Here's how I got started down the wood burning road...
My dear cousin gave me his woodstove (the retired one) when he got tired of the mess and hooked up to a propane stove heater. Conditionally that I clean up his "woodpile". When he cleared his land 17 years prior, they took down about a dozen old Chinese Elm trees. SEVENTEEN. Some of those old chunks still threw mist off the saw when I blocked them down to size. I'll bet I knocked 15 cords out of that pile before I finally hauled off the last.
The rest of this story may belong in "the gear" forum. I went through two rebuilds on a homemade log splitter. The last log was the last log was the last log from that pile. It had more diameter than my sons had height, at least 40 inches (okay, I'm stretching just a tad, two of three boys were bigger than the log). I drove it through the splitter (horizontal) at full rpm, while standing on top of the log and swinging a 15 pound sledge to drive it through the wedge. The log popped, the wedge snapped off and the frame of the splitter fell from the tractor. It's a miracle my boys allowed me to put another stove in the house.
And the point of my story is, I couldn't burn what I split, still, without a summer season. Did I say 17 years? It took me six years to clean up the pile, some of that stuff was over twenty three years fallen before it was run through my stove. I cleaned my chimney once a month, religiously, or with regrets when I had to climb up on the roof during a snow storm.
(and yes, I'm familiar with the term "stubborn dutchman". I prefer strong willed as the term of endearment) And I'm older now, and more seasoned, but I'm rather certain the German blood still runs through my veins. But there's no pics. I guess it didn't happen. (I'm really glad there weren't any pics) Just DON'T hand my boys crayons and paper.
So yes, I would believe your summer seasoned oaks my still be a little ripe.