Free firewood!

[Geostache]

Our neighbors are having some trees cut down in their back yard. I was shocked that they weren't saving the trunks for firewood, so I texted them about it. I had forgotten that they had a gas fire place, not a wood burning one. They offered it to us, and I said "heck yes!" They are cutting down three very large hard wood trees that are about 40 feet tall. More wood for us!

[jacksonvasey]

That's awesome! I love when the neighbors save wood for me.

How are you going to split it?  Do you have a stove to burn it in for heat?

[Geostache]

That's awesome! I love when the neighbors save wood for me.

How are you going to split it?  Do you have a stove to burn it in for heat?

Good, old-fashioned axe splitting. The neighbor that donated the wood offered to help us split it. We have a wood fire place, but the long-term plan is to get either a wood burning stove insert or a pellet stove insert.

[Spork]

We have at least one hardwood a year fall (or occasionally cut down because it is dying and might hit something important)... so we go through 4-6 cords a year.   And I am not as badass as you.  I broke down and got a hydraulic splitter years ago.

I'll caution you that most (not all) wood burning fire places have a negative effect on house heat.  They're great for ambiance and really nice up close.  But the huge majority of the heat goes right up the flue.  All that air has to be replaced.  In most cases, cold outside air is pulled into the house to replace it.

There are lots of extenuating factors:
* some sort of heat exchanger that draws heat out of the flue gases
* some sort of external air feed for the fire
* your house is super air tight and has some sort of fancypants air exchanger that manges to reduce heat loss.

Go for the wood stove.  I suspect it will give you much more efficient use of that found firewood.  (And plumb the outside air into the stove to fuel the fire.)

[jacksonvasey]

I would pull the trigger on the insert in the next year. We just replaced our junky Vermont castings insert for a Napoleon, had our first fire in it tonight. Bad timing since oil is so cheap, but it'll go up eventually, I bet.

And it was nice having it when we lost power for 5 days in November four years ago.

I have a fast splitter available but I've been splitting by hand lately.

[regulator]

I don't worry about the current price of natural gas (my alternative for heating).  I like being insulated from price spikes and mostly I am burning what would otherwise be landfill.  We don't have a woodlot, but in my area of suburbia there are a lot of mature trees which regularly snuff it and have to be cut down.  The homeowners and/or the tree cutting crews post on craigslist for people to pick the wood up for nothing.  Their alternative is to chip it and dump it, or to haul logs to a dumpster.  Instead I show up and load the bucked logs into my truck: the crew avoids some heavy labor and I heat my home with landfill.  I cut with an electric chainsaw if necessary, but mostly I haul the wood to the backyard in an old kids' wagon and split by hand.  I scrounge my wood in the spring because the trees that died over the winter are being cut down and anything I get that is a bit green will have time to dry by the winter.  Its a wonderful thing.

[Monkey Uncle]

That's awesome! I love when the neighbors save wood for me.

How are you going to split it?  Do you have a stove to burn it in for heat?

Good, old-fashioned axe splitting. The neighbor that donated the wood offered to help us split it. We have a wood fire place, but the long-term plan is to get either a wood burning stove insert or a pellet stove insert.

An axe probably isn't going to be sufficient for hardwoods, especially yard trees, which tend to have lots of knots and twists.  You likely will need to invest in a sledge hammer and a couple of wedges, or maybe a splitting maul.  Personally, I think a hammer and wedge is more efficient than a maul.  Take if from someone who splits 5-6 cords a year by hand - you don't want to be wasting effort.

[happy]

A few years ago I read somewhere that firewood always comes free, so I started to keep my eyes open, and found that to be true. Between the wood produced on my block, and found wood I have all I need. Just have to keep my eyes open and act swiftly when I see wood for free.

[jacksonvasey]

A few years ago I read somewhere that firewood always comes free, so I started to keep my eyes open, and found that to be true. Between the wood produced on my block, and found wood I have all I need. Just have to keep my eyes open and act swiftly when I see wood for free.

