First rough lumber purchase

I can help with question 1. 8-10% is pretty dry in most areas of the country. Where are you located? In Colorado where I live we tend to end up in the 7-9% range but it is pretty dry here. Outside of the southwest 8-10% is a pretty consistent dry reading for wood.

Also, even with a good moisture reading, it is always good to let the wood sit in your shop for a couple of weeks so it can acclimatize to the moisture level it will have when you are working it.

As for the bark, I don’t think you can go wrong by removing it. That would just be one less layer for moisture to have to get through. Unless you are incorporating the bark into a work-piece, I’d recommend taking it off.

-- Behind the Bark is a lot of Heartwood----Charles, Centennial, CO

You’ll love working with air dried lumber. It has a lot less internal stress. With some kiln dried woods I purchased, the lumber warps the minute I cut it. Air dried lumber has hardly any internal stress so it tends to stay straighter and not warp.
8 -10% is good. I would let it acclimate for 2 or 3 weeks before working it and you should be good.
Bark? I usually take it off before air drying (bugs like to like between the bark and wood) but since its’ on there now, I suppose it doesn’t matter too much.
Using your router table for edge jointing works really well, in fact, it works better than a lot of the cheap full size 6” jointers I have used. The only downside is the setup time. If I’m edge jointing a lot of boards, I usually do it on the router table. I clamp on an extra long mdf/laminate fence. But most times, if I don’t have a lot of boards, I’ll just do it on my jointer.

Thanks for the replies. I will take the bark off. I think DE is a little bit wetter than CO, but I was three when I last lived in CO so my memory might by wrong.

-- A bad craftsmen blames his cheap #$%ing tools