A Beginner's Guide To having the Right Wood for Cooking while camping.

our choice of firewood can influence how your wood burning experience will turn out. HOTSTICKS Premium kiln-dried FIREWOOD will help your wood stove, fireplace or campfire burn more efficiently, while green or wet wood can cause smoke problems, odor problems, rapid creosote buildup and possibly chimney fires.

All FIREWOOD contains water. Fresh cut FIREWOOD can contain as much as 50% water! Seasoned FIREWOOD has a 20-25% moisture content, while HOTSTICKS Kiln-Dried FIREWOOD has 8-12% moisture content. HOTSTICKS Premium Kiln-Dried FIREWOOD will start easier, produce more heat and burn cleaner. When you burn green wood the heat produced by combustion must dry the wood before it can burn, using a large percentage of the energy available in the process. Burning green wood results in less heat available for heating or cooking.

Burning FIREWOOD is no more harmful to the environment than the wood simply rotting in the mountains. The process does not contribute to greenhouse gases. A growing tree absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and into the molecules of the wood. When the tree dies and decays, it releases carbon back into the atmosphere. Burning firewood is a fast reversal of the natural cycle which Mother Nature already does. Burning wood is unlike burning fossil fuels such as oil and gas which releases greenhouse gases into the air that has been buried in the earth for thousands of years.

Hotsticks Premium Kiln-Dried firewood uses a proprietary kiln drying process that eliminates insect infestations. Hotsticks has been certified by the United States Department of Agriculture to be bug-free and spore free. This is something that we do not take lightly; we inspect our processes daily. Insects inhabit FIREWOOD to use as a shelter and a source of food. Hundreds of different species of insects such as Emerald Ash Bore, Beetles, termites and ants, can reside in green and seasoned FIREWOOD. At Gish Logging we dry “HOT” killing all insects, larva and spores, resulting in FIREWOOD that is dried to a moisture content of 8-12%. The high temperature we operate our kilns far exceeds USDA requirements on both heat and time the FIREWOOD needs to be in the kilns. Therefore, we surpass the “T134-a” requirement of USDA to sell Hotsticks in most quarantined areas of the United States and also surpass the requirements under 6NRCRR section 192.5 for selling Hotsticks in the state of New York.

Do not burn any construction scraps of treated or painted wood, especially treated wood from decks or landscaping ties. The chemical used can release dangerous amounts of arsenic and other very toxic compounds into your house or outdoor area.

Many people also have questions about burning artificial logs. Convenience is their strong suit. Usually they should be burnt only one at a time and only in an open fireplace. One should be careful about poking and moving them around once they are burning as they could break up and the fire may get a bit out of control. Always be sure to read the manufactures directions on the package carefully before using.

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