As many of you know, living in a small space in the past has encouraged us to step outside of the box when it came to setting up a Christmas tree and last year brought us to hanging our ornaments on cedar bows that we hung around our window. Robb and I loved it. However, our oldest child informed us that this year we "needed" to get a tree. Finally we succumbed, thinking that we could probably find a nice 3' tree at a local Christmas tree farm that would fit nicely in a small space but would allow them to have the tree they really wanted. We then made the fatal mistake of watching Christmas Vacation with our girls. Upon the conclusion of the film, our oldest declared "I want to get our tree like Clark's family." Ugh! "Really?" I asked with a wrinkle in my forehead, trying to persuade her with my facial expressions. She hung strong, exclaiming that she wanted to have "frozen eyeballs." We thought about this scenario and realized the decreased cost between a $5 permit and a $40 tree and decided, why not?
Those two words really are not quite as simple as they often seem. Why not? Well, looking back now, I can think of a lot of reasons why not. So lets begin.
After agreeing to hit the woods Griswold style looking for the perfect tree, we chose a date, invited the grandparents and waited. A day didn't go by that Olyvia wasn't asking "When are we getting the tree, Mom?" Finally the day came. We had chosen a Saturday with the plan to get up, have breakfast, get dressed and head out. No set time or schedule, just to play it moment to moment. Grandma and Papa showed up around 10am and we all loaded up into our truck and headed towards Jefferson County. We arrived at the ranger station in Quilcene and Olyvia took her $5 into the ranger station and purchased herself a Christmas tree permit. She was so proud and excited. I loved it. Leaving the ranger station we headed to Lord's Lake Loop Road, at least I think that is what it was called. Really all I know for sure is we were in the woods, driving on dirt roads. :)
After awhile we started to see snow on the ground on the sides of the road. I have to admit that got me a little excited. Started to feel like a real tree hunting expedition. We came to our first clearing and noticed that there were quite a few cars parked in that area looking for trees, plus it wasn't raining yet, so we decided to continue driving and looking for the next clearing. Driving . . . . driving . . . . driving . . . we came to a T in the road. Took a left only to turn around about 300 yards down that road and then head back the other direction. After about 15 minutes heading up this road, all the while gripping whatever I could get my hands on sure that at any moment our truck was going to pitch itself over the edge, sliding into the icy lake below, we came to a flat spot. There was about a 30 second time span between coming to a stop and deciding, after opening the doors, that there was no way on this good green earth we were getting out of the truck in this particular location. Heck, I am surprised the truck wasn't spinning around with the rate the wind was whipping between the trees. You could barely see 50 feet down the road as the snow was flying thick. We had driven into a blizzard. Hindsight tells me I should have let Olyvia out, frozen eyeballs would have been immediate. Probably a good thing I didn't though, not sure how that would have gone over.
Back down the road we headed, deciding we should just go back to the first clearing we saw and take our chances that the perfect tree was there. Grandma was sure it was there. I was already starting to loose my luster for the entire excursion. For my kiddos sake, however, I slapped on a smile and down the mountain we headed. 20 plus minutes later we are back at the original clearing, we park, get out and guess what? Yes, it is raining. Must be the perfect time to tromp around in the wet underbrush with a 5 and 7 year old to find the most magnificent tree.
After awhile we started to see snow on the ground on the sides of the road. I have to admit that got me a little excited. Started to feel like a real tree hunting expedition. We came to our first clearing and noticed that there were quite a few cars parked in that area looking for trees, plus it wasn't raining yet, so we decided to continue driving and looking for the next clearing. Driving . . . . driving . . . . driving . . . we came to a T in the road. Took a left only to turn around about 300 yards down that road and then head back the other direction. After about 15 minutes heading up this road, all the while gripping whatever I could get my hands on sure that at any moment our truck was going to pitch itself over the edge, sliding into the icy lake below, we came to a flat spot. There was about a 30 second time span between coming to a stop and deciding, after opening the doors, that there was no way on this good green earth we were getting out of the truck in this particular location. Heck, I am surprised the truck wasn't spinning around with the rate the wind was whipping between the trees. You could barely see 50 feet down the road as the snow was flying thick. We had driven into a blizzard. Hindsight tells me I should have let Olyvia out, frozen eyeballs would have been immediate. Probably a good thing I didn't though, not sure how that would have gone over.
Back down the road we headed, deciding we should just go back to the first clearing we saw and take our chances that the perfect tree was there. Grandma was sure it was there. I was already starting to loose my luster for the entire excursion. For my kiddos sake, however, I slapped on a smile and down the mountain we headed. 20 plus minutes later we are back at the original clearing, we park, get out and guess what? Yes, it is raining. Must be the perfect time to tromp around in the wet underbrush with a 5 and 7 year old to find the most magnificent tree.
All bundled up and ready to begin the search!
