November 22, 2011

This point is exactly half way through my Christmas tree odyssey.  I am 22 days down and exactly 22 to go.  I intended to write regularly during the harvest of the trees, but alas the days started out too early and lasted too long for way too many days in a row.  Now that I am on the tree lot, I have very little to do in the evenings at Holiday Inn Express other than to chronicle the journey a tree takes before standing in corners of homes across America, full of decorations and encircled by presents.  I will backtrack to the beginning after I describe what has taken place the last two days. 

I am in Lexington, Virginia until the middle of December working at a tree lot owned by my friend, Scott Henson.  We left Ashe County at 8:00 yesterday morning, November 21st.  We had a truck and goose neck trailer full of all the supplies necessary to set up a tree lot.  We came up 2 1/2 days before the trees are to arrive.  We came to the grassy area between a shopping center and the road where Scott has been setting up his lot for 15 years.

Tent Assembly

Tree Stand Assembly

 We pulled in before lunch and immediately got to work.  We rolled out landscape fabric where all trees and tents would be located.  We then unloaded 26 dug Norway Spruce (for people who's conscience won't allow them to kill a tree).  We then unloaded our storage shed.  Scott and I then left to retrieve tree stands and materials to build the bins that were stored about 9 miles away.  While we were gone, Scott's brother-in-law and nephew began assembling the tents.  After the tents were completed and securely staked down, we set out the tree stands.  At that point we called it a day

This morning we woke up and had one of two breakfasts at the Holiday Inn, sausage links and cheese omelets.  When we arrived at the lot the first priority was running all the lights and getting the radio working.  After finishing with the electrical we moved to constructing the storage bins where the Christmas trees will stay before they are displayed.  I must say this was what impressed me the most, ingenuity at its finest.  After the structure was completed, we had to hang shade cloth to prevent the sun from scalding the trees. 

Future location of Tree bins

Framework Assembly

Bins Complete

The final task of the day was working on the greenery tent and the office tent.  When the day was finished we were almost ready to display Christmas trees a 1/2 day ahead of schedule.

We had to make sure Frosty was ready for Maggi's arrival tomorrow