A Tree For a Merry Christmas

Per family tradition, shortly after Thanksgiving, our family liberates an Eastern Red Cedar tree from its earthly toil to use for our Christmas tree. This year, due to a torn rotator cuff, we put it off a week before I got the above supplies ready in the back of our van. It always looks like I am on my way to dispose of a body so just in case a police officer might think so too, I always obey all traffic rules extra close.

For most of the decades, the cedar trees have been cut down on the farm. They grow wild and are prolific but are undesirable by many. As a results, the stands still on the farm have matured while the young trees that grow around the fringes have been removed to prevent them from infringing on good farm land. It became harder and harder to find a tree and so for the last few years, we have looked elsewhere. 

Another acquaintance of mine bought 40 acres of land that was chock full of cedar trees but he has grand ideas of cutting them all down for some vague reasons I have yet to determine. Last year we got permission and cut one down he hadn't yet got too and there are many more probably out there, but it is extremely difficult walking to retrieve them. Just imagine walking across a field covered in stumps every couple feet. 

After last year, while visiting some other friends of ours, we noticed they had quite a few cedar trees on their property and were looking to clear some of them to create a pasture for goats. So we asked permission to help them in their task. When we arrived, we found a huge pile of already removed cedars and on the backside of the small grove of mature and mostly too large for our purpose cedars, a small fir that was laying over on it's side. A closer inspection showed that the owner had tried to remove it by hooking a chain to the base and pulling it out by the roots unsuccessfully. It was still green but the trunk was wounded and it probably wasn't long for this world. So for only the second time in my life, we harvested a fir tree instead of an Eastern Red Cedar.

We really love Eastern Red Cedar trees main for the smell and that they are much easier to find than firs which aren't native. This one probably came from a deer born seed from one that was planted elsewhere. At this time of year the cedars are typically brown which is why most don't use them as Christmas trees but we've found that adding a good splash of food coloring to their water in the initial day after cutting will green them up nicely. This fir tree didn't need that but we did it anyway.

The base of the tree was curved really bad due to the tug of war against the chain so it looks really weird in the unseen stand I have mounted it in, but the top part that is most visible doesn't look to bad.  Because it is wild, it isn't shaped perfectly or full on all sides but we love the rustic look. It works well with the hodge podge of rustic ornaments that my daughters later decorated it with. My only complaint is that is just didn't produce the red cedar smell that fills up our house for days on end. 

Although the stand we harvested this tree will most certainly not be there next year, as we drove up to thank the owner for the tree, I saw another large stand of smaller red cedar trees down over the hill in a direction away from the future goat raising operation. They have given us permission to cut another tree next year. So for now, our tradition will continue on.

Merry Christmas!