Now I know why seasoned wood is so important. I started a fire about 30 minutes ago and its still not lighting that good. You can hear the moisture burning out of the wood. I went to the farm down the street and got 3 bundles and a thing of kindling for $14. Lets see how it goes with this "green" wood.
Don't forget, you've basically just built a kiln (of sorts), so once you're done baking with the oven, you can let the temps drop a bit and use that residual heat to dry green wood. Also, if you arrange your fire with drier/thinner wood at the bottom and wetter wood at the top, it will naturally dry as the fire progresses. Lastly, chopping wood is no easy task, but the smaller the pieces, the more air you can introduce, the better your combustion will be. Oh, and unless you live in an urban area, just about everyone can lay their hands on twigs. Old twigs make for very effective, no cost kindling- better, imo, than purchased kindling.
