Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A great $8.00 day

We have found that some things in a small, western town are more expensive than in a more "metropolitan" area.  Then again, some things are WAY LESS expensive:  Christmas trees, for example.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend we bought our $8.00 permit from the forest service.  The permit is good for one tree (up to 20 ft.) cut anywhere within the Shoshone National Forest.  Let me tell you, that's a lot of trees to choose from!  Problem is, the vast majority of those trees are at elevations that are nearly impossible to get to in mid-December.  So, we decided to get our permit and find a tree early.  We have had a bit of snow this year, but nothing major yet, so the roads up into the higher elevations are still open.
Before we seriously started in on the tree hunt, we visited one of our favorite lakes and found it pretty darn near frozen.  The girls were able to slide around to the heart's content.  Mom and Dad tried to pretty much stand still in one spot - seeing as though our bones are not nearly as rubbery as the children's.
We are sort of Christmas tree snobs.  So, though we were surrounded by objectively beautiful trees, it took a while to find just the sort we wanted.  We're bad with names of the varieties, but we know the one we like when we see it.  After a few excursions among the wrong kind, we stumbled upon "the one"
It is a bit tall, but we have nice high ceilings in the living room.  So, after just a bit of trimming it will be perfecto!
In our minds, it's not decorated-tree-in-the-house time yet, so our 2011 tree is sitting in a bucket soaking up lots of water until it's time to come in the house.

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