Our Second Maine Christmas Tree

Funny thing about Christmas trees. Around Thanksgiving each year, Laura and I start talking about when we are going to go out back into the thick and cut down our Christmas tree. During the week that follows Thanksgiving, we go outside and walk around the woods for a while in an effort to find the perfect specimen. This year, we did this twice. Both times we were somewhat wishy-washy about which tree we wanted to cut because they were all sort of – blah. Nothing was as full as we would’ve liked.

Last week, I found the perfect tree. I was really excited to yank out my saw and start cutting, but I became preoccupied with other things. Today rolls around and I started wondering if we needed a tree at all. My motivation was fading. That’s when I asked Laura to grab her camera and follow me. I was going to go out and slay this year’s tree.

Scouting Out Our Christmas Tree

The tree I wanted was more perfect than perfect. In the picture above, you can sort of see it, but I think the view is being obscured by a few others. It was (is) full and nice and wide at would’ve been the base. One of two like this on the entire property, but that’s not a big deal. Grab this one this year and the other one next year. On year three, we’ll start worrying about where we’re going to get that year’s tree. Either that, or we’ll simply lower our standards and cut down any one of the zillion Charley Brown Christmas trees we have on the five acres.

I was all ready to cut this sucker down when I began getting nervous. While I knew the tree was on our property, it did (and does) sit rather close to the property line. I don’t want any problems up here in Maine, so I turned my head to the right and saw a somewhat so-so tree staring right at me. I called over to Laura and asked if she would mind if I took another tree down instead of the one we had planned on taking. She went along with me, even though she looked less than impressed at what I was pointing to.

Holding My Chainsaw Before Walking into Woods to Cut Down Christmas Tree

I walked in the woods, made my notch in the base of the tree and fell the timber smack where I wanted to. Perfect shot. I then cut about ten feet from the top of the tree and held it up for Laura to see.

Lifting Christmas Tree

Showing Off Our New Christmas Tree

She liked what she saw. The tree was nice and tall and even though it wasn’t as full as our first pick, it’d do for our purposes. We aren’t very choosy people.

I dragged the tree out and sat it in front of the shed. I measured about seven feet with my arms and cut the top off the full length of what I pulled out of the woods. Just about then, Laura emerged from behind the shed (she took a different way out of the woods), looked at me holding the tree upright and asked me what happened to it. “What do you mean?” “Where’d the tree go? That’s not what was in the woods.”

I tried to explain to her that I had to cut it down so it would fit inside and when I was finished explaining, she asked why I cut so much from the bottom. I could have cut more off the top to keep the fullness. She may be right but really, we can’t look back on those types of petty issues. What’s more important is that we get used to and learn to love our cute little petite Christmas tree (click the picture to see a better view of the tree). Merry Christmas!

Carrying Our Christmas Tree