I have been cutting fire wood for over 40 years. Most people have no business around a chain saw.
Alway have 2 cord of wood carried over from the previous year.
I also only cut standing dead trees. Let them be for 2 years, and cut them up. No need to wait. Check them with a moisture meter, and burn it if needed.
Yeah, 10s of 1000s of people using a chain saw for the first time? That’s not good.
Just went out and marked dead trees a couple of weeks ago and will start cutting here this week. Mostly white oaks here, pin oak, post oak. Some black jack and some true red oak. Bit of hickory too but that’s mostly for the smoker. Got on big hickory to cut down this year so some will be for the stove.
I’ve got thick woods, regrowth from several decades ago, so most of what I cut is 4-8”. They get cut to 6-8 foot in the woods and loaded onto a trailer. I cut them to stove length off the back of the trailer up here and they drop into a cart. Then some go straight into the house and the rest on pallet racks.
Got a neighbor who always said if you don’t know how to burn green wood, you got no business using a wood stove. His place was never all that warm and he usually has to clean out his stove pipe once in the middle of Winter. He’s got an old stove in his kitchen that doesn’t shut down tight enough to make it through the night with dry wood. It’s not a cook stove. It’s one of those old ones from the 50s or 60s that is wrapped in a sheet metal case.
He got a little air tight a couple of years for his living room so he now appreciates dry wood for that and figured out how to make it last through morning.
My stove’s hardly new but I can put the fire out if I shut down the vents. It’s a Fisher Papa Bear.
Thank you for your input.