That is indeed true, though a lot of posts I see for free wood on Craigslist are usually like "gigantic oak trees leaning toward my house, you just come by and drop them safely and remove the brush and all the wood is yours for free! Must be insured."

There is a lot of competition for the free stuff around me. I remember I replied to an ad for some free straight grained pine, and there was another guy already there who had replied to a separate ad from the same person for taking some hardwood trees that had been dropped. When the other guy saw me he freaked out and called his buddy and frantically told him to come now and bring another trailer.

I just went about my business collecting the pine. I pretty much will only bother taking free pine since no one else wants it. It burns beautifully, despite the person giving it to me, warning me to only burn it outdoors. I just smile and nod.

[rusty]

I have a wood fired water heater for our old farm house.  Insulation is poor, but being improved as we continue to update the house (built in 1870s).  We use a free standing water heater from Taylor Manufacturing out of NC.  The unit is about 100 feet from the house and hold 750 galloons of water.  The fire in the firebox heats the water to about 160-180F and then the water is circulated thru insulate pipes to a heat exchanger in our duct work.  My last year of using oil to heat the house cost $3,200 for the winter.  Now I spend about $250 on wood (47,000 lbs last year - from a local timber company) and $150 on maintainence.  It paid for itself about 3 years ago.

[Spork]

I just went about my business collecting the pine. I pretty much will only bother taking free pine since no one else wants it. It burns beautifully, despite the person giving it to me, warning me to only burn it outdoors. I just smile and nod.

The reason you don't want to burn pine is that the pitch will junk up your flue with creosote.  And it won't be the nice flakey kind that is easy to knock off.  It will be gummy and sticky.

Yes, it burns nice.  No, you do not want to burn it in a fireplace/wood stove.

[Axecleaver]

I pretty much will only bother taking free pine since no one else wants it. It burns beautifully, despite the person giving it to me, warning me to only burn it outdoors. I just smile and nod.

We heated with wood when I was growing up; we didn't take pine because the soft wood doesn't hold much energy, and here in the Northeast there is plenty of hardwood to use instead. But as I understood it, pine is OK to burn as long as you split it and season it at least a year. Some folks will burn small amounts of pine (works great to start fires) along with the hardwoods. Creosote buildup is from burning wet or unseasoned wood. Seasoned pine is OK, just have to get more of it to get the same heat value.

[jacksonvasey]

I just went about my business collecting the pine. I pretty much will only bother taking free pine since no one else wants it. It burns beautifully, despite the person giving it to me, warning me to only burn it outdoors. I just smile and nod.

The reason you don't want to burn pine is that the pitch will junk up your flue with creosote.  And it won't be the nice flakey kind that is easy to knock off.  It will be gummy and sticky.

Yes, it burns nice.  No, you do not want to burn it in a fireplace/wood stove.

You're mistaken, there.  Creosote comes from incomplete combustion, which for most people comes from burning unseasoned wood.  The pitch acts as an accelerant, which is why a lot of people use it for starting fires.

It holds just as much energy as any other wood, by weight.  It just so happens you need much more volume of pine to equate the same energy in say maple.  But as I said, in my area hardwood is a pain to come by unless you're well connected to someone with land.

Considering that pine has about 16 MBTU per cord, vs. 20-25 MBTU per cord of a lot of hardwoods around here (cherry, sugar maple, but not counting oak), I only need 25% more pine for my needs if I only have pine, which I don't.  So my point is, it's much easier to acquire and process pine, than to have to compete to attain hardwoods.

[Fishindude]

I guess if pine was all I could get, I'd burn it.   It burns real hot, real fast and leaves a whole bunch of ashes.
Would much rather burn hardwoods.

Whatever you use, split it and let it dry out and season for at least six months.

[Asdfg]

I'll caution you that most (not all) wood burning fire places have a negative effect on house heat.  They're great for ambiance and really nice up close.  But the huge majority of the heat goes right up the flue.  All that air has to be replaced.  In most cases, cold outside air is pulled into the house to replace it.

