Christmas Tree Hunting

[AnticorRifling]

So every year we get a live christmas tree. This year the wife decided we could just get a pre cut instead of cutting one ourselves (thank the lord). Well our normal place isn't doing trees this year so we call around and this one farm says sure we've got pre cut scotch pines (I prefer scotch pines, softer needles for the kids safety, good shape, etc). We get out there and no scotch pines are pre cut....so we take a hay ride out to the field, seach for 30m, find a tree, cut it, return on the hay ride, drive home, it was 18 degrees. I love cold weather so that's fine with me, wife and 2x2yr olds out in a field when it's that cold is hilarious. Boys had a blast, wife not so much.

I'll see if I can get a pic or two from her phone of the ordeal.

Anyone else have a yearly tradition of stalking and killing a connifer?

[B4Hand]

Yep. We do it every year, well every year we've been stateside. We've got a nice artificial tree we use otherwise. When the kiddos were little it was much more fun, however. This year they tried to spy the tree from the truck, and protested after being out only five minutes. Our tree this year is not nearly as nice as ones we've had previously. Teenagers just want to get in and get out of the cold. Also..the tree they picked out is crooked, and I had to secure it to the wall with a piece of fishing line, just to keep it from falling over.

I think, that unless our youngest (11) really wants to go out next year, I'm just putting up the artificial tree.

K

[Shari]

We used to get one from a lot when we were kids. My dad HATED it. He's so OCD about the needles falling off the tree he'd vacuum under it at least 3x a day.

When I was 10 we got a fake tree and my siblings and I were heartbroken. My mom thought she could make up for lack of "that Christmas tree smell" with pine spray. It was horrible.

Anyway...fastforward 7 years and I find out Scott's family drives 3 hours up north to cut their tree down. Stoked. So for the last 10 years we've cut our own tree down. My husband can't stand it sometimes because I'm very picky about our tree. In AZ most of the native pines have long needles. I hate them. *I* want a blue fir, and those things are hard as fuck to find. But I'm adamant about trudging through 2 feet of snow for miles and miles until I find one.

We're going up next weekend with the baby to get one. I can't wait. My husband can...he's going to be stuck hauling the chainsaw AND the tree while I carry the kid around. Yay me!

[Proxy]

all that seems like a lot of work for firewood.

[Stanley Burrell]

all that seems like a lot of work for firewood.

Yeah, but you get to kill stuff with an axe.

Edited to Add: In fact, why should one have to wait all the way until the Winter holidays just to go apeshit WITH AN AXE?

[Sean of the Thread]

Scored a smaller balsam this year today. I'm oddly allergic to balsam but whatever.

Last year I had to do surgery on the tree just to make it fit in the house. This one is just right.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

For the last few years I've lived in New England, I've lived in the third floor of a three family home.

No way we were gonna drag a tree up those hellish stairs.

Now our family room is on the first floor, no stairs. So, for the first time in probably nearly 8 years (when I lived in WA state, we had a dinky little table tree) we're gonna go out and pick out a live tree. I am excited.

[MotleyCrew]

Fake with the lights already on it...

FTW

[diethx]

We have a fake white tree.. with pink lights. PWN.

When Lily quits acting like a puppy we might get a real tree. If that ever happens.

[Sean of the Thread]

Real tree or gtfo.

[Bokertal]

Ya'll that can do a "hay ride" to hunt for a tree are lucky. That's something I think would be super cool. Born and have lived in central California my life so far. My step kids are from Washington and they grew up doing the whole hunt/kill a tree ceremony and can't belive we dont have a farm to do this within "reasonable" distance. Cool stuff I think.

[Tisket]

Scored a smaller balsam this year today. I'm oddly allergic to balsam but whatever.


My step daughter has a ton of allergy issues so we have a fake tree. One with the lights already attached. It looks real to me.

[Tisket]

And we do have to go on a hunt to find it since it always seems to be the box covered in fifty other boxes in storage. Just no axe fun. le crie.

[Euler]

we go to a farm called Lowes unless the other farm, Home Depot, has cheaper trees. I hate getting trees because I am a dirty tree hugging hippie. My wife likes them though. We compromise and buy two seedlings for the local preserve to make up for the eco-rape we engage in so that we have something to hang our bulbs on. She won't let me hang my organic granola ornaments though.

[Shari]

For the record, the trees from tree farms are grown on just that...a farm. My husband's uncle does it in Oregon. They plant a couple hundred every year and once they're big enough cut down the oldest planted ones to sell.

And the ones that we drive up north for are located in specific areas deemed by the Game and Fish that have concluded that that area is too dense (see: fire hazard) so we are actually doing the forest a favor by removing ones so lightning (and really fucking stupid people) don't burn the rest of the forest down.

[Sean of the Thread]

Yeah it's not eco rape. It's farming for fucks sake. Do you eat vegetables?

[Euler]

to farm you use land that has been cleared of its natural ecosystem. A field of planted trees cannot suport the varied organisms that would otherwise occupy the space.

I eat vegitables. Are you equating eating with a tree you stand in your house for a month? One seems somehow more required for survival than the other...


Don't get me wrong, I have the friggin tree. Happy wife > than hippy ideals.

[Sean of the Thread]

Still disagree. Trees farming is great for the environment when all is said and done.

[Euler]

I am unable to argue with the proponderance of evidence you have presented.

I am off to buy a tree for every room in my house.

Anticor: I just noticed you are in Indy. I just moved to hoosier land from california. What is a muzzle loader? Why is there a special time for muzzle loaders killing deer as opposed to regular rifles? Also, how come the deer in this state are the sizes of horses?

[Sean of the Thread]

I didn't offer any evidence as it really should be common sense. That and I'm not trying to turn this thread into a "bash the dipshit hippy" thread. It's Christmas.

A muzzle loader is a single shot black powder rifle. (as the name implies they're are loaded from the muzzle one shot at a time via a charge and a projectile... just remember to pack the powder before the ball not that I ever did before :whistle:) Nowadays they're very accurate and reliable but the laws on the books still have them as special hunt. Same as bows.

When hunting deer in Florida you have to be careful that you're not shooting someones dog.

[Euler]

why do the authorities care what tool you are using to kill stuff? Why have different times for bows/black powder/regular rifle/rpg/big rocks... whatever?

Just wondering. I have never hunted but would like to learn.

[Sean of the Thread]

It's a wildlife management system basically. Too many hippies let them overpopulate and thus starve themselves to death slowly so they regulate the harvest.

There's much more to that obviously but you've got google at your fingertips if you're interested.

After football and our murdered tree decoration I may have time to elaborate.

[War Angel]

In California we went out the day after Thanksgiving and picked out our tree on the tree farm. It was tagged and we returned the 2nd week of December to pick up our chosen sparkly holder.
Here in New York, we buy a precut tree from the local firehouse, as they are all volunteers in our area, and it benefits the town, in a round-about way. (My BFF is also a very active member and runs the Christmas tree sales, and would likely kick my butt if I failed to purchase one from her.)
I still remember one year when my father was involved in an accident, and was in the hospital in a coma, so we painted our Christmas tree on butcher paper, and hung it on the wall, and decorated it with paper ornaments and strung popcorn. With only one income, my mom managed to pull it off for us, and we still had Christmas. I was 4 years old, but that tree is probably the most memorable for me.

[Sean of the Thread]

Did you just say BFF?