Since arriving in the state, Laura and I have engaged in a few “Maine” activities. I think this one might take the cake though. There aren’t many that are more Maine than cutting down one’s own Christmas tree. In the forest. In a whole bunch of snow.
We’ve been scouting the perfect specimen since October and our goal was to cut the chosen one in November, a day after Thanksgiving. If we cut it early enough, we’d enjoy it in all its splendor for as long as possible. Luckily, we did, in fact, locate the perfect tree in October, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to cut it the day after Thanksgiving as planned. At the moment, I can’t recall why. We probably forgot. Either way, it’s a good thing we didn’t because when we did manage to get around to it, the snow was nice and deep, making for a memorable event.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, our property is loaded with balsam fir trees. And when I say loaded, I mean loaded. The above photo is an example of what you’d find if you walked through our forest. There are tons of them.
The thing is, not all the trees on our land would make suitable Christmas trees. The new growth that’s close to the ground is just too small, weak, and flimsy and much of the older growth is too tall and, well, sort of ugly. To settle upon the perfect Christmas tree, one needs to look to the tips of the older growth for a pleasant conical shape and maximum density. If those two characteristics are available, that’s the tree.
We actually had quite a few candidates from which to choose, but the one we agreed upon was purposefully semi-close to the house, which meant less dragging through the snow. Maneuvering in the conditions we faced isn’t the easiest of tasks when carrying both a heavy chainsaw and pine tree top. But since the ordeal occurs only once per year, I was generally good natured about it all.
You may notice from the above photos that I was buried in the thick of things during my attempt to traverse to the tip of the tree. This “burying” was unintended. I actually meant to fall the stick (that’s arborist speak) in the opposite direction, but just as bad luck would have it, the tree fell backwards. This meant that I’d need to climb over other fallen trees and brush to cut in a mish-mash of methods to reach the prize. But once all of that was completed, I did, in fact, reach my prize. Here she stands.
Because the tree was so beautiful, it pained me to cut it even more. We only needed about four feet of it, so what you see directly above was just about halved. What a shame too. We decided last year that, from now on, our trees would be posted at the base of our front window. That area only stands, as I mentioned, four feet. Eventually, I did what I had to do and you can see the final result at the top of this post.
I’ll tell you that this year’s Christmas tree is truly superb. It’s small, but it offers just the right amount of spirit and that’s exactly what I was after. Merry Christmas!
