Tips for using a fire pit, please!

[SpanishFly]

Bought our first fire pit and a bag of logs. We're on our third fire now, and each has been very very smoky. The logs were allegedly dry when we got them, and they've been stored indoors the whole time, so they shouldn't be damp.
Any tips? Seems pointless having one if we cant sit beside it due to smoke 😭

Is the wood hot enough that it is burning with flames? If they're too cold they'll just sit and smoulder into charcoal.

I had a very big flame earlier and the smoke wasn't so bad. I've added another log and its smoking badly again. How do I make it hotter? Is it to do with how the wood is piled?

Having spent many a happy camping trip cooking on wood fires, I've never had one that didn't produce any smoke at all. You just have to sit upwind. What kind of wood is it? I think hard wood makes less smoke than soft wood.

To make less smoke the air has to be able to get in, start with a pyramid shaped fire or some sort of open arrangement.

This is what I bought

Ash x

Those look like quite chunky logs for a small garden fire pit. You might need to split some into smaller sections, or gather some smaller sticks to get a good hot fire burning before adding a couple of logs.

Ash should burn nice and hot and for a decent length of time and give you some good embers to cook over though once you get it going.