Saturday morning I was up at 3:30AM as usual and got started checking the 14+ strands of lights to make sure they all worked.
Then I checked the 13 strands of bubble lights to see if they would light. I didn’t imagine we would get anything more than that done on the tree on Saturday.
It was a beautiful sunny but cold day. My intern, my friend, and I all bundled up and headed up to Horse Mountain around 9:45. I was shocked to find the parking lot nearly full. We were none too early to try to find the trees we wanted. I was glad I’d decided to go early to get a good tree!
This was to be my very first time as an adult cutting a live tree for myself. Two years ago I had gone with my friend to select and cut and decorate her tree. That had been the first time I’d ever cut a live tree.
They have nice carts for pulling the trees out of the plantation. Each cart was equipped with a saw or you could take a flag and roving “minions” as we called them would cut the tree with a chainsaw. We opted for minion help.
I found a Balsam fir that was over 8’ high and 5+’ in diameter, and very full at the bottom. It was dense with branches, lots to hold ornaments. We parked it here and went looking for my friend’s tree.
She uses real candles and prefers the Fraser firs for this. We had guidelines we had to look for: 4’ – 5’ high and 3’ – 4’ wide. Also it had to have branches that stuck way out, with no branches above it, very unlike my tree. We quickly found a very good one, lots of open airy branches and snagged a minion to cut it.
We got them back to the prep area. They had a machine set into the ground that held the trunk and shook the loose needles and debris from the tree.
From there it went into the binder. We all agreed getting that big tree into the house would be easier if it was bound. My friend didn’t bind her little tree and it fit perfectly in my station wagon.
It’s much more easily handled like this.
My friend and I went in to pay for the trees. They had lots of handmade stuff for sale and we each picked up a swag for outside. The guys in the prep area tied the tree to the roof, we got my friend’s tree inside and off we went.
This Christmas tree farm offers hay rides, free cider and cookies, a viewing platform, walking trails, and other kid friendly activities. There were LOTS of families with small children there. I couldn’t believe how busy they were before Thanksgiving!
This was the first year they’d opened before Thanksgiving. Last year they opened the day after and said it was so busy it was a nightmare. They were hoping to take the pressure off.
They had lots of well trained young people willing to help whenever you needed it. They all had red hats and coats with the farm logo so you could easily find them. Everything was so well planned out and made easy for the event of cutting a tree to be fun.
When we got back to the house, we got my friend’s tree drilled with the divot in the base and into a bucket of water. Then we drilled mine and Tom carried it inside. It was too tall so it went back outside and we cut the trunk back about 6” and took the tall leader off the top. We had to cut a few low branches off too. We’ll use those for making more swags.
Once we’d gotten the size right, we unbound it and got it straight in the holder. The branches we had to take off to get it into the stand made more space from the floor than I would have liked.
My friend knew someone who said the trees with bird nests in them were the best. And as we were checking the tree out, we found the remains of a bird’s nest. It was worse for wear from the shaker machine, but identifiable.
Once we had the tree up, it was nearly lunch time. I’d planned homemade toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Once lunch was over, Tom headed up to the barn to get some things done there and the rest of us set about getting the lights on the tree.
I’d only decorated artificial trees and I could put LOTS of lights on them, hence the 14+ strings I’d checked. But we quickly discovered that the wires showed up far more on a natural tree and we took off the second string we put on and hid the wires more.
We got it about half done and took a breather. We went over and worked on the jigsaw puzzle for a while. Then we got the rest of the strings on. It took 9 strings to finish.
By then Tom had finished at the barn and we decided he’d follow my friend home and help her get the tree up to her second floor apartment. They lived relatively near each other. Her little tree fit in her car just right.
I found a hook and got my swag hung up by the front door.
The best part of having the tree in this corner of the dining room is it can be seen from the other end of the house. I’d not had a live tree since about 1987 and the smell from this Balsam is heavenly! I hope it survives the season inside with the masonry heater.
On Sunday I will try to get the bubble lights on and the candles in the windows. I can turn them on, as many of the new ones’ cords are too short to reach the outlets. The old plastic ones’ cords were plenty long enough. So I have short extension cords ordered so I can plug them in.