There are lots of extenuating factors:
* some sort of heat exchanger that draws heat out of the flue gases
* some sort of external air feed for the fire
* your house is super air tight and has some sort of fancypants air exchanger that manges to reduce heat loss.

Our house is heated mainly with firewood. We have a underfloor heating system but that really only triggers on when the outside temperature drops below 25 F. Our fireplace is kind of big, it weighs about 6600 lbs because it has multiply layers of bricks. So as soon as the fire has stopped and the embers are not glowing, I close the air intake hatch and the heated bricks will warm the house nicely until the next day.

You could also connect the underfloor heating system to your fireplace, but our mason didn't know how to do it.

[Spork]

I'll caution you that most (not all) wood burning fire places have a negative effect on house heat.  They're great for ambiance and really nice up close.  But the huge majority of the heat goes right up the flue.  All that air has to be replaced.  In most cases, cold outside air is pulled into the house to replace it.

There are lots of extenuating factors:
* some sort of heat exchanger that draws heat out of the flue gases
* some sort of external air feed for the fire
* your house is super air tight and has some sort of fancypants air exchanger that manges to reduce heat loss.

Our house is heated mainly with firewood. We have a underfloor heating system but that really only triggers on when the outside temperature drops below 25 F. Our fireplace is kind of big, it weighs about 6600 lbs because it has multiply layers of bricks. So as soon as the fire has stopped and the embers are not glowing, I close the air intake hatch and the heated bricks will warm the house nicely until the next day.

You could also connect the underfloor heating system to your fireplace, but our mason didn't know how to do it.

If you're drawing outside air directly into the fire... It's likely you're doing ok.  Most fireplaces I've seen don't do that.  They draw air through leaky insulation on the other side of the house, creating a warm spot near the fire, but a net cold effect.

[Geostache]

That's awesome! I love when the neighbors save wood for me.

How are you going to split it?  Do you have a stove to burn it in for heat?

Good, old-fashioned axe splitting. The neighbor that donated the wood offered to help us split it. We have a wood fire place, but the long-term plan is to get either a wood burning stove insert or a pellet stove insert.

An axe probably isn't going to be sufficient for hardwoods, especially yard trees, which tend to have lots of knots and twists.  You likely will need to invest in a sledge hammer and a couple of wedges, or maybe a splitting maul.  Personally, I think a hammer and wedge is more efficient than a maul.  Take if from someone who splits 5-6 cords a year by hand - you don't want to be wasting effort.

I second the pitch for a maul and a wedge. There is no way we would have gotten the work done without those tools. As it is, we are still going to need a chain saw for the big trunk pieces. Even the maul and wedge/sledge combo wouldn't work. Here's a pic of the splitting process. The trees netted us about 3/4 of a cord.

[Spork]

For comparison, here is a day's worth of splitting with hydraulics.  You can't tell, but the depth behind that stack is about 4 feet.   The right side is about 7 feet high. 

A maul and wedge is better for you and is more badass.  But I'm old and lazy.

[ABC123]

I don't worry about the current price of natural gas (my alternative for heating).  I like being insulated from price spikes and mostly I am burning what would otherwise be landfill.  We don't have a woodlot, but in my area of suburbia there are a lot of mature trees which regularly snuff it and have to be cut down.  The homeowners and/or the tree cutting crews post on craigslist for people to pick the wood up for nothing.  Their alternative is to chip it and dump it, or to haul logs to a dumpster.  Instead I show up and load the bucked logs into my truck: the crew avoids some heavy labor and I heat my home with landfill.  I cut with an electric chainsaw if necessary, but mostly I haul the wood to the backyard in an old kids' wagon and split by hand.  I scrounge my wood in the spring because the trees that died over the winter are being cut down and anything I get that is a bit green will have time to dry by the winter.  Its a wonderful thing.

Wait a minute -- those tree people take wood to the landfill?  Seriously?  That sounds crazy to me.  I always assumed they chipped it up and sold it as mulch, or found some sort of wood company that would buy it off them. 

