You would think that with me being a horticulturalist and all I would be opposed to murdering a poor innocent tree just for the sake of Christmas. After all, not only to you saw its legs off you throw it on the roof of your car, drive it down the road, put burning little lights on it and forget to water it. It truly is cruel and unususal punishment. However, for the past 8 years Derek and I have faithfully hunted our Christmas tree. Yes, we bundle up and saw the legs off of a perfectly innocent tree. We have yet to purchase a pre-cut tree or worse yet... put up a fake one. *gasp*

So today was supposed to be the annual tree hunt. We loaded the bungee cords, donned our hats and away we went. We arrive at the tree farm and the man hands us our saw and promptly states, "We are out of u-cut Nobles and Frasiers. We only have Grands and Doug Fir." What the!!! No Nobles or Frasiers?! You are tree farm for pete's sake. Your job is to sell trees. This is like Starbucks running out of coffee. So what do we do? Take the saw and wander around said tree farm trying to convince ourselves that a Grand Fir would be an acceptable alternative. Who am I kidding. Grand Firs are pretty. Nice dark green and shiny needles, but where the heck do you hang the ornaments? They are way too bushy.

We turn in our saw and head off in the direction of tree farm #2. We pull in the parking lot and not a soul around. Not to mention it looks as if they only have Doug Firs. Off to tree farm #3. This place is some run down shack of a house with a sign on the door that reads, "I'm in the house. Knock." A person comes out and says that yes they do still have trees. So again, we take our trusty saw and venture out into the "forest". I use the word forest lightly here. This is more like the total Charlie Brown tree farm. They have about 10 Nobles, all a little yellow in color, about 12 feet tall and with huge gaping holes. This is a disaster.

Now since we live in the Northwest tree hunting can be a difficult matter. Derek works until about 1:00 on tree hunting day and then of course we have to have lunch. So by the time we get on the road to do the actual hunt it is somewhere in the vicinity of 2:00. This leaves 2 hours for quality tree hunting. (it starts to get dark at 4 here). At 3:00 we have exhausted our knowledge of tree farms in the area and need to get home. Yes, we are defeated. We returned home without a tree. We are going to give the hunt another shot tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to find a farm close to our house. Otherwise we might have to cross the bridge (the dreaded Narrows) to find a tree.

Wish us luck!