weekend

This weekend was spent at a Christmas tree farm. Pat and I went down to my nieces place and helped her with her tree sales. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. People were everywhere! They were wandering in and out of rows of trees looking for that special one. Reaching out and touching the branches, putting their hands up toward the top of the tree, measuring if it would be right. Soon they would find just the one they wanted. When that happened someone always went to their knees. The saw would be pressed against the truck and in a bit the tree would fall. Some people would drag or carry their tree back to the tables where I was, others would wait for a Gator to come and pick the tree up. First place all the trees came to was where I was. I was working the shaker. Greg and I would place the tree on the shaker and I would hold it and with a click the tree would start shaking. Leaves and loose needle would fly everywhere. Bugs, bird nests and even sticks  would come out of some trees. The top of the tree would be spinning around like a propeller on a beanie. Next We would drill a hole in the bottom if they use a stand that needed it. Then we would find out if they wanted to put a net wrapping on it for transporting the tree. The net helps to protect it if it is going on top of a car. After that we would pass it on to the next crew which would load the tree unto a Gator and take it to the vehicle and tie it down. This went on all day. During the day on Saturady we ate ribs in-between customers. On Sunday it was more of the same except we ate BBQ pork and Brunswick stew.

I learned several lessons helping out. 1. It is hard work 2. keep your shirt tucked in and sleeves pulled own when using the shaker ( it can really scratch you up in a hurry if the tree is up against you while shaking!) 3. I really liked doing it!