Starting a woodworking project - need advice!

I am a novice furniture finisher - I mean, really novice. I've freshened up a few tabletops to good result, but that's about it.

I've got a beautiful slab of heartwood pine from our property that I am turning into a bartop.

Right now it's about 10.5 feet long, 10 inches high, and two feet deep.

It's planed and reasonably smooth from a pass with a belt sander.

So my plan is to borrow a moisture meter to check it. It seems pretty dry, because the tree was dying anyway and it was cut down last August. It sat as a log until about mid-November and has been in its current state since.

I think I'm going to finish the top and sides (leaving the natural edge) and leave the bottom side untouched for a year or so, just to make sure any moisture can get out, then seal it up later.

Does anyone have any advice on what products or techniques would likely give me the nicest results?

It was an incredibly soggy winter. It was outside covered with a tarp, but it still got wet. It's been indoors now for about seven weeks, so we'll test it this week and see where we are.

I don't think this tree had been green and wet (on the inside) for a while. It had to go because it was right in the way, but it was also a danger. It was about 80 feet tall, nearly 3 feet around at its base and, as it turned out, rotten in the middle at the bottom. (Oddly, the outside looked fine.) It was one of those pines that's 3/4 naked with nothing but a billowed sail of green needles at the top. It was just a matter of time before this thing fell down.

It's neat to get to keep a piece of it in the house, though. It was an impressive bit of botany.