[Geostache]

For comparison, here is a day's worth of splitting with hydraulics.  You can't tell, but the depth behind that stack is about 4 feet.   The right side is about 7 feet high. 

A maul and wedge is better for you and is more badass.  But I'm old and lazy.

And now I have wood envy. And sciatic nerve pain.

[Fishindude]

Yea, my days of splitting much wood by hand are behind me.   
I've got a 28 ton hydraulic splitter and can split up a load of sawed wood in a hurry.   If I can get some help, it really goes fast.

[Asdfg]

If you're drawing outside air directly into the fire... It's likely you're doing ok.  Most fireplaces I've seen don't do that.  They draw air through leaky insulation on the other side of the house, creating a warm spot near the fire, but a net cold effect.
[/quote]

To be honest I'm not 100 % sure how the fireplace works. I assume it can't draw air through the chimney, which means the air is pulled in through leaky insulation. But the fireplace is the only thing heating our house currently and it keeps a steady 70 F inside even if it's around 40 F outside.

And, I can bake bread and pizza in the fireplace too :)

[Spork]

To be honest I'm not 100 % sure how the fireplace works. I assume it can't draw air through the chimney, which means the air is pulled in through leaky insulation. But the fireplace is the only thing heating our house currently and it keeps a steady 70 F inside even if it's around 40 F outside.

And, I can bake bread and pizza in the fireplace too :)

Ah, you're just talking about the flue damper.  I got you.  My stove actually has an external air feed plumbed.  I thought that was what you were referring to.

We've considered getting a small stovetop oven.... but I don't think it will be big enough for a pizza.

[Asdfg]

Ah, you're just talking about the flue damper.  I got you.  My stove actually has an external air feed plumbed.  I thought that was what you were referring to.

We've considered getting a small stovetop oven.... but I don't think it will be big enough for a pizza.

Yeah that's it. It's a standard in Finland and I sort of assumed it's the same everywhere :) The key is to keep the flue damper open enough to allow the fire to burn purely but not too much in order not to get too much cold air in the house. And then close the flue damper of the fireplace and chimney as soon as the fire is out. The hot air from the fire is circulating through the fireplace many times so that as much as possible of the heat is captured inside the bricks.

I'm still learning how much wood I should use to have a proper temperature for baking, and to have the temperature last for a couple of hours. Also stews cooked overnight (about 9-12 hours) are really great!

Sorry for off-topic :)

[happy]

Hmmm, just spotted a pile of cut wood by the kerb just up the road - saw some treemen shredding this morning. No sign saying free firewood though. Its not actually outside anyone's house, so I can't knock and ask.  Always wonder whether to rush in and scoop it or hang back in this situation.

[Monkey Uncle]

Hmmm, just spotted a pile of cut wood by the kerb just up the road - saw some treemen shredding this morning. No sign saying free firewood though. Its not actually outside anyone's house, so I can't knock and ask.  Always wonder whether to rush in and scoop it or hang back in this situation.

Approach the tree guys and ask if you can have it.  I got half a year's worth of wood that way once.

[happy]

Tree guys were well and truly gone when I spotted the wood stack….

[MoonShadow]

I pretty much will only bother taking free pine since no one else wants it. It burns beautifully, despite the person giving it to me, warning me to only burn it outdoors. I just smile and nod.

We heated with wood when I was growing up; we didn't take pine because the soft wood doesn't hold much energy,

