Pacific NW seasoning?

[planner steve]

Complete noob here. Our new 1400 sq ft. house has oil heat so we got an enviro Venice 1200 insert. We were having fires every night anyway so we thought we might put that heat to good use.

How do you season wood here? I've been reading the forums and I've heard you need a year.
1. Should I stack the split wood outside even though it's permarain from Oct-May? Won't it just get soaked? Or is May-Sept good enough to season it?
2. Where should I get the wood? Lots of people on Craigslist selling seasoned wood. Is it really seasoned? (I live in a city on about 1/3 acre). Should I plan on seasoning it myself? (I don't have a chainsaw or a big enough truck to haul a log)
3. Will a tarp suffice? Woodshed goes up in the spring or early summer.
4. Is there any way to tell how much wood you might use before you actually burn it a while? I'm guessing not.

Thanks.

Plenty of good info on storage already. Your yard sounds big enough that you could let some wood season for two years.
For obtaining wood, watch Craigslist frequently. In the Portland, OR area, free wood is often available, already cut to length. I took a quick look at Tacoma Craigslist and all there was today was some cottonwood. But it was cut to length and free. I noticed there is seasoned cedar for $250/cord. Unless you have real inefficient oil heat, you'd spend less heating with oil than paying that much for cedar.

 

[begreen]

i'm dredging up an old thread. i'm curious on people's thoughts on the best readily available wood to burn in the pacific northwest (seattle area). i've come across these two links:
https://nationalfirewoodassociation.org/2012/11/12/best-firewood-in-the-pacific-northwest/
https://chimneysweeponline.com/hosoftwood.htm

so, assuming softwoods only, what are your top 5 woods in order of preference?

it seems as though i'm able to scrounge endless cedar, but doug fir and big leaf maple seem harder to come by. the one pine load i got (very first load when i just got into this whole wood-burning thing) was a serious PITA to split.

I like doug fir for our primary wood. It makes for a good hot burn without excess coaling and produces very low ash. Alder and b.l. maple would be next, but I prefer doug fir. I also have a stash of hardwoods that I scrounge tucked in the second bay of the shed. They consist of madrona, wild cherry, locust and some holly.

Doug fir takes a year to season well, in part because we split it into fairly large 6-8" splits. Madrona and locust need a couple years.

 

[iron]

would you say that cedar (red and yellow) split in fall 2015 would be ready for winter 2016/17? south facing stacks. stays very dry all things considered. not a lot of wind though. i'll keep my eyes open for some DF. a friend of mine will be hooking me up with some alder this weekend!

see attached for current stacking.

 

[blacktail]

Yes, it'll be ready. I would be careful burning loads of cedar. It takes off really fast.

 

[begreen]

That looks like a shaded and sheltered location. Hopefully our dry summer will accelerate drying but I would remove the top cover as soon as the rains stop and check it in July to be sure it is getting dry. I had some big leaf maple that never dried even after a couple years due to the stacking method and location. Watch for water puddling on the tarps and seeping into the piles at low spots. That's what did my maple in. With the tarp on top those areas never dried out.