Free Christmas Trees

So one of the great things I discovered about living here is that Christmas trees are free.  You just have to go out and cut them down yourself...in about 2 ft of snow.

Steve was still in WA, but Becky, one of our staff, was staying with me.  She got invited out to Sally Wise's house for a potluck and tree cutting event ( Becky called it "The Ugly Tree Party"...you'll see why) and so we went together. Sally has several acres of property a few miles south of Cascade.  She invites people from the Community Church over to cut trees every year.

The transportation of choice for the afternoon was snowmobiles.  Here's Becky and Sally.  We rode and walked, trying to find  a tree that was somewhat symmetrical and filled in with branches.  We were more successful on the former than the latter.  If we'd been willing to get out and tromp through the 2 ft snow we might have had better luck, but there were only so many choices near the snowmobile paths and I didn't want to take all day.

 Finally, after going around and around several times, I found one that I thought would fit in the space I had at home.

I signaled, "This is the one, " and someone brought over a knife to cut it down.

 

Then it got transported back to the parking area on this cart pulled by a snowmobile.

 

I actually got two trees, one for the main living area and one for the guest area downstairs. Why not, they were free!  The next challenge was tying them on top of the subaru.  Fortunately, we got some help with that.

I had to go to the D-9, our local grocery store to buy a tree stand.  We owned one, but it was stuck in our storage unit in a place where I couldn't get at it very easily.  Besides, we would need two now and I figured Steve could drag the other one out after he got back.

So Becky and I put up the first tree upstairs. As you can see, it is a lodgepole pine and was a little sparse. Not quite like the firs I am used to from WA.  I'm told if you go out into the national forest here to get your tree, you can find some nice firs. Maybe next year.

It looked better after I bought some 2 inch wide gold ribbon at Target (in the city) and spiraled it through the branches.

 

Tree #2 didn't get put up until we returned from a trip to WA about 10 days later.  I had left it outside, thinking it would be fine (because all the Christmas trees sit outside at the grocery stores in WA, right?).  Actually, the trunk was frozen when we got back and some of the needles were turning brown.  But I picked them off and it has fared fairly well since then.

Guess I'll have to think about taking them down soon.