May Newsletter

Cutting Against The Grain

A Template For Family Christmas Tree Cutting Success

A Tale of A Farm Christmas Not Too Long Ago"We grabbed all four boys (yep we had another one :) ..... and with a hard 1 hour deadline before we had to be somewhere else we set out.  Aided by the knowledge that we needed to find a tree and fast, I set off in the truck for an area of the farm I had never looked for a tree in before....Well finding a tree underneath the water hydrant in the field was admittedly very unlikely but we had to make an emergency stop after Levi (who was sitting on my lap) deposited a fermented version of the milk he had slurped over the last 3 hours or so down my hands.....Having washed off Levi's contribution to the adventure, we continued on and thankfully found a tree rather swiftly afterwards. The discussion about the tree in question went something like this - Mariah, Judah and Ephraim in rapid conversation about how the tree was or was not too small and about how it probably wasn't any smaller than previous trees.....Me - pointing out this tree was the largest one we had ever considered and might not fit through the doorway. After several minutes of discussion, I took initiative and began cutting down the tree. The noise of the chainsaw drowning out the sobs of "Daddy that tree's too small!" You will note that the top of the tree is not visible in the picture.....Guessing it might touch our tall ceiling in the house, I actually cut about two feet off of the bottom of the tree - to the sounds of even more tears, wailing, and great consternation. Haha, that last cut was also important when it came to getting it on the truck - it was almost too large for the truck bed and I could barely flip it onto the back - for some reason there was a lack of volunteers to help lift "the smallest tree ever onto the back." The highly concerned members of the family had calmed down some as we drove back to the house and thankfully the tree did fit through the front door - just barely :)And it didn't quite touch the ceiling! Afterwards the boy in question who was crying because the tree was too small came to me and apologized of his own accord..... as he strolled away he commented " that's the biggest tree we have ever had!"He was right. It was probably 2-3x bigger than the previous biggest tree! Next year I'm thinking something knee high. There was a little tree that would fit the bill over by the hydrant......"

"There is nothing like a wild cut farm cedar tree for Christmas!

A hilarious tale from a farm Christmas long past. "There is nothing like a wild cut farm cedar tree for Christmas!Literally nothing like it. The smell is amazing the shape is always unique and the adventure that comes with it..... priceless. This year was no different. The first key to a good DIY farm Christmas Tree adventure is doing it last minute!Check! We decided to do it on a Saturday without any preparation (like figuring out ahead of time which tree - growing wild in the fence rows - we would cut. We also managed to start our adventure with less than an hour of daylight remaining in the day. So far so good. After gathering up the boys (3 of them now), I grabbed the chainsaw, Mariah grabbed the baby and we all hopped in the truck. After driving around the farm checking out various trees in all shapes and sizes we disembarked to take a closer look at a few. Judah informed us they were all too small. Mariah and I felt we had found a pretty good one. As we all hiked back to the truck we heard a howl from Judah "save me from the pokeys!"Then began the next phase of the adventure. Quill pulling......Thankfully not from a porcupine but Judah had managed to walk through some sort of plant with a lot of long barbs that really liked his pants! Well over 100 of them....As the sun slowly set things began to get quite chilly and the patience of the two older boys (one rather recently de-quilled) was waning. So we picked a compromise tree. It was time for the big moment. I grabbed the chainsaw, pulled the cord a few times and it roared to life. At least thats what it would have done in a normal story..... but our family and our stories are not very normal. Haha instead the chainsaw sputtered and died. I checked the fuel level and to my dismay it was completely empty. No problem just grab a little fuel right.......Well it was at home. I hadn't grabbed any to start because it would only take a second to cut the tree. Haha unfortunately I didn't have even a seconds worth of fuel. Needless to say there was some disappointment in the ranks. Murmurings of cold and poked legs was growing into open rebellion over a perceived shortage of food (it had after all been almost 4 hours since the older boys had eaten ;)But the mutiny was suppressed and we hopped back in the truck and raced home for fuel. After a lightning fast refill that would have put competitors in timber-sports competitions to shame (probably) we raced back to the farm where we had found a tree. Except now it was getting even darker... and upon further evaluation the previously picked tree was deemed unacceptable (at least we know where it is for next year ;). So another tree was selected. Though there was discussion about its shape, I made a quick decision and decided we would cut it while we still had light and then discuss the finer points of its shape.  Having cut the tree it was discovered that it lacked branches of any kind on one side (owing to the fact it was growing in a clump of 3 other trees). Always the problem solver, I suggested that we put the bald side in the corner at our house with the 3 good sides facing out. This compromise was quickly accepted owing in no small part to a lack of daylight, increasing cold, and a growing sense of hunger amongst those voting. As I called the boys over to pose next to me with our tree......  ....One last picture was accidentally snapped of the ground as my phone died. No other photographic devices had been brought along for the adventure so this moment of triumph remains photographically undocumented....After arriving home, warming up, getting new pants without any pokeys in them and eating some supper, we all gathered together and decorated our one of a kind tree. The smell of fresh cut cedar was amazing, the joy of telling stories about the ornaments as we placed them on the tree was heartwarming, and the memories of another family Christmas tree adventure are priceless.