Hi,
How to process and/or store your logs depends a lot on what you plan to do with them. You mention "turning blocks and spindles."
As a general statement, I would leave the logs as long as you can and still be able to handle them. I would seal the end-grain with Anchorseal or some other green wood sealer. If stored outdoors, I would stack the logs on pallets (usually available free - I get mine from my local Ace Hardware, among other places) and cover them with a tarp of some sort, allowiing air to circulate. Try to locate you wood pile where it doesn't get direct sunlight, if possible.
Since I turrn almost exclusively green/wet wood making bowls, hollow form vessels and such, I don't feel competent to tell you how to dry your wood for spindles. For bowls and such turned green, however, you have a number of choices. For example, you can turn bowls to their finished shape and dimensions, you can rough turn and later re-turn them, you can boil them, microwave them or whatever. Personally I turn them wet to final shape and dimension and welcome the warping I get. And yes, I ocassionally get a crack but if I avoid the pith and keep the wall thickness very consistent I lose less than 1 percent to cracking.
When I'm ready to make a bowl blank, I cut off any cracking on the end of the log, then cut it off at about the same length as its largest diameter (don't forget to reseal the end of the log you're not going to use that day). Next I decide on how I am going to open up the log whether bowl, natural edge bowl, vessel or whatever, and rip it accordingly making sure I will not have the pith in my finished piece unless, for some reason, I want it. I also look at what will be the grain orientation, and so forth.
About the last thing I do outdoors with the chain saw is knock the corners off my bowl blank so I've got a rough octagon. This simply speeds up the roughing and reduces the shavings I have to haul out.
I know there's lot more to be sasid, but I hope this is of some small help.
Whit