I hear it a lot from firewood buyers, it is hard to find a good reliable source of dry firewood in the area. It is an all too common story. People say they order wood from someone who assures them it will by dry, but when they get it, they are disappointed that it is anything but dry. Then they have to spend the rest of the winter trying to burn wet wood. But there is a solution.
Firewood is a great way to heat your home, but if you do choose this source of heat, realize that you are going to have to take charge a little if you want to have a steady supply of dry wood. Most people wait until the last minute and start looking for dry wood in the late summer or fall. But my more experienced customers know not to follow the masses. Instead, they buy their wood in the spring or early summer when others aren’t.
They do this because they know it will then have plenty of time to dry before winter. So it doesn’t matter if I bring them wet or green wood. They actually usually prefer to buy it green because green wood costs less, and it is usually cleaner, with fewer bugs, mold and fungus. And since fewer people are buying early in the year, you can get it when supplies are more available and when the weather is favorable in the woods for cutters to be producing wood.
If you want dry wood, spring or early summer is the best time to buy. Or if you buy it later in the year, it should not be for the coming winter, but for the following winter so it will have a full year to dry. It is great to give wood a full year, but if you get it after winter it can dry during the summer and won’t have to sit out in the damp all winter and mold and attract bugs and debris to later bring into your home.
Either way is good, as long as you are giving it at least a full summer to dry and have a good place to dry it. Otherwise you are taking a big gamble expecting firewood dealers to bring you dry wood at the last minute.
Buy firewood in Humboldt County
Why it is So Hard To Find Reliable Dry Firewood For Sale
I sold out of dry wood early in the summer last year, so I didn’t have dry wood available for those who usually buy it before winter. I just didn’t cut as much wood early in the year to dry last year, since I had other business to tend to. This is the nature of the firewood business. Supplies of dry wood will not always be reliable.
Firewood is not usually a mass produced commodity. It is not like electricity or natural gas, it does not have nation wide and even worldwide well established distribution systems that make it always available on demand. Firewood is a product that is usually produced by local small operations, sometimes one person doing it just because they are out of work or to make extra money. It is a tough business to be in and most suppliers will come and go. You may find a reliable source for a while, but they probably won’t last forever.
In order to bring you dry wood, a wood cutter will have to cut large amounts of wood months ahead of time, and then wait for it to dry before it can be sold, and before they can make a dime on it. Most cutters are more interested in paying the bills now and aren’t going to cut and split that much wood knowing they won’t be paid for many months. And huge piles of wood in a wood yard don’t dry nearly as fast as a small amount stacked at your home will. It is hard to get good air circulation in a big pile of wood to dry it.