Our First "Wild" Christmas Tree

This year we cut ourselves a "wild" Christmas tree from our nation's wilderness lands. It was quite the adventure. With all the loose ends around the house, I was almost inclined to buy one from the grocery store for $30 bucks, but Matt was insistent that we go together and cut one down from the nearby hillsides to herald in a new family tradition.



So the first Saturday in December, Matt got our fluorescent orange permit from the local Forest Service office for $10, some maps and directions and we set off in our becoming-less-trusty MPV (which was still with us...). Our destination was about 40 minutes away due east across the Shasta Valley to the Shasta National Forests lands. By the time we actually left the house and got to our turnoff, we realized that while we had packed bottles for Linnea and plenty of warm clothes for everyone, we had no food for the kids (or us)and it was way past feeding time! Rather than turning around at that point we figured we'd just continue northeast along Hwy 97 until we came to the next town and we'd get some snacks at a gas station or something. We left Matt's truck at the View Point where we'd stopped to conference about our poor planning.

We drove through some gorgeous scenery but didn't find a gas station until another 40 minutes later, the not-so-booming metropolis of Macdoel where we gassed up, ate some chicken strips and chocolate milk then went back another 40 minutes. It was simply stunning though driving south west straight at Mount Shasta on a clear winter's day. We got back to Matt's truck and turned onto the road that heads to the snowmobile park where the good tree cutting is. We drove a short way up and pulled off, geared up and started wandering around in search of the perfect tree.

I was a little hesitant at this moment whereas Matt was full of excitement and enthusiasm for our family adventure. My reservations were: I only saw scraggly junipers and pines that were in the size and location requirements (100' from road and less than 6" diam at ground), and no pretty firs or spruces; There were no trails and I didn't want to hike too far from the car and get turned around and lost or injured with our three very small kids. (A friend and I got lost in the woods for most of the day one time when we wandered off the marked trail: scary, and that was by the beach in the summertime!) Plus I kept seeing trucks and SUVs coming down the road loaded with beautiful trees.

We spent some time in pines and junipers with me dragging my feet and feeling bad about putting a damper on things while my gut kept saying just get back in the car and drive up the road some more. My thinking was if we couldn't see the kind of trees we wanted from the car then it was too far to go with tiny ones in tow.

So that's what we did. Evalyn was such a fun little hiker just plunging along and chattering away, it was simply delightful to watch her enjoying herself. Henry was in the carrier on Matt's back for the first part and Linnea was snoozing away on my back in the Ergo.

Another five minutes up the road the snow got deeper and the trees changed to the Christmas tree kind and we were in heaven! We pulled over and found a great tree in about 10 minutes time. It was so peaceful in the quiet snow covered forest with stunning firs clustered around. Matt used our now traditional Christmas tree saw that we found at an antique store in Maryland and cut our tree last year near Mt. Airy.

Twelve feet of tree was much more than we needed so Matt trimmed it down when we got home. He'd gone in and out of the house about 5 different times and the second to the last time it was almost perfect, but we still needed another 6 inches for a star. Something got miscalculated on that last cut so we'll just say it was a bit shorter than we envisioned but it was still beautiful with white and blue lights and filled the house with that lovely pine scent.

We had a good time squeezing the tree cutting into the busy days before Matt went on a 4-day whirlwind tour of the field offices he's working with and the kids and I drove to my parents. I need to get him to write a post on that, quite the adventure indeed. Yreka to Arcata and back again. Then Yreka to Klamath Falls then back again before driving to Salem for the family reunion.

We're already looking forward to next year's tree cutting adventure. Only next time we'll be a bit more prepared with a campfire for hot dogs and cocoa perhaps. This post was much longer and much later than I intended, so here's some pictures if you've stuck it out to the very end. Enjoy the slideshow!