By volume (cord) this is true.  But by dry/seasoned weight, this is not true.  Pound for pound, well seasoned wood has about the same available BTU's regardless of what species it is.  I have a, rather large, wood stove with current EPA certification.  It was actually tested to burn pine, because it's the hardest species to burn completely.  Once the firebox is hot, the secondary air supply looks like flames hovering in open space above the main fire.  The great advantage of hardwoods, particularly black locust, is the extended burn times.  Hardwoods have a higher charcoal to pitch energy ratio, so once the pitch has been 'boiled off' (yes, this is what happens) and burned, what you have left is a huge charcoal briquette that can slow burn for hours.  Pine doesn't do this, because it's charcoal to pitch energy ratio is so low, by the time the pitch has boiled off, there isn't hardly any charcoal left.  Also, I will take hardwood branches, break them up into small bits, put them into old christmas cookie tins, and put them into a hot fire.  The pitch will boil off and jet out around the edges of the tin top, contributing to the heat of the current fire.  Once the fire has died, and I'm sure that the tin is cool, I'll remove the remaining chunks of hardwood charcoal.  I will either use these as kindling for another fire, because they light much easier than any regular wood does; or if I only need a smallish fire, I'll pile quite a bit of charcoal up with a little bit of pine branches.  It's hard to get a small wood fire to burn hot enough to not smoke in my large firebox, which is 26" deep and 14" wide; but if I can keep it hot enough to light itself from the secondary air supply, there won't even be visible smoke coming from the flue, and I can't smell it standing outside.  I've been doing it like this for 3 winters now, and have not had any creosote accumulation at all; nothing but ash on the chimney brush, and one stroke and I can see the shine of the stainless steel flue.

And another trick.  If you have some damp (unseasoned) wood you'd like to use sooner rather than later, you can bake it on a cookie sheet at 215 degrees.  While baking the wood, you are heating your house on a cool day, then you burn the wood to heat your house on a cold day.  Fully 'seasoning' a fresh cut, 12 inch thick log would take about 5-6 hours of baking; so what I usually do is take a log that hasn't seasoned enough (1-3 months of seasoning), and bake it an hour or two just to finish it off.  I'll typically let it cool off inside the oven, as the latent heat of the oven will help to 'season' it just a bit more.  This has the side effect of killing any critters hiding inside, if creepy-crawlies in your wood is a concern; but this is also why a dedicated cookie sheet is required; don't try this with the cookie sheet you might actually like to make cookies on someday.

[jacksonvasey]

It's hard to get a small wood fire to burn hot enough to not smoke in my large firebox, which is 26" deep and 14" wide; but if I can keep it hot enough to light itself from the secondary air supply, there won't even be visible smoke coming from the flue, and I can't smell it standing outside.  I've been doing it like this for 3 winters now, and have not had any creosote accumulation at all; nothing but ash on the chimney brush, and one stroke and I can see the shine of the stainless steel flue.

And another trick.  If you have some damp (unseasoned) wood you'd like to use sooner rather than later, you can bake it on a cookie sheet at 215 degrees.  While baking the wood, you are heating your house on a cool day, then you burn the wood to heat your house on a cold day.  Fully 'seasoning' a fresh cut, 12 inch thick log would take about 5-6 hours of baking; so what I usually do is take a log that hasn't seasoned enough (1-3 months of seasoning), and bake it an hour or two just to finish it off.  I'll typically let it cool off inside the oven, as the latent heat of the oven will help to 'season' it just a bit more.  This has the side effect of killing any critters hiding inside, if creepy-crawlies in your wood is a concern; but this is also why a dedicated cookie sheet is required; don't try this with the cookie sheet you might actually like to make cookies on someday.

My dad has an ancient smoke dragon from the 70's, I think it's a Vermont Castings knockoff clone.  Through most of the year he just grabs fallen branches off the ground and smolders them in the wood stove, which, due to the enormous size of the thing still pours out plenty of heat.  But he cleans the stove pipe like 3 times a year, so whenever we get a bit of a warm spell mid-winter he goes ahead and cleans about 2 inches of creosote off the pipe.  It's so gross.

He also splits oak about 2 days before burning; he splits it about 2"x2" and cross stacks it indoors a few days, and then it's ready enough to burn in that stove.  It's crazy, I season oak for like 3 years before my EPA stove will be happy with it.

[MoonShadow]

It's hard to get a small wood fire to burn hot enough to not smoke in my large firebox, which is 26" deep and 14" wide; but if I can keep it hot enough to light itself from the secondary air supply, there won't even be visible smoke coming from the flue, and I can't smell it standing outside.  I've been doing it like this for 3 winters now, and have not had any creosote accumulation at all; nothing but ash on the chimney brush, and one stroke and I can see the shine of the stainless steel flue.

