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I have a fireplace and love to use it in the winter, however I don't have the space to store wood over the summer in order to properly dry it without it looking like it is an eyesore.  So what do I do?  I turn to craigslist and search for firewood.  Last year I burnt a face-cord worth of wood and it was great wood.  Very dry and burned extremely well.  I tried to find the number of the person that I ordered from last year to get some more wood this year but I could not locate it.  So I found a new supplier and the guys who delivered it were really nice.  I was hopeful that I got good batch of wood.

So far I am on my third fire of the year and I think that I got "burnt."  I am having a dickins of a time trying to the fires started.  I mean I think I have it going and then suddenly once the fire-starter goes out the rest of the wood goes out with it.  You can hear the wood really popping and steaming as it takes a mature fire to really dry the wood.  I am making it through and getting the fires going, but it takes me at least and hour before I can leave it for more then 3 minutes.  Last year I had a mature fire in about 15 minutes. 

 I will freely admin that I made a key mistake when ordering my wood this year.  I forgot to ask the most important question of my wood supplier, "How long has this wood been aged?".  Learn from me and be sure that the wood is aged at least a full year, and two would be better.  I made the mistake and only asked while we were stacking the wood and found out it was cut down about 9 months ago.   Definitely not long enough to make it burn well.  I think you can find some good deals on CraigsList, you just need to remember to do your research.