Been looking through some of the older posts here to see if I can learn or share and happened accross this one.
I notice a lot of people have a problem geting smokin' wood and others suggest buying it from online sources. So I thought I would pass along a tidbit of information for those that can't get wood from there own property and don't care for getting raped by the insane prices on the net.
Most every state has some type of logging industry. I know this because I have been truck driving for 20 years and used to haul a lot of paper and wood products from mills all over the country. Call a mill close and ask for slabs. They are the round portion of the tree that they cut off to get a squared stick of lumber. Around here, you can get a bundle of slabs for 20 bucks. A bundle is about 3/4 of a cord of wood. There is a lot of bark to deal with, but for 20 bucks, you can't go wrong. And once the slabs are cut to 18 inch lenghts of shorter if your fire box won't handle that length, they're easily split with a hand ax (hatchet). Even if you have to take a little road trip, were talking 3/4 of a cord for 20 bucks. Here you'll find lots of oak, hickory, walnut, black cherry, cherry, maple, etc. The best mills are the ones that do custom cutting for cabinet shops.
Another way to obtain fire wood is go to a national or state forest. Check your local laws first. Here in Missouri, you can take any felled timber. We have a book of native trees and wildflowers that we always take with us to the woods, so as to identify trees of benefit to us. And my girls love the wild flowers, so it's good to be able to tell them what they are smelling.
BBQ is so popular nation wide, it's hard to get results from orchards or tree trimmers, because the owners of these joints have deals to take all the prunings and the orchards don't have to mess with them. Here, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a roadside BBQ stand.
