Christmas tree hunting

We went to find a christmas tree today. Up north along the shore of Kalum Lake to Rosswood where old logging blocks and gravel pits are full of young pines. I wasn't sure about using a pine as a Christmas tree and seeing the scraggly specimens on offer up there didn't do much to convince me. I joked to Tavis that maybe if we tied 4 trees together, we'd get something full enough to call a tree. He didn't laugh. He's actually done that before.

The weather was overcast and wet, but there was enough snow to go over my boots with every step. After 2 fruitless tromps through the bush in different places, we adopted a new strategy. It was kind of like hunting deer out the truck window... We drove along slowly, pointing out possibilities and discussing their merits and limitations.

"No, too short"
"Branches aren't strong enough"
"We can do better than that!"

Ok, so it was mostly me pointing and Tavis objecting. Then he finally saw one that fit the bill. At the top of a un-hikably steep road cut. And on we went, necks craned and eyes peeled.

Finally, there it was. Standing amongst a hundred other trees that looked more or less the same, I don't think I'll ever understand what set that one apart. But I wasn't about to argue over the only tree we'd seen so far that Tavis liked!

Chop 'er down! I did the girlfriendly job of holding brush out of his way while he axed and nodding in understanding when he blamed the axe for being too dull. I did offer to help once, but then realized that maybe that wasn't very girlfriendly after all.

Back in the truck and pleased with our catch, we turned for home. And the gas gauge went "DING!". 25km to empty said the handy little info centre that we didn't bother to look at before leaving town. We were probably 40km from town at that point. We held our breath most of the way home, each with one eye on the road and one on the dwindling kms to empty. They were going down quick and when they finally hit zero, we more or less stopped breathing altogether and waited for the truck to sputter and die. It never did. We made it all the way to the nearest gas station, 13km past empty! We toyed with the idea of filling a jerry can then running it to empty just to see how far it would go, but in the end, filled it up and headed home to decorate the tree.