We done did the tree
It was a dark and stormy night, almost. The wind was blowing a gale, the rain stung like needles, nearly dark, and Uncle B said cheerily, “so, we going to do the tree then?”
!
The tree was still in its bag in the garage at this point. Next you know, we’re out there in the gathering gloom grinding the butt off a spruce with an alligator (worked a treat, too). We made it!
Our tree this year is an abies lasiocarpa, a new species here. Internet tells me it grows from Alaska to Northern California, so you may know it. I think I knew it as a balsam fir.
It has a lovely tapering shape, top to bottom (our usual spruce is fat-bottomed and sparse at the top). It has soft needles that don’t poke you when you handle it. Sadly, though – despite what Wikipedia says – it’s not at all smelly.
We paid £43 for a 5′ tree. That’s about…$54. How does that compare?
Posted: December 11th, 2023 under personal.
Comments: 9
Comments
Comment from Gromulin
Time: December 11, 2023, 8:50 pm
That’s cheap. We are $120 for a 7′ tree here in Gavinzuela.
Comment from Gordon R. Durand
Time: December 11, 2023, 9:30 pm
We just buy a $5 Christmas Tree Permit from the Forest Service, and then we spend $40 on gas to get up to where the true firs grow.
Comment from Surly Ermine
Time: December 11, 2023, 11:37 pm
Beautiful badger ornament. Weasel handiwork?
Comment from Mitch
Time: December 12, 2023, 12:11 am
Certainly less than the $300 I paid for our 7 foot pre-lit artificial tree but then we’ll be using this for a number of years to come. It’s quite nice actually.
Comment from Ben
Time: December 12, 2023, 12:43 am
We paid about $90 for a similarly sized tree in Colorado.
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: December 12, 2023, 1:10 am
Which tree?
Mrs D has a freakin forest of artificial trees.
If there aren’t 7 of them I’ll eat one. It seems one year we had to have a tree in the upstairs front room, and the downstairs front room, the game room, two spots on the screen porch out back and a small forest scattered around the house (which replaced the lamps that must be located on any flat surface with more than 3 square feet of available area).
Delilah the honorary dog (cat) enjoyed it all tremendously.
This year, there shall be only one. Until I’m instructed otherwise of course.
I wear the pants around here, and Mrs D says I can say that.
Comment from Pupster
Time: December 12, 2023, 1:34 am
Haven’t had a real tree for a long time, but I may ask Santa for one of those Alligator loppers.
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: December 12, 2023, 2:17 am
Well, it won’t take long to sharpen the chain will it.
But electric.
Where’s my old book on not eating quiche…..😉
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 12, 2023, 2:20 pm
Surly: Etsy. And not me. Uncle B has a weird thing about Etsy. This, like his fondness for emojis, seems out of place in a grumpy old bastiche, but here we are.
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