December has been rough for this first-year wood burner, and I'm starting to feel a bit discouraged.
Like a lot of noobs, I am having serious wood issues. The three cords of soft maple I have are not cured as I thought they would be. I did get 2 more cords of hickory for a good price ($90/cord), but as they were cut and split back in April, they're only slightly better than the maple.
I'd go nuts foraging for standing deadwood on the family farm, except that I can't use a chainsaw. So, I'm going nuts (literally, I think) pulling down standing dead dogwood. I am limited to trees that won't extend past the end of my truck bed 3-4' once I've broken the tops off, so these are maximum 3 to 3" diameter at the base. I drive them home, then cut them with the miter saw. I've been bringing in a truckload of this about twice a week. The dogwood is super-cured, plus it dries out very quickly when it's wet because it's so small. It's fun but my back is getting tired and so am I ... as a not-so-young anymore 100 lb woman. Also the "truckloads" are only as many trees as I can fit in the bed, uncut, so when cut the whole load comes to... maybe a quarter of a rick, at most?
I've been burning about 80% of this small dogwood, but it's been nearly impossible to keep up with even heating only 2 rooms in the house (living room and kitchen), plus on a night like last night when it was in the teens, I get really sick of continually having to reload the little stuff. I'll have maybe one or two questionable logs I can throw on a night when the stove is already cranking. It's been wet, wet, wet here for weeks now, and being a dumb noob I didn't plan for any dry wood storage, so my method has been to take the driest, most cured stuff I can find, deposit it in my garage for a week or so, then bring it into the house and put it next to the stove for a few days. The wood really needs this to get fully dried out, but the hickory I bought is so full of beetle dust that I'm afraid to really keep it in the house for any length of time. Today I went and found one of those big tupperware-type storage bins, and threw a few pieces of it in that, thinking maybe the bugs will stay inside the bin while the wood dries out??? So, I'm trying to burn as little of this semi-cured wood as I can, and when I do so, burn it super-hot, with a raging coal bed and with a bunch of dogwood pieces.
I guess the good news is that if I get through this winter, I'll have plenty of wood for next year, provided the post beetles don't completely devour the hickory.
Like a lot of noobs, I am having serious wood issues. The three cords of soft maple I have are not cured as I thought they would be. I did get 2 more cords of hickory for a good price ($90/cord), but as they were cut and split back in April, they're only slightly better than the maple.
I'd go nuts foraging for standing deadwood on the family farm, except that I can't use a chainsaw. So, I'm going nuts (literally, I think) pulling down standing dead dogwood. I am limited to trees that won't extend past the end of my truck bed 3-4' once I've broken the tops off, so these are maximum 3 to 3" diameter at the base. I drive them home, then cut them with the miter saw. I've been bringing in a truckload of this about twice a week. The dogwood is super-cured, plus it dries out very quickly when it's wet because it's so small. It's fun but my back is getting tired and so am I ... as a not-so-young anymore 100 lb woman. Also the "truckloads" are only as many trees as I can fit in the bed, uncut, so when cut the whole load comes to... maybe a quarter of a rick, at most?
I've been burning about 80% of this small dogwood, but it's been nearly impossible to keep up with even heating only 2 rooms in the house (living room and kitchen), plus on a night like last night when it was in the teens, I get really sick of continually having to reload the little stuff. I'll have maybe one or two questionable logs I can throw on a night when the stove is already cranking. It's been wet, wet, wet here for weeks now, and being a dumb noob I didn't plan for any dry wood storage, so my method has been to take the driest, most cured stuff I can find, deposit it in my garage for a week or so, then bring it into the house and put it next to the stove for a few days. The wood really needs this to get fully dried out, but the hickory I bought is so full of beetle dust that I'm afraid to really keep it in the house for any length of time. Today I went and found one of those big tupperware-type storage bins, and threw a few pieces of it in that, thinking maybe the bugs will stay inside the bin while the wood dries out??? So, I'm trying to burn as little of this semi-cured wood as I can, and when I do so, burn it super-hot, with a raging coal bed and with a bunch of dogwood pieces.
I guess the good news is that if I get through this winter, I'll have plenty of wood for next year, provided the post beetles don't completely devour the hickory.
! I am about to be in your shoes, well sort of. My stove isn't even installed yet. I have a bit of cottonwood cut, but no hard wood at all, wet or dry, so you are ahead of me in that regard.I will be out cutting in the snow and making plans to stock up for next year. Hang in there, at least you are burning 
