Having had a large delivery of Olive/Almond wood last week I find most of it is too fresh for burning I have now made a pretty Spanish wood pile........Don't they love their woodpiles,But the stuff will not burn on its own you have to have a roaring fire before you can use any of it. Should I leave this stash to dry until next year or is there a solution. I find carob wood burns too quickly. Any alternate forms of fuel used by anyone.

I think maybe you're just unlucky/using a duff supplier. I've had repeated deliveries of mixed almond/olive/eucalyptus & although occasionally it's a bit large, it's never proved too wet (apart from the load that was delivered & left uncovered shortly before the recent monsoon weather). My chap - and there seem to be wood suppliers coming out of our ears hereabouts - stacks the wood for me(not all do), and yes it's a work of art. I know you can obtain pellets made of olive mash & I think there's also an almond husk equivalent - but I believe they're for specific burners.

Unseasoned wood is a problem if you are burning it in a woodburner as it causes tar and condensation in the chimney,and generally causes smoke problems.
If you can afford it i would get a new supply from a better supplier for this part of the winter and make a nice stack with this load that allows the air to flow through.Also place a cover over top to stop next rains.
By about march you should be able to burn some of this on top of your new stuff when the fire is well in .
You should be at least 12/18 months ahead and try and buy in early summer it is normally a bit cheaper in you haggle. Olive Almond and Eucalyptus are the best giving lots of heat and last a long time. Pine burns quickly and produces tar and spits. Avoid the other expat mistake burning pallets some are treated and can cause breathing problems

You simply have to leave the wood to season. Even up here in the north where we have loads of Chestnut and Oak trees the wood is left so that the sap will dry off. The wood does not have to be covered but it will help.

Just to clarify - am I right in thinking that even if you see wood apparently unwanted, by the side of the road, or off a track, or whatever, it's not done to move (pinch)it because often the landowner is storing it to attract bad insects/etc away from their trees?

Normally being stored to season ready for the future.Some here in the south spray with diesel to stop insects getting into the wood.Its not a decoy for insects.
Pinch at your peril they would rather you took their wives

Hi PnB,

What are you burning it in? Olive and almond are pretty dense woods and to burn properly in a modern efficient wood stove it should have been cut and split in the spring/summer of 2007 to be ready to use for winter 2008/2009. If it was only cut and split this summer it might be seasoned enough for an open fire or one of these terrible cheapo (less than 1000€) tin box woodstoves you see everywhere but it will leave excessive creosote deposits in the flue that if not cleaned regularly would end up causing a chimney fire.

Biggest problem you are going to find in mid-November is finding any firewood that has been split more than 3 months.

May I thank you all for your response, The subject of wood is not that boring and is rather complex if you want a tar free burn. This morning I got 840 Kilos of old olive wood and this is very nice and black...Seasoned. They charge 17 cents a kilo so not that bad. I have a cast iron wood burner in the master bedroom and a huge wood burner that i can almost fit inside as our sitting room is rather like an aircraft hanger. We have had strong winds the last few days and the temp has dropped however today is clear sky's and beautiful. I should have enough now until next month or so but will take the advice that to stock up earlier in the year. I much prefer this form of heating to central heating it brings out the pioneer in one. Mind you there are plenty of cowboys around but of late I notice they are becoming rather rare.

They will go potty if they catch you remember most have shotguns, Wood is very precious to them I have often thought the same, But I could never venture on somebody's land and steal their winter warmth as I am sure your nice wood pile being removed wood rather hiss you off

Must admit originally thought this thread was about golf!

Burnt the clubs last week to keep Mrs P warm

They are chopping branches off trees around here at the moment, just tidying things up and I've seen loads of people taking fir tree branches back to their house to burn

Fir enough

Absolutely it would! But I actually meant more the odd few bits of small stuff for kindling, stray branch or whatever, & I certainly didn't mean trawling someone's hectares for stacks of the stuff... and anyway thankfully I have quite a few trees which with the wind recently are producing plenty of 'droppings' for me

14 cents here on the Costa Blanca. By the way, are they modern efficient stoves with secondary combustion or smoke dragons? 800 kilos sounds a lot of wood for a month. Right now I can get by on 8 kilos a day. One fire, lit about 6pm. Flames for about 4 hours and then dies to coals which are still glowing next morning. Temperature spikes to about 26 degrees and then coasts down to about 20 by the morning.