Drying wood

[Barry Keen]

I am in the enviable position of having a woodsman as a close friend, I picked up an assortment of wood yesterday, most of it dead when he cut it out, it had been laying in a pile for about a year so I thought it would be dry, (it cut like it was dry)
However after laying it in the shade overnight I found small cracks appearing, I immediately sealed the ends with PVA, and put back in the shade,
My apologies for asking so many questions, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Did I do the right thing ? What should I have done ? Will the wood be usable and how long will it take? What if it rains on the wood when it's drying ?
Would really like to know for future collections,

 

[MARK.B.]

Sealing the ends(I use wax as my preferred sealer) and putting the logs off the ground on some scrap wood under a cover to keep the rain off is what i would do, and also allow good airflow around the logs to help aid the drying process. A general rule of thumb is that it will take approx 1 year(give or take) per inch of thickness to dry to a usable moisture content. It is almost inevitable that you will get some splitting during the drying ,just how much or how little is entirely in the Hands of the woodworking God's.