We drove in for another half mile or so before the forest opened up and I parked in a clearing.
The area had been logged many years ago and the regrowth was now anywhere between six to twenty feet tall.
‘Wow!’ Sammi yelled out. ‘Mommy look at all the Christmas Trees!’ as we climbed down from the truck.
She got out and ran around looking and touching as many trees as she could. Renee wasn’t too far behind as she tried to keep up with Sammi.
I slowly scanned the trees around us and it looked like there were several really nice trees close by. I walked over to a tree that must have been ten feet or taller and gave it a walk around. I didn’t find any gaping holes and the shape of the tree looked pretty nice.
‘Sammi, what do you think about this one?’ I called out.
Sammi came running over followed by Renee. She walked around it nodding her head and smiling.
‘Mommy let’s get this one.’
Renee looked at it and said, ‘It looks kind of tall.’
‘Not to worry. I need to take a foot or more off the bottom so it will end up being a six to seven footer by the time that we get it home.’
Renee nodded her head, ‘in that case, this looks pretty nice.’
‘Ok then.’ I tied a streamer to it so we could find it easily when I came back with the chain saw.
‘Mr. Petey! Mr. Petey!’ Sammi called out. ‘Look at this one!’
And Sammi had found a beauty, but it was around fifteen to twenty feet tall.
‘Oh it’s so tall,’ Renee said.
‘I have just the place for this one,’ I smiled as I tied a streamer to it.
‘Will it fit in your house, Mr. Petey?’ Sammi asked.
‘Yep. You haven’t been in my house, have you?’
‘Nope,’ Sammi replied.
‘It’s no I haven’t’ Renee corrected her.
Sammi grinned, ‘No I haven’t Mr. Petey, but you can show me your house when we get back.’
Renee groaned, ‘Did you just invite yourself over to Mr. Petey’s house?’
I laughed. ‘You’re welcome to come over any time. Both of you. Actually you can help me put the tree up when we get back.’
‘Yay!’ Sammi cheered.
I got my chainsaw out from the truck and gassed it up. Primed the carburetor, set the choke and gave the rope a pull. Started right up; lucky me.
The two trees were on the ground in no time and I even trimmed the bottom branches on both trees.
‘I’ll wait to give the bottoms their final trims just before we put them in the stands.’ I explained as I tied a rope to the bottom of the taller tree.
I made a loop and put it over my shoulder then used it to drag the tree over to my pickup, and into the truck bed. Luckily the tree was new growth so the tree trunk wasn’t thick and heavy. The smaller of the trees was a simple matter so I just carried it over my shoulder and put it on top of the larger tree, then tied the whole bundle down so it wouldn’t fall out of the truck for any reason.
Sammi was bouncing around the truck when Renee asked, ‘What do you say to Mr. Petey?’
‘Thank you!’ she yelled out as she hugged me. ‘Thank you Mr. Petey. Now it will be a for real Christmas!’
Renee just had a sad smile on her face. And I could guess why. Without a job she was probably trying to conserve as much of her cash as she could. Unemployment only goes so far.
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