It's Tree Time!

I did not grow this, and we did not eat it, but we did get our Christmas tree on Sunday. Let's take a look, shall we?

If you've been reading here for some years, you will know that we always have a real tree, and we always cut it somewhere ourselves. Some years that has meant some, well, less than perfect trees. But it's always fun to search the tree out.

The past few years, we've been going to a friend's ranch about fifteen miles away to cut our tree. We have to park on the dirt track in the range and hike down to the little canyon where the cedars grow.

Christmas tree hiking is the best hiking.

This area has a dirt tank the kids like to play around that sometimes has water in it. It did this year.

Perfect for chunking rocks to break the ice.

This was our first year in New Mexico with snow on the ground when we did this. Very Christmas-y. 

It did make it harder to avoid stepping on small cacti, however.

I see you, little prickly pear.

Despite the snow, it was a pleasant 45 degrees with that crazy-blue New Mexico sky.

Winter ground, summer sky.

Most of the trees in this area are the bushier junipers, which aren't great for Christmas trees. I had to search for the less common cedars in among the junipers. After quite a bit of tromping around, I finally found an acceptable tree.

It was hiding under a big juniper and next to a smaller cedar, but I found it.

The snow was very helpful here, as I didn't have the saw with me. I had to backtrack to get it from A. and then follow my tracks back to the tree. I probably wouldn't have been able to find it again if not for following my tracks, not being a great woodswoman.

I brought a helper back with the saw, too.

Cowboy cutting a Christmas tree. (Alliteration alert!)

The tree was duly dragged back to the Honda, ferried home, propped up in our metal bucket with some rocks, and decorated.

Ta da!

Our native trees here do not have as many branches as a spruce or whatever. And the trunk is too small to put it in a real stand, so it always tilts a little. And the star is hard to put on top, because the point of the tree isn't really thick enough to support it. And this year, one of my strands of lights stopped working, so I didn't have quite enough.

But despite all that, we have the tree, and it will have presents under it on Christmas morning. 

Christmas magic, New Mexico-style.