Tonight I got to do something that I really enjoy doing, starting the first fire in my wood stove. Wood heat is some of the best heat you can get. It seems to permeate every corner of your home and has a feeling that cannot be replicated. Of course there are negatives to heating with wood but for me the pros out weight the cons.
We heat entirely with wood but we do have a natural gas stove just in case. Utilizing wood heat to this extent does require a good bit of work but to me that is part of what draws me to it. Heating with wood also allows me to be less reliant on the utility company and lets me have freedom from fluctuating heating costs.
One of the first things you will need when heating with wood is a wood stove. There are way too many types to go over in a simple blog post but spend some time educating yourself on the various types that are available to you. We heat with a wood furnace that is connected to our central heating and air. It has two blowers to help circulate to heat throughout the house. With this type of setup we do not get to watch the flickering flames of a fire but for our use it is worth it. It is situated in our unfinished basement so all of the radiant heat warms our floors in the winter. There is nothing better than warm bathroom floors when there is snow falling on the ground.
An old truck will also be needed in you procurement of wood. Hauling wood can be demanding on a truck so if you have a nice shiny new truck this may not be the best choice. I drive a 1998 F-150 and I find it to be a good choice except that I would prefer a long bed instead of the short bed I have. A short bed would be fine except that I like to have a toolbox in the back of my truck as and this does not leave a great deal of space for wood. I also like a truck with four wheel drive. This is not totally necessary but I have had to get into some pretty remote places to get my wood before and it sure paid off. I believe that a 4 wheel drive is the best choice when living in the country for other reasons as well. You can get by with a small truck but you do limit yourself on the amount of wood you can haul ant any given time and the additional weight really seems to stress the suspension of these smaller trucks. A friend of ours used an S-10 for hauling wood and he suffered busted shocks and springs due to it.
I have tried to go with cheap chainsaws in the past so just to save you the headache please learn from my
mistake. I have decided that a good saw for the firewood cutter is the moderately priced homeowner saws in the 18-20 inch range. I would also recommend that you stick with Husqvarna, Stihl, or Echo. I hear Jonsered are good as well but I have no firsthand experience with them. My current saw is a Husqvarna 450. I have been using this for two years now without any complaints. These seem to be solid machines and it should serve me for many years to come. There are certainly bigger and more powerful saws but if cutting wood to heat you home this type of saw will do quite well.
Along with a saw you should also get all of the appropriate safety equipment like ear plugs, safety glasses, gloves, sturdy boots, and chainsaw chaps. The last thing you want is to injure yourself while you are alone in the woods. I also keep a first aid kit with me filled with a good deal of large gauze pads for use if there were ever an accident. You want to keep this first aid kit close to you so that you are not traveling back to you truck to get it. You can get many good supplies for this kit at any pharmacy or department store.
Once you cut you wood to length you will need to split it into smaller pieces. Splitting wood does two 
things, first it makes it in to more manageable sized pieces. Second thing it does is it allows the wood to dry more quickly. It is said that wood dries from its ends unless it is split. By opening the log up the moisture can escape more quickly. I used to split all of my wood by hand. My preferred splitting axe was one made by Fiskars. This was a nice light weight axe designed specifically for splitting and it did well on smaller to medium sized logs. For the larger logs I would use a splitting wedge and a sledge hammer. As I have grown a little older I have graduated to a gas powered hydraulic log splitter. I did a fair bit of research prior to making my purchase and what I decide to get was a Huskee 22 ton log splitter from Tractor Supply. I believe that they have changed the name of their splitters since I purchased mine but they are still the same machines. I have not found anything I could not handle with the 22 ton model and I see no reason to pay more for a large model.
This may not be a complete guide to cutting wood but it is my take on it and a few things that I have learned over the years. Cutting wood is hard work but the payback that I get from it is well worth the effort that I put into it. A Saturday afternoon in the woods cutting wood is really one of the best times you can have.
God Bless
Logtown Acres 