Any special considerations for burning oak?

I think I'm fighting two things during my cold startup: dense oak and "wet" oak.

Cold starts are still a little bit of an issue.

I think what I will do next year is get about a half cord of pine in addition to whatever I get for oak. Split all the pine for kindling and see how it goes.

I will also start doing trips "up the hill" to find pine branches for kindling.

 

The upside to climbing up the hill is gravity helps bring the wood down
Keep an peeled for any dead standing trees - you could drop them and mix in with your less than optimal Oak.
No need to split all your pine small either, keep it in the 4-6" split range, great fuel for a quick warm up fire and then you'll have coals for the oak to light off on

 

I probably should have said "drive up the hill" since I've got El Dorado national forest available within a 30-40 minutes.

Although I'm sure there is some dead pine up my 1/4 acre of hill