And another trick.  If you have some damp (unseasoned) wood you'd like to use sooner rather than later, you can bake it on a cookie sheet at 215 degrees.  While baking the wood, you are heating your house on a cool day, then you burn the wood to heat your house on a cold day.  Fully 'seasoning' a fresh cut, 12 inch thick log would take about 5-6 hours of baking; so what I usually do is take a log that hasn't seasoned enough (1-3 months of seasoning), and bake it an hour or two just to finish it off.  I'll typically let it cool off inside the oven, as the latent heat of the oven will help to 'season' it just a bit more.  This has the side effect of killing any critters hiding inside, if creepy-crawlies in your wood is a concern; but this is also why a dedicated cookie sheet is required; don't try this with the cookie sheet you might actually like to make cookies on someday.

My dad has an ancient smoke dragon from the 70's, I think it's a Vermont Castings knockoff clone.  Through most of the year he just grabs fallen branches off the ground and smolders them in the wood stove, which, due to the enormous size of the thing still pours out plenty of heat.  But he cleans the stove pipe like 3 times a year, so whenever we get a bit of a warm spell mid-winter he goes ahead and cleans about 2 inches of creosote off the pipe.  It's so gross.

That sounds bizarre, but I'm particular about keeping mine in it's optimal burn zone.  My house sits in a bit of a dip, so if I let it smolder and smoke, I'll be the one with the coughing fits.

He also splits oak about 2 days before burning; he splits it about 2"x2" and cross stacks it indoors a few days, and then it's ready enough to burn in that stove.

This has got to be an exaggeration.  I have a friend that will stack wood nearby his woodstove, so that the small stack get a good deal of IR heat, but that's just to finish off a partially seasoned stack.  If he split it just before burning, how long had it sat there before then?  I don't even split logs I cut off my woodlot that are smaller than 8" in diameter, because there is no real need to do so, and large logs (particularly hardwoods that turn into huge charcoal lumps, see above) last much longer than if they are split.  Wood seems to burn quickest if there are edges, and splitting adds edge length.  That said, an unsplit log does take much longer to season, because the surface area covered in bark isn't vapor permeable.  This doesn't seem to matter when using my 'quick seasoning' method in the oven, though; because once you get that log above 212 degrees, that water IS coming out, bark or not.  If the wood is really green, it will 'crackle' as the steam forces it's way out of the shrinking & cracking wood.

It's crazy, I season oak for like 3 years before my EPA stove will be happy with it.

Yeah, that's crazy indeed.  I typically only season about 4 months outside in a stack, then bring them in and either sit them next to the woodstove for a couple days, or oven finish them for a couple hours.

[Le Poisson]

1. Splitting wood - hydraulics are for sissies, here's how you do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVGIUMcpBuQ

2. Seasoning - in our last house we burned 4 cords per year. We always kept 6 cords on hand. All our wood was seasoned a little over a year. If it sat too much longer it would be too dry and burn too fast. 4 cords in the woodshed and 2 cords under a tarp under the back deck.

3. You can buy a chimney brush and chain at teh local hardware store to clean your own chimney. Its actually pretty darn simple to do, but the insurance company might want a certificate from a pro if your house ever burns down.

[MoonShadow]

1. Splitting wood - hydraulics are for sissies, here's how you do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVGIUMcpBuQ

Wow.  Just, wow.  Wouldn't the cost of the dynamite & equipment exceed the value of the firewood?

2. Seasoning - in our last house we burned 4 cords per year. We always kept 6 cords on hand. All our wood was seasoned a little over a year. If it sat too much longer it would be too dry and burn too fast. 4 cords in the woodshed and 2 cords under a tarp under the back deck.

