Tree Farm SUCCESS!!!

Let's GO!!!! What a beautiful day to be in the cold, crisp air of the mountains. Let this be a warning.. this trip planted some REAL seeds in our minds... WE ALL THINK WE WOULD LOVE THE MOUNTAINS!!! PERMANTLY! Let's just say that there was a LOT of talk of how great it could be for our family to live in the mountains and have some land.... grow some trees on the side for the kids to have a business to be a part of... and enjoy this gorgeous part of the country. Not to mention - dirtbike riding, skiing / snowboarding, rock climbing, hiking... Possibly more on this thought later... Hmmmm????
Well we made a last minute final decision on friday to still go to the mountains to find a tree. And.... it was a GREAT trip!!! We were all so glad that we did. Apologies to everyone who is going to get a late Christmas card and chocolates for New Year's... but it was worth it! We met some people at the hotel in Boone who told us about a farm in the country called Clawson's so we thought we'd give it a try. What a great time... FREEZING cold... but fun! It was about 20 degrees when we got to Boone on Friday night and SNOWING! The boys were in heaven... how bad we feel that they never get to experience the snow like we did growing up. And they don't let us forget it either. Here are some pics from the adventure! Don't mind the crazy, mismatched winter attire! It was much needed!!!
The hay ride up to the trees... this farm uses as tractor, but if you want to pay a whole lot more you can go to a farm that will take you up by work horse on a sled and all the fancy gift shops at the end. I think we will stick with the real farm that was not so commercialized... We went in the shed for hot cocoa at then end!
Tanner was in charge of measuring the tree so that we kept to somewhat of a budget. We were a little off on our estimate for the tree we cut... but hey.. it was an extra $10 more. Whoops... Sorry Mark! We did shop the field that was discounted because they wanted to clear the field to plant new trees next year. This is why it looks a little sparse in the pictures but they have thousands of trees there! 1750 trees per acre to be exact... and they have several acres!
Mark and Reese scoping out the best trees! She thought it was all pretty exciting!!!
But we want that one and they was this one! Time to take a family vote.
Brock decided that some weapons were in order... "Hey Brennan... watch me while I whack you with this branch!!!"
The final decision... isn't she a beauty! Too bad we had to cut her down...

I love this picture... team work at it's best!!! Only one problem... Tate was not in the picture because he was still wandering around the field in awe of the trees and the man with the chain saw cutting the remaining stumps lower! He had a great time picking up all the little stump rounds and collecting them.

What a wonderful day it was. It was really nice to escape just for 24 hours on a little family vacation and stay in a hotel, swim in the pool, watch it snow and spend some much needed family time together in the mountains. No phone, no computer, no cell phone calls and one totally relaxed Daddy. Let's just say that having Mark's office at home does not allow him to leave work very often. Work is about 18 hour days when your office is right at home. He has been under so much stress with the markets these past few months and spent hours upon hours in his office - all day and all evening. What a great escape for us all!!!