you split small enough, medium woods like cherry, ash, silver maple, etc. will be good to go in six months. I'm also using a carport and a woodshed and a hot summer to get those results. This wet summer has me a little worried this year...

Grisu said:

- Look for someone who is well ahead with their wood. Offer 1.5 cords of green wood for 1 cord of seasoned one.

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This is good advice; I would definitely take that offer to help a new burner out. My only requirement would be to replace with like species/BTU content (if you take hickory or locust you replace it with hickory or locust) and I'm a bit particular on how long my wood is cut to. Other than that I'd even settle for 1.25 cords green per cord of seasoned...