sad girl needs info on carving palm tikis

I have several dieing palm trees that I plan to carve. I was delt a blow to my collection of specimine palms-ganoderma. Anyone in Florida who knows palms at all, has heard of this lethal fungus. Studied at length at Universities and still no cure, stop in spreading, etc. This is basically AIDS for palms. While I love and collect tiki my greater passion is palms and cycads. I read the International Palm Society message board more frequent than TC. This deadly fungus has killed about 3 clumps of Mediterranian Fan Palms and 3 30'+ King palms. As it stays in the soil forever, I can never plant palms in affected areas, ever, and can only pray it won't spread to my back yard (home to about 50 mature, some rare, beauties). Many of my palms came with the house I bought and were planted in the 60's.
This has left me heart broken. If life hands you lemons, make lemon-aid.
This leads me to my questions. I cut one king down today with the help of an ex and took the chainsaw to it. I must say as a hung-over chick (Jimmy Buffet last night), I did pretty well. Almost cut off my foot and gave my ex a near heart attack!
But I didn't let the palm dry. It was and is very fiberous and wet. How long should I let it dry out. The pieces are about 3' tall. I know there are several carvers out there and I checked the other thread about carving but there was no info on palm woods. I'd also like to get the pieces carved and sealed (suggestions on sealants too) to avoing spreading the fungus. I'd love any info! Thanks!

Palm Tree AIDS (?). I didn't know they were into that stuff.

I would have thought "palm" tree would imply 'self-gratification' and not, well...

Aloha Laney,
I met you breifly during the OC Crawl, at Sam's. I don't know anything about this, but, I'm sure some of the carvers will post soon.
Mahalo,
Al

Laney, that sounds nasty, that fungus. Go to Oceanic Arts and have Leroy give you some palm prepping tips while he is carving, those guys do appreciate charming ladies, and Leroy has years of experience with palms.
Also, Bosko is a member of the Palm Society and would know...
I still want to view your Witco.

Thanks Bigbro. I was planning to go there soon. I always spend way too much time and money there so I sometimes put it off!

This palm problem has me very stressed. I could stand to loose tens of thousands of dollars in landscape palms and have to find a new passion. It would be like someone taking your tiki collection and saying you couldn't have any more tiki! The house I bought was secondary to the beautiful back yard and pool. I've always said I could live out there. I just don't know what I'll do if all my palms die.

Send me a private e-mail and let me know when you'll be in my area next. I'm kind of busy right now, but things should settle down soon.

Laney, I've asked Leroy the question about carving wet palm wood before. He said that they wait at least six months before they carve up tikis. Maybe you can rough it out and let it dry some. If the piece dries too quickly it will split, and that is not good. As far as sealing the tiki, maybe using a wood finish, however, I can't guarantee that this will contain the fungus. Remember that all palmtrees carve differently and the only way to find out is just do it. Good luck

DONT let them dry in the sun! They will crack. Atleast I don't. 6 Months is good. The longer they sit to dry the better chance they will not crack after they have been carved. If you carve and start to see moisture on the fibres, it's too early. Try to make it out to OA and buy a log from Leroy if you're ichin' to carve. Good Luck with your palms. Hope they make it.

Thanks for all the nice comments and advice. I guess I'll go out and move the pieces into the shade and not be so anxious to rip them open!