Next Years Firewood

One of the smartest things I ever did was put in a woodstove. Combined with the insulation and draughtproofing I've done it has meant that essentially my heating bill for the past 6 winters has been zero.

Even before this winter is over I am stacking the firewood for next winter. So, where do I get all this free wood?

Just had a 2 ton truckload of posts and beams from a house being demolished. The building company have to pay to dump all the wood at a site 10K away, so they are only too happy to give it us for free. It's cedar, which is not the greatest firewood, it burns hot and fast, but sometimes thats useful.

Before they demolished the house we went in and took out some nice double-glazed windows and some double doors which will fit nicely in my house. Some of the 4 by 4's I will denail and trim and use for construction too.

For good firewood you need a nice hardwood, and we are getting that from our local shrine. They have just cut back a lot of the trees on the hill, and as they can't afford to pay to have it taken away they too are happy that we will. There is a lot of Kashi, white oak, which is excellent firewood, and a lot of Tsubaki, Camellia, which I don't know about as firewood, though I've read that it is cut for firewood in some places.