First piece of advice, do not overload your stove with wood! and be patient!
Start with wadded up bits of paper enough to line the bottom of stove..
add small pieces of bark or strips of wood on top of paper, this was called "Kindling" make sure you cover the paper because this will be your base that will get your bigger wood started to burn.
Lite your paper, watch for the "Kindling" to start to burn well then you can begin to stack your bigger wood in stove and make sure you criss-cross it leaving places for the air to circulate to keep the wood burning
This is where your patience comes in..It will take sometime for the oven to heat to begin cooking.
One way to tell when it is ready is by a kettle of water when it begins to boil or butter melts in a cast iron pan.
Now depending on how much you will be cooking, on how much you keep stoking the fire..
