Southern Tree Chopping

We chop down a live Christmas tree every year.  Always have, even when Scott and I moved into our very first apartment together, a loft type place that had amazing ceilings.  I think that's what sparked our need to have great tall trees. That very first tree together was like 14 feet tall because we lived in the 3rd floor apartment which was really the finished attic of an amazing Victorian house. It had no insulation and we kept the heat cranked up, but had awesomely tall ceilings and space enough for a huge Christmas tree. 

So it has become our family tradition.  We even got Nanny and Pal into it last year when we didn't have a home of our own to chop a tree for. We did this again this year when we were up for Thanksgiving so stay tuned for our Northern Tree Chopping pics and haha compare them to our 1st Southern Tree Chopping experience!

Well, I do have to say, there was 1 distinct difference between this tree chopping family fest than before - the temperature sure wasn't what it was usually up north!

The family farm we found online and decided to "give it a shot" turned out to be so adorable.  It had trees - a must, but it had so much more than that.  There were old school airplanes to ride in. And even teenage girls who lived there to help push! I would have hired that girl on the spot as a babysitter had she not lived the better part of 30 minutes away.  She was so cute and awesome with the children looking to play... ya know one of those "good kids" that isn't worried about makeup or phones, but instead was out on a Saturday afternoon on her family farm, guiding people to the best Christmas tree and pushing tots around in a 1970s toy airplane.  Why are there not more of these teenagers around? Or rather, why are they so hard to find?

 

It was one of those places where we could just turn the boys loose to run!!!!  

And they did! 

And they loved it!

And so did Doug!

This place even had these PVC poles to take along with you as you "tree hunted" so that you could measure them.  Well, duhhhh, why haven't we thought of this before? Why always raise your arm up and do the tree measuring stretch in order to determine how tall your tree is... why not just take long a pole that has the heights marked along it? haha.  Some things are just so simple and yet oh so amazingly revolutionary at the same time.   Colby and PJ loved helping out and carrying the pole.  It was, however, pretty comical when they tried to go different ways or when they were walking side by side and thus 13 feet wide instead of in front and behind.   Made for a pretty amusing trek through the trees!

And then from across the farm I pointed out a tree... it stood alone. It looked like a great Southern tree.  After all, up north we had always bought a Fir or some type of Spruce.  Nope, those don't exist down here in the warmer climates, instead we had found ourselves a Leyland Cypress.  A soft tree I might add and there it was from afar.   Sure enough even as we got closer it still looked great, no bare spots, just the right height, and slim for the space we were going to put it.  

Our 1st Southern Tree!

With all that "tree hunting" stuff over and done with, it was time for the real tree farm fun.   There was a train ride... or rather a tractor retrofitted to look like a train and oh my gosh was that so much fun! I went on with the boys as Scott put Doug in the car and paid for our tree.  We went around the ENTIRE farm, in and through the trees and deep in the "back woods", bumping along and holding on, laughing so hard.  I thought the thing was going to fall apart before we made it back, but alas we did in fact return to where we were picked up and all with big smiles! 

We collected our Cypress and tossed it into the truck along with our disgustingly dirty dog, who, I forgot to mention found a friend on the tree farm. Yup, a farm dog, a black lab introduced Doug, who of course couldn't help himself, to a pond! You guessed it.  Doug went swimming in the most disgustingly stagnant pond. Let's just say that Doug had his very first experience as a "Southern Dawg", he rode in the back of Scott's pick up truck the whole way home!!! He was nasty and got a bath upon arrival home.  But family fun it was!! Even Doug definitely had a great time.  

I think we might have to continue our tree chopping tradition, even if the tree looks a little different, a little unique, a little Southern!! :)