Yes, that's another good point.  There is an ideal water weight that most modern woodstoves are most efficient at, and mine is around 15%.  So I start my woodstove from cold using scrap kiln dried wood, but don't even attempt to long season my large wood.  Sometimes it's just a waste of effort, as it's okay for the deep core of a large log of wood to still have water.  The remaining drying will steal some of your potential heat, but will also temper the tendency of the fire from running away with itself and 'overfire'.  I'd guess that most of that heat lost to boiling off that remaining 15% of water weight would have been lost up the flue anyway, once the fire got to roaring and drawing air too fast.  If our goal is as level a heat output over a couple hours, and it usually is, over-dry wood is still our enemy.  However, it's still possible to get a good mix by adding the over-seasoned or kiln dried wood to under-seasoned wood.  I don't think I could be doing this wrong, since I still haven't even seen creosote up close yet.  I'll be trying out a new retort design of my own this season.  Not just to make charcoal for later use, but also to make charcoal that is burned inside the retort, just at a more controlled pace.  I hope to extend the after-peak output, to suppress the "too cold, too hot, too cold" cycle effect of heating primarily with wood.

[jacksonvasey]

That sounds bizarre, but I'm particular about keeping mine in it's optimal burn zone.  My house sits in a bit of a dip, so if I let it smolder and smoke, I'll be the one with the coughing fits.

This has got to be an exaggeration.  I have a friend that will stack wood nearby his woodstove, so that the small stack get a good deal of IR heat, but that's just to finish off a partially seasoned stack.  If he split it just before burning, how long had it sat there before then?  I don't even split logs I cut off my woodlot that are smaller than 8" in diameter, because there is no real need to do so, and large logs (particularly hardwoods that turn into huge charcoal lumps, see above) last much longer than if they are split.  Wood seems to burn quickest if there are edges, and splitting adds edge length.  That said, an unsplit log does take much longer to season, because the surface area covered in bark isn't vapor permeable.  This doesn't seem to matter when using my 'quick seasoning' method in the oven, though; because once you get that log above 212 degrees, that water IS coming out, bark or not.  If the wood is really green, it will 'crackle' as the steam forces it's way out of the shrinking & cracking wood.

It definitely is bizarre, but is not an exaggeration.  Those old smoke dragon stoves put out heat if there's a fire inside, not like modern EPA stoves.  My EPA stove needs bone dry wood, the dryer the better.  It's so air-tight you just close down the air supply really low and the fire can't run away from you.

Anyway, splitting wet oak real small and cross stacking probably does get rid of a good bit of moisture within a couple days, but we're still talking probably 30% moisture content.  But he gets a bit of a coal bed going eventually, and with a load of the oak, it eventually drives the moisture out and burns the wood.  It's unbelievably wasteful, but that's just what he does.

I've just ordered a load of logs from a tree service for $100 a cord, which I figure is a good enough price.  It saves me from buying a trailer and becoming one of those wood scroungers always trying to scrape by getting enough free firewood.

[jacksonvasey]

1. Splitting wood - hydraulics are for sissies, here's how you do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVGIUMcpBuQ

2. Seasoning - in our last house we burned 4 cords per year. We always kept 6 cords on hand. All our wood was seasoned a little over a year. If it sat too much longer it would be too dry and burn too fast. 4 cords in the woodshed and 2 cords under a tarp under the back deck.

3. You can buy a chimney brush and chain at teh local hardware store to clean your own chimney. Its actually pretty darn simple to do, but the insurance company might want a certificate from a pro if your house ever burns down.

That video is awesome, though imagine the size of their wood burners based on the size of those splits.

Good point on the chimney brush; I have never had my chimney liner professionally cleaned, it takes like 20 minutes to get the brush and poles out, climb on the roof, removed the chimney cap, brush, and replace the chimney cap.  Way better than paying someone 100 bucks or whatever it costs now.

I don't worry much about chimney fires based on how I burn, but I do keep a Chimfex chimney fire extinguisher close by the stove just in case.  I guess it's just a road flare that doesn't have an oxygen source built into it, so it consumes the oxygen in your stove/chimney so fast the rest of the flames can't continue, and puts out the chimney fire.