Cutting our Tree

Well, I told you this was going to be all out of order. After Thanksgiving day last month, we made our annual trip up into the forest to cut our Christmas tree. As usual, the Roberti's (Dave, Jane, and Kristin) came with us.  This year the Bohms (Boogie, Debbie, Kai and Kira) came with us as well. They aren't first timers. They cut a tree with us year before last. However, this year we had an additional three folks who joined us. They were friends of the Roberti's. Cheryl and her two daughters Mattie, and Mazie came up from the valley to visit, so it was quite a crowd.

We all met at our house around 1:30 in the afternoon on Friday. It was a beautiful day, and we were mostly recovered from the feast the day before. Kim packed up some snacks and hot chocolate, Jane grabbed her picnic basket of goodies and our three car convoy headed for Yuba Pass. My old Ranger District, Sierraville, has started selling a limited number of Christmas tree permits. It is something I always wanted to do, but never overcame the bureaucratic inertia to make it happen. My hat is off to Quentin Youngblood, the new ranger, for getting it done. Of the two areas designated for cutting, we headed for the high country south of Yuba Pass.

Maggie and Kristin on the ride up.

The higher elevation (over 7,000 feet) means that the prized "silver tip" fir grows there. Actually, (this is for you Maggie) it is a California red fir (abies magnifica). It is a beautiful tree with burgundy bark when it gets older. So much for the dendrology lesson.

When we got to Yuba Pass we turned South and put it in 4 wheel drive. There was a hard packed few inches of snow, but it was easy going. About a mile in we found our spot. A large flat with widely spaced large old red fir with thousands of young trees coming in below. It was an old "shelterwood" cutting done by the Forest Service probably 30 years before. It has been successful in establishing a new generation of young trees, and many are just the perfect size for a Christmas tree.

We parked our rigs, piled out, let the dogs loose, grabbed the ax and hand saw, and started on our search. I am experienced enough to know by now, that there is really no use in actually attempting to decide on a tree to cut for the first half hour or 45 minutes. It doesn't matter if it is absolutely the perfect tree. It is the hunt that matters most to my beautiful wife! So as we headed off, I began mentally cataloging candidates and marking their location. I figured they would look better to Kim after she had floundered around in the snow for a bit, and the hands and feet were chilled a bit. It is amazing how much easier it is to select a tree after being properly "prepared"!

I stayed above the road, where the sunlight filtered down amply between the large old trees, while the rest of the group was pulled down the hill into the thicker forest for some reason. I have heard (and believe there is something to it) that when people get lost in they woods they tend to wander down hill. Sometimes they are not even aware, that they are loosing elevation. The walking just seems a little easier. I know that when I am out hunting and very focused on maintaining my elevation it always feels like I am actually walking up hill. So perhaps it was this phenomenon that resulted in their voices getting fainter and fainter down the hill from me as I  marked 4 or 5 nice trees in the area I was searching. Delta and Remmy kept me company, as I crunched through the crusty settled snow, ax in hand, listening to the dog bells jangling and tinkling through the forest.

Their bells are a truly wonderful implement to have hanging around their necks as it allows me to keep up not only with their general location and distance from me, but the "doppler effect" lets me know if they are running toward me or taking off into the forest after some critter! When they are running toward me, the tone of the bells is markedly higher, while it decreases in pitch when they are leaving me behind at a high rate of speed. Maggie can explain this with a simple formula or two.

Finally, after about 30 minutes, I headed down the hill to see what, if anything, they had found. When I joined up with them, they were empty handed, and very interested in the trees I had seen. They were especially interested since there was sunlight up the hill a ways, which promised slightly warmer temperatures. (Their feet and hands were approaching optimum tree selecting temperature). I led them back up the hill following my tracks in the snow.

Kristin couldn't resist this "double tree"

While Roberti's had found a tree, nobody else had, and immediately Debbie found a nice looking silver tip. Her children (Kai and Kira) insisted on another with a nice crook in the top because it looked unique in a Charlie Brownish sort of way. I led Kim, Maggie, and Lucy back up my tracks past the trees I had marked.

"Wow, these look pretty good", my wife exclaimed. I told her I had one more for her to look at, just up the hill and in a little shade (as the sun was setting now). I was thinking that we were within a degree or less of "decision time"!

Well, the last tree was hands down the best tree we had seen all day! So, 45 minutes after starting from the truck, and 40 minutes from when I first found the tree, we cut it! We posed for our annual Christmas picture with dogs, axes, and saws in hand. Finally, we dragged the tree the 300 feet down to the truck. There we poured hot chocolate and snacked on salami, cheese and nuts. We stood around the tailgate visiting and enjoying each other's company, laughing and recounting the day. What a great time we had!

Mattie, Kristin, Mazie, and Cheryl enjoying
 hot chocolate and snacks back at the truck.

Kristin, Moe, Mom, Hodge, Omi (Debbie), Me, Kai, and Boogie.
The hot chocolate really hit the spot! 

After loading up, we headed back toward home. Along the way, we came to an overlook of the Sierra Valley. We stopped the truck, and Kim (the photo Nazi) took a picture. It wasn't the first or last picture she took that day. She wore poor Lucy out with her photo mania, probably Moe as well.

Our Valley, from near Yuba Pass!

An early photo of Hodge and Moe.

Staring to get a little old!

Loosing  patience!

We're done!!

At home we all sat down to some wine and delicious turkey soup from our Thanksgiving feast. We visited more, and relaxed, and just thoroughly enjoyed each other. What a fabulous start to the Christmas season!

Our Christmas card! The dogs were interested
in a couple of very loud snowmobiles that were passing through
nearby.

That's All!