It's been a tree limbing, muscle-numbing, exhausting couple of days. I haven't had many days off recently, and those "days off" have been filled with tree limbs. I'm about halfway done with the limbing, and maybe a quarter done with the burning.

If you have never limbed a large pine or fir tree, it's a chore. Just getting to the trunk of a full healthy tree is difficult because of the limbs. You are surrounded and blocked by branches and pine needles, chainsaw crackling in your hands, while trying not to trip over limbs that are either still attached or driven into the ground when the tree fell over. When you cut the branches underneath the trunk, sometimes the weight of the trunk traps the chainsaw bar, and you have to jack up the trunk (or attach a tow line) to get the chainsaw back.

When you manage to get all the limbs cut off the trunk, you still have to haul them away to a burn pile. Half of the limbs are the size of small pine trees, and those have to be cut in half again to even carry them.

You have to wait for a non-windy day to burn all the slash, and then you have to watch it with a hose for a long time to make sure you don't set the rest of the forest on fire, something which would undoubtedly piss off your neighbors. It's exhausting, and that doesn't even include cutting the trunks into firewood rounds and stacking those out.

The limbs need to be burned immediately, because harmful insects will lay eggs in them that can kill the healthy trees. You don't want the limbs drying out all summer, because of the bugs and because fall burning is much more intense (scary) with really dry pine needles. Spring burns with moist wood are better, but you have to get it done before the forest dries out and they impose burning bans.

I wish the tree service had arrived earlier to fell these huge trees, but they have been really busy. It took them 6 months to get around to my place after I first called them.

tl;dr - I'm beat up and sore from swinging a chainsaw, hauling heavy branches and stumbling through slash. It isn't like exercising for 30-60 minutes. It's a relentless all-day long thing. I'll be happy when it's over and I can get back to the easy stuff!