Self Sufficient Heat for Winter

This is our third winter on The Return Homestead, and we are still building the systems and processes we need to be self-sufficient. This winter, our goal is to provide a warm house without purchasing firewood. While we have taken down a couple of large trees in the early spring, we will need more wood than that, and it will not be seasoned. The beech trees we have been taking down seem to burn well and provide good heat even though they are green and wet. We have some complications with maintaining a good draft on the chimney, but this is manageable once the fire is hot. We have many of these smaller young trees near the top of the property, and we need to start thinning them out. This labor-intensive collection requires a chainsaw, four-wheeler, trailer, splitting axe, and sweat.