newbie with firewood price question

This is my first winter with a woodburning stove (Jotul f400) and I already made my first mistake by running out of firewood. I only purchased 1 cord thinking I would just be burning on the weekends, but I ended up burning 5 sometimes 7 days straight. My question is, given that fuel costs have dropped dramatically since the spring, should I expect the price of a cord a firewood to be much cheaper now? I originally paid $200, New Jersey, back in the spring. My other question is, now that its winter, is it ok to store the wood on pallets with a cover? Or should I attempt to store it in a plastic shed that I have in my yard, to avoid rain/snow? Any help is appreciated.

At this point, I think you'd be lucky to find wood that is seasoned well enough to burn.

Firewood is very labor intensive. Anything under $200 for quality split wood in central NJ is a good price. I doubt the price will go down.
Stack your wood on a pallet. Just cover the top to protect from snow. Seasoned wood is seasoned (dried in the center ) Rain and snow have little impact. Do not wrap the entire pile.
If you want good wood for next year, get it soon and stack it off the ground in a sunny location. Let it season till next year.

...and it'd be worth $250+ this time of year.

Buy plenty of wood for next year and see the pallet thread for burning wood for this year.

Matt

+1

Kind of like looking for fresh cotton candy as the Big Top is being folded up and put on a truck. You will probably find some dealers still offering 'seasoned' wood, but 99% of the time it's not...especially this late in the game. If anyone is offering seasoned wood, inspect it closely...if the wood isn't gray, the ends don't have radial cracks (aka 'checking' and the bark isn't falling off some pieces, it's not truly seasoned.

If you can't find any real seasoned wood, your best bet would be to hold off until a little later in the year, and pick up several cords for next season. (Well, really, the best deal would be to set yourself up to go cut your own wood!)

Corey, with all due respect, I think you really meant to hold off until a little later in this season? Holding off until next fall would be not so good as the wood would not have time to season then. But if purchased this Spring, split and stacked through the summer it would be okay by fall.

btw, once stacked leave it uncovered through the summer. We usually wait until late fall or early winter before covering the top only.

A little later in the season or later in the year...since we're in '09 I was kind of thinking they were about the same?

My basic thought was that this is 'peak demand' season for firewood, but by waiting until later in the year/season...say March, April, May...you're out of peak season, the price might be a little lower and you can dry the wood all summer, if not two.

But, thanks for keeping an eye on me! Sometimes there is a disconnect between what I mean and what gets typed!