Lots of potty breaks were necessary for the little ones. Ah, the fun of helping a little one go to the bathroom in the woods on a 45 degree incline in underbrush while it is raining!The clearing we stopped at is of course not flat and happens to lay on both sides of the road at a 45 plus degree angle. We decided to head down the hill and begin our trek to look for the perfect tree. I have already realized that I am going to have to abandon my idea of the perfectly symmetrical full and bushy tree for a more sparse tree. Grandma says that allows for the ornaments to be more properly displayed. We wouldn't want to hide the ornaments with branches. It would however be nice to have enough branches to hang the ornaments on in the first place. Just saying. At this point I am also realizing that I am starting to focus too much on the negative aspects of the many trees we are coming across so I start to focus more on the positive aspects. "Wow, that one looks great. It has branches."
Every tree we came to there was something. It would look great on one side but when we got around to the other, there was nothing, or the base of the tree and top of the tree were aligned while the middle represented a spaghetti noodle having just been thrown on the ceiling to test for doneness, or my very favorite were the ones that looked perfect and were over 15 feet tall. That should fit nicely in our 800 square feet. After 30 minutes of realizing that none of the trees were going to be perfect and that we just needed to pick one that would work, Robb found one that would do. Didn't seem to be too large while having what appeared to be a symmetrical branch layout. We were pretty happy with our choice and Robb chopped it down and drug it back up the 75 feet of incline necessary to get it back to the road where we parked. Ellie held the tree while we waited for Robb to run back to the truck and bring it to where we were at. Tree was loaded into the truck, wet coats were shred, heater was cranked and we all loaded back up for the drive home.
Every tree we came to there was something. It would look great on one side but when we got around to the other, there was nothing, or the base of the tree and top of the tree were aligned while the middle represented a spaghetti noodle having just been thrown on the ceiling to test for doneness, or my very favorite were the ones that looked perfect and were over 15 feet tall. That should fit nicely in our 800 square feet. After 30 minutes of realizing that none of the trees were going to be perfect and that we just needed to pick one that would work, Robb found one that would do. Didn't seem to be too large while having what appeared to be a symmetrical branch layout. We were pretty happy with our choice and Robb chopped it down and drug it back up the 75 feet of incline necessary to get it back to the road where we parked. Ellie held the tree while we waited for Robb to run back to the truck and bring it to where we were at. Tree was loaded into the truck, wet coats were shred, heater was cranked and we all loaded back up for the drive home.
Proud hunter with his catch.
This probably should have been a sign for us that this tree was a little large, but we just figured "Eh, Ellie is small that is why the tree looks to big."
Finally warming up a bit as we entered back into Quilcene proper I turned around to say something to those in the back seat about where we should grab some lunch. Just as I did I watched our tree fly out of the back of the truck and slide along the road coming to a stop halfway in the lane and halfway on the side of the road just as a semi truck swerved out of the way missing it by inches. I calmly exclaim "Our tree just flew out the back of the truck in front of a semi. We should probably turn around and get it." Pulling to a quick stop on the side of the road, we wait for the semi to pass and then whip around to go and save our tree before the next car comes. Robb jumps out, going to save the tree and more securely affix it to our vehicle, while the rest of us realize that the "it will do" tree has exited our vehicle right in front of a Christmas Tree U-Cut Lot, as if a sign. We ignore the sign, load the tree back up and are off again. The tree has only suffered minor road rash.
Finally warming up a bit as we entered back into Quilcene proper I turned around to say something to those in the back seat about where we should grab some lunch. Just as I did I watched our tree fly out of the back of the truck and slide along the road coming to a stop halfway in the lane and halfway on the side of the road just as a semi truck swerved out of the way missing it by inches. I calmly exclaim "Our tree just flew out the back of the truck in front of a semi. We should probably turn around and get it." Pulling to a quick stop on the side of the road, we wait for the semi to pass and then whip around to go and save our tree before the next car comes. Robb jumps out, going to save the tree and more securely affix it to our vehicle, while the rest of us realize that the "it will do" tree has exited our vehicle right in front of a Christmas Tree U-Cut Lot, as if a sign. We ignore the sign, load the tree back up and are off again. The tree has only suffered minor road rash.
After some lunch at Loggers Landing, we head home and Robb unloads the tree so that it can dry out before we put it into the house. He comes upstairs and exclaims that we may have to do some pruning on the tree. It won't even stand up all the way in our garage. He estimates it is over 10 feet tall and possibly 5 ft wide. Argh! It really did not seem that large when we were getting it. I mean, we didn't even have to dig the thing and it took him barely anytime at all to chop it down. What will we do? Deciding to address the issue tomorrow, as any lover of Scarlett O'Hara would, we decide to go Christmas shopping.
The next day we end up having to cut 4 ft off the bottom of the tree, 1.5 ft off the top of the tree, and prune in all the branches about 1 ft to get the tree to a manageable level that would fit into our house. We were successful and are now blessed with a most magnificent, although extremely sparse, tree. The memories were worth every minute of our wonderful adventure.
