re: Working with imperfect lumber - What are the steps you take to straighten it out?

You have a few options without a jointer. The bow is easy to remove with a hand plane and elbow grease. You did not mention if the boards are twisted as well.

I’d try to work towards getting the stock flat before you do the straight line cutting.

If you don’t have a pair of winding sticks, make a set. Simple solution to help determine your progress as you flatten stock. Many free plans/how-to’s, just search google and/or youtube.

If the boards are really wide, then you may want to think about ripping to smaller widths and save removing materials. As an example, if your board was 12" wide and had a 1/4" bow, you will essentially be removing 1/2" (1/4 on the top, 1/4 on bottom, worse case). If you ripped the 12" board in half, you’ve essentially cut the bow in half. These numbers are a broad strokes, but I’m just trying to illustrate a point.

Another method would be to use a carriage assembly (aka sled) that could hold the stock, and use a router with a straight bit, riding on top of the carriage with a large base to flatten your boards.

If you want more information, reply back with tools that you have available to you (hand planes, thickness planer, router etc…) Lots of information available that show various methods.