That is great. I like the fact that people on this forum get excited about hard work. Most people run the opposite way to avoid it. Wonderful score. Great MIL too.
That's good stuff, awesome that you have that much of a head start before you got a stove. You will be one of the few people that actually have a good first year of burning really dry wood.
Me putting off buying a stove for this winter was probably a good idea. Come next winter I am hoping to have 6 cords with at least 2 ready to burn. Then my plan is to scrounge 2 cord a year and I should be good to go.
I am going to deviate from the norm advice on here. Burn what you have as you can. Mix the dry with the not so perfect and then as time progresses get far enough ahead so it's all properly dried. I burned some wet wood this year and while it wasn't ideal and my chimney is probably filthy, I didn't freeze either.