On Fri, 23 Feb 2018 16:43:39 -0800 (PST), Michael
wrote:

More expensive than I expected.


Years ago I bought some freshly sawn poplar to use as batten strips. I asked
the sawyer, jokingly, how long I needed to dry it before using it. He looked up
in the air, thought a second, and said to just lean it up against the house
until tomorrow. He said poplar was open grain and the water would run right out
the bottom.

I figured he was pulling my leg, so went home and unloaded, but did lean a few
boards up against the house while I went to lunch. A couple hours later I came
out and there were puddles under each board. I leaned all the rest of the stack
up against the house, and handled some nice light boards a day or two later. 35
years later I was back to visit the old house, and the battens were still in
place. I didn't think poplar would weather that well, but it did.