Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas tree!

For the last two Christmases and last Saturday we have hopped in our mini van and headed up to a friend and former client of Zack's, Randy and Stephanie's house. They have a lovely tree farm. They originally bought the property to be closer to Stephanie's parents, and not wanting the trees tried to buy it without the them. The seller wouldn't go for it. So every year they let a select few come to pick out their trees. (its not open to the public) We feel very blessed to be a part of those select few. The trees are gorgeous! And Randy and Stephanie are very generous to sell them for $20.

This year we must have lost our minds or something because we picked a HUGE tree. Not that last year's was anything to sneeze at, but this one is bigger. 21' when we cut it down and tried to haul it up the hill to the van. And that was only the beginning of the adventure.

the men folk getting ready to cut the one we picked out.

Grayson watching with me. Did I mention it was 25 degrees out that day! burrr.

Monkey and me.

TIMBER!

Whoops, it fell the wrong way! It was supposed to fall between the two trees next to it, but that would be too easy. Instead it fell ON one of those trees... it was then that Zack realized his major mistake with this tree.

It is SO heavy. They didn't realize that the trunk is at least double the one from last year. Making it almost impossible to move. Last years, Zack and Randy carried it up the hill and Zack put it in the house himself. Not so much for this one.

This one they had to get the truck for. (Randy said this is a first)
Then they pulled the truck as close as they could to the van and rolled the tree over Zack and onto the van.


Once we got it home the adventure continued. We asked our neighbor Tom to help carry it in. Tom and Zack= bad idea. They should have asked a few other neighbors- or an army. There was much grunting. The chandelier was caught. I uncaught it with the broom. Then the broom got caught. Oi. Got that unstuck. Meanwhile the tree- in the stand- was slid along the wood floor (scratttttchhhhh(s) bumped into the wall to the dining room (scrattttttcccchhhh(s) and then bounced off the chandelier again .
Finally, they got it upright enough to tighten the stand. Except that remember I mentioned the trunk was HUGE? Ya, they got it up and it stripped out one of the sides of screws in the stand (which was supposedly for a tree up to 10' tall- oops- we were about 18'1.5" at this point with trimming. But it was the only one Zack could find when he went to get one when we got home from getting the tree)

So its up. Finally. I took this picture. Notice Zack dead on the floor (have I mentioned he has a bad back?!) I walked over to it and he asked me to shake it to make sure its sturdy. I did then let go. Zack gasped as it fell over, I "caught" it. Mind you this tree weighs somewhere in the hundreds of pounds. (and I am 8 months pregnant!)
I was supposed to be getting ready for work so I told Zack it would need to rest against the wall/ windows until we could get more help, obviously I could not hold it all night! We propped it against the wall and I went to work.

I made him promise not to do anything with it until he got help. I also told him if I came home and it was shorter I would be okay with that! :)

A few hours later I got photo in a text message

As I recall he promised he would not do anything alone... he lied. He cut a few feet off... BY HIMSELF! Then lowered it back into the stand. He swears it wasn't heavy by that point.

Delirious maybe.

He also wired the point back on! He had cut it off to get it in the house. It looks great now.
Decorated tree pics in the next post...