Thanks for all the welcomes i am sure you all know how addictive this can be. All my wood is scrounged near where we live. We are surrounded by forest which have very large (60 meter ~ 200 ft) straight grained Messmate also known as Tasmanian Oak. I dont need to cut the trees (yet) as a lot of the neighbours are having trees cut down as they have changed the laws over here after the devastating fires a couple of years ago. We can now cut down any tree which are within 10 metres of the house or 5 metres from the fence line. before that it was impossible to have a tree cut without going through years of red tape. This is good news for me as i have put the word out that i will take all the hardwood people have. So far so good in fact another neighbour is having a couple of trees cut this week. I will try to get some photo's when they are on the ground.
Just to let you know wood over here is very expensive. If you buy it from a reputable seller it is dried (seasoned) but it would cost $160 per cubic meter. That works out to ~ $500 per cord. But it is seasoned. I think it must be a lot easier to season wood here as we have hot temperatures and milder winters. Not sure if it helps having the straight grain but it seems to dry pretty quick. I tested the fresh wood and it was 28 - 32% moisture how would that compare to a typical hardwood in the USA?
COOL! You run low you can always move the fence a little and skip the red tape! There's always loophole....