It should be noted that, as the Mrs. Dash references imply, the sord "seasoned" has no meaning, or so many different ones as to be meaningless. Ferinstance in CT wood cut 6 mos previous is "seasoned"; in at least parts of OH, 50% MC or less meets spec. That's bs.
When you build a fire, use one of the big wet ones as your backlog. When the fire's going place a few splits vertically, well off to the side, to be dried by the fire. No loss there, you're just chucking it all up the flue anyway.
One way to consume less wood for the pretty fire, is to NOT use a grate. Set the wood right on the ash bed. That'll at least not heat the Great Outdoors so well. And, leave a good bed of ash, to insulate the masonry; the more you heat the masonry on on exterior fireplace, the more heat goes directly to the same Great Outdoors.