I wouldn't say there is no advantage to winter cutting. I prefer to cut in winter but I don't know that it makes a huge difference. The big advantage I see is brightness. I'm not fighting bluestain in cold temps. I do wonder if there is more that our ancestors saw, or that you see?
Starch and sugar levels vary seasonally but it seems if there is a food source, something has evolved to take advantage of it. Enzyme and auxin and all kinds of chemicals change level in the sapwood throughout the year. I've wondered if ponding would help dissolve and lower the food levels stored in the cells, no idea. The heartwood, which is the more durable and less sticky part, does not matter at all as to when its cut as I see it. Notice the heartwood of the stump above isn't oozing. It is dead and beyond all caring of when it is harvested. It is also the wood we should be trying to get, heartwood is the good stuff. So if you're in the right timber I guess the "right time" is far less critical. A heartwood timber will not be particularly sappy where the sapwood has live resin producing epithelial cells ready to ooze in response to injury.
One way that plays out is that out of a reasonable pine I can get a 10x12 out of the butt log that is all heartwood and not sticky. The next bolt up can be a 8x8 that is mostly heart with sapwood corners. The next bolt is often a sapwood 6x6 with some really sticky waney edges. So depending on how a tree opened up can affect sappiness too.
Since bound water is the last to leave, only beginning to exit the cell wall at below fiber saturation point (<~25% MC). Ponding will keep the log's moisture level high so ponding shouldn't have any effect on lowering bound water levels. That isn't to say that some other factor related to the ponding isn't at work there during drying, like maybe ponding rinses out a water loving molecule of starch or sugar.
Resin is made of many compounds. The volatile compounds freeze, liquify, boil and vaporize at different temperatures. If a kiln runs the wood up to 160*F all the volatiles that will thaw, liquify and then vaporize at anything below that tempreature will be driven off. If the kiln holds that temperature for long enough, all of the volatiles for that set temperature are driven off. The pitch is "set" to that temperature. One reason pitch pockets still bleed at room temperature after kiln drying is that the large mass of pitch didn't "boil" for long enough to dry out the volatiles in the pocket, so the pocket is set for a lower temperature.
The moon cannot appreciably affect the moisture content or water columns would fail. The cells have to be saturated to live. Is there something else at work with moon cycles? I doubt it but I've been wrong plenty of times.
I've heard that in hot, dessicating weather, with the right equipment, they can hear water columns popping within the tree.
Don, the other thread moved on but "you" was directed at the reader in general not you personally, "we" might have been a better word choice
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