I remember reading here that sometimes these manufactured logs go on sale or you can get a steep discount in the spring after heating season buying by the pallet load. BTU wise they can be good decent to great.
Can you find standing dead? Anything, pine with the bark falling off, elm, whatever. Most all the smaller pieces will be good to burn immediately.
Ash wood will dry fast, split and stacked now, so will tulip poplar. Either, done now this week, will be good to burn this winter, if it is stacked *well*, great sun, good wind, off the ground, single rows.
Don't neglect "smalls" if you find standing dead, milk those little branches out with your smallest saw. So you go to grab some wood to throw in the stove, you grab 3-4 pieces instead of one..beats snowballs!
Not every single tree but a lot of trees I cut down to one inch, and I ain't lying and it all burns and it adds up.
Any place in the east you can scrounge dead pine for free, heck, you might could get paid to remove it from people's yards. Standing dead or downed dead with the branches holding the trunk off the ground and the bark falling off. It works. I have burned cords and cords of the stuff. It hits around 50% of primo oak for BTUs. So, pay for oak (one way or the other) wait two years or get free pine, cut it split it stack it, burn it this year for free. Easy to cut, too.
Tulip poplar is a little better, cleaner, no stickyness to it at all, and splits even easier once a little initial dryness in the round sets in and it starts to crack. That and ash are usually the fastest processing woods I take.
