We had wonderful (seasoned hard-)wood at a great price for years by doing just what @JaneJones suggested. Unfortunately after about 20 years the farmer retired so we had to find another supplier but it’s a good way to go…
The neighbors own enough forêt to keep the place at 23° in the winter with the windows open. For the fresh air, like…but have not offered. And I know better than to ask. She is a very good friend, recently widowed at 50. And her dad does NOT like us. Let’s just say that he’s handy round his wife. And I am a red rag to him. So, I will keep my ears to the ground. Only just really able to socialize, been a long time since we arrived last May. But hey, we’re sorted for this year. These things take time. We are still being weighed up by a lot of people and the OH is of the hermit persuasion and doesn’t mingle readily outside the family. Peu à peu.
Couldn’t agree more.
It creates lots of tar which lines the chimney/flue and before you know it the pompieres are doing a house call.
Softwood also burns very quickly and generates little heat.
Oak or chestnut is the way to go.
Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately I’ve got loads of Ash this year as all my trees are diseased
We have noticed a lot of silver birch dieback this year unfortunately.
Have you got ash die back?
There are 2 further pluses to having a lot of ash:
- it is (in my view) the best wood of all for burning, and
- you can burn it with less seasoning than most.
Yes almost all of my Ash trees have dieback, fortunately that’s less than 10% as most are oak and beech in the forest, and birch and alder closer to the river.
This one has lost most of its leaves this week 
Probably just rumour control at work… The farmers and wood supplies are obliged to sell wood that has been seasoned for at least 2 years, and yes, there are those whom will twist the rules… My local farmer visits me late April to know my requirements for the winter, then delivers on the hottest day in August!!!
Here’s a thing, i ordered 3 brass, 12 steres, he deiivers in a tipping trailer as 3 piles
The other year i ordered 2 brass and it appered to be short measure.
This year, i stacked the wood and measured it, the stack is 5m80 x 1m90 for 12 stere/12m3… cut as 50cm… 10m45 delivered.
I asked him to visit and measure it with me, he said cut wood is always less!!!..
I asked again, a few days later when i went to pay him, He produced a note with a law from 1940!
1 stere cut to 50cm gives .750m3… cut to 40cm gives .650m3…
Seems this law allows them to sell a stere of uncut wood, but deliver less once it’s cut?
Anyone else had this experience?
The law is a pretty blunt instrument when it comes to logs though, isn’t it?
As I mentioned above, different woods actually need different lengths of seasoning, and as for sale-by-volume - well, we all know that in fact how straight and how carefully stacked the logs are can make a big difference.
In principle sale by weight would be better, since the heat actually released is closely related to weight; sale by weight would, however, present more practical problems…
(Hardwoods like ash and oak are only better in (most of) France because they are dense - in very cold climates or mountains ‘soft wood’ is fine, not only because it’s all that grows, but because it grows so slowly it is in fact generally dense and heavy.)
he isn’t selling you short measure and you can do the test yourself.Make a stack of I metre long logs to make a cube 1 metre x 1metre x1metre. now cut your logs to 50 cms and measure again you have the same quantity of wood at the start be when cut there is less. He really isn’t cheating you
@ geofcox you can’t sell wood by weight otherwise it would always be delivered wet or in the rain
Indeed - just one of the practical problems I alluded to!
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The only way this can work (BTW I know that whatever I think this is accepted as correct in France) is if cutting to 50cm allows more efficient stacking.
Which is going to depend a lot on how straight the logs are.
Look here easy illustrations.
See @Flocreen’s article - makes perfect sense. With a stere of 1 metre lengths you are in fact buying a mix of wood and air between the wood. When that wood is cut in half you are buying the same amount of wood, but less air, when the metre lengths are cut into thirds you are buying the same amount of wood, but even less air because the gaps between the pieces are smaller.
Simples. 
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In oz they sell by the tonne but then we don’t get a lot of rain 
but then I’m not sure if that is actually practical, does every log seller have a scale? Do they actually sell 1m3 and call it a tonne??? Ahh the mysteries of wood!
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The practicality of the suggestion that it would always be sold wet or in the rain tickled me! What would happen in July I wonder? Would they turn up in the middle of a a 3 month heatwave with a load of drenched wood and an excuse that that is the way it’s meant to be or that the wood just has a healthy sheen 
Equally they’d have to be bloody hard workers if they were going to make an entire years worth of deliveries only on days when it was was pouring hard, I suspect they’d have to do 100x the drops they normally would per day, which hardly seems feasible to diddle people out of some firewood, but I guess it takes all sorts as they say 
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The term wet can mean just cut full of sap and impossible to burn
Worth worrying about? From here: That Cozy Fire Could Be Hazardous to Your Health
“Exposure to wood-burning smoke can cause asthma attacks and bronchitis and also can aggravate heart and lung disease.” People with heart or lung diseases, diabetes, children and older adults are the most likely to be affected by particle pollution exposure.
Worth thinking about the consequences? Yes, a bit …