Where on earth did they get $250 for a cord of wood? Unless you're buying them 10-13 logger's cords at a time, then cutting and splitting it yourself, a cord of oak around where I live (which is not at all far from oak trees) is in the $450-550 range.

You can maybe push it down to $300/cord if you know a guy, but then you're not getting properly seasoned stuff, you're getting stuff recently cut from a dead tree left standing for a few years.