tips for staining soft wood

I am currently in the middle of staining and finishing a bathroom floor. The wood is soft pine tung and groove salvaged from an extirior porch.
There are a few things I have learned that I would like to share.

First of all reusing salveged lumber is a good way to save some money, but make sure you know exactly what you are getting into. Be sure to price buying new lumber to make sure it is more than you want to spend.
And make absolutely certain that you can straighten, flatten, and refinish the salvage lumber enough to achive the desired effect.
Now that I have the floor installed and the finish is going on I realize that it would have been much better to buy new lumber, and since the room is only 30 sq ft it would not have cost all that much.

But since I have already put it down I will let you know how I am staining the soft pine.
I found that the pine absorbs the stain very quickly and it does not absorb it evenly. (As many softwoods do)
So I take some typical outdoor oil based wood sealer and mix it 1:1 with mineral spirits.
Apply the sealer the same way you would regular sealer useing 2-3 coats. This will slow the absorbtion of the stain you will put on later.
When the sealer has dried apply the stain the same way you would normally apply stain.

*As always be sure to try this method on some scrap wood of the same typ - I found that this is not an exact science or anything, but there is a lot of room for error.*

Hope this helps somone!