Recap of the tree lot...

December 28th, 2013
Overcast but about 72 degrees
Lat/Lon 32.87N 111.69W

Charley and I arrived in Casa Grande, AZ on November 20th to manage a Christmas Tree lot for Valley View Trees out of Eugene, OR.  Mel the owner of Valley View has 18 tree lots between Phoenix and Tucson.  

When we arrived, the tent had been set up, as well as temporary fencing.  But that was it.  From there, it  was up to us to make a tree lot out of it.  

We began receiving supplies and equipment .

We got a pretty heavy rain storm one night.  We awoke to a swimming pool on one corner of the tent. 

It was probably about 100 gallons of water! I thought we were going to have to cut a hole in the tent to drain it.  

 But Charley tossed a garden hose up there, and siphoned it out.  He's such a smart cookie!

A few days later, the trees began to arrive.  

 LOTS of trees! As in, a semi-truck full!

 Each tree comes bundled up, and needs drilled and then a stand attached. The tent began to fill up!

Every day, we'd see these planes fly over in various formations.  It was weeks before we learned this is the Commemorative Air Force.  A group of volunteer pilots that fly vintage planes from various eras.  They practice regularly and do shows a couple of times a year.  We loved watching them fly over, and stopped what ever we were doing to watch.

 We opened for business the day after Thanksgiving.  

And more trees arrived!

 This is the machine for drilling the trees.

Then a stand and bowl (with a spike in the center) hand to be pounded onto the tree trunk with a sledge hammer. 

 Then the tree was taken into the tent, the bowl was filled with water, then the strings were cut and the tree was fluffed. 

Waa laaa!  Fluffy trees!

Then the stories began,…  

The Tree Hunters

The Well Dressed bag lady

The Tree-Tarded people

Tree-vertibles

And the never ending stream of sirens.  

I've never heard so many sirens in my life as that month on the tree lot.  Firetrucks, ambulances,  and cops… oh my!

Each tree we sold, we put a fresh cut on the bottom, so that the tree would drink in water better, and there by stay fresher longer.

From our first day open, we collected those 'fresh-cuts' from every tree.

We hung them up so that we could see at a glance our daily totals.

As the days went by, Charley got more creative with stringing and displaying our 'fresh-cuts'.  They attracted a lot of attention and got some great comments. (Even from Mel, who owns Valley View Trees and all 18 tree lots!)

There were 2 articles in the local paper, the Casa Grande Dispatch, about our tree lot.

Charley walking Emmy and Elby behind the tree lot.

Puddles and ruts after a rain.   Every time it rained, at least one semi had to be towed out of this field. (They park here overnight a lot, but not a good idea when it has rained recently.)

 The Christmas season is winding down.  The trees are thinning out.

 Then,... it was time to remove tree stands and toss left over trees into a pile,...

...and empty the tent.

Even though we were exhausted from 12 hour days, 7 days a week, Charley and I were both a little melancholy about leaving our little tree lot.  

So far, it's the longest we've stayed in one place.  

And it was a fun job.

Good bye to Casa Grande, and off to the next adventure.

Heading to Yuma, AZ.

Another Christmas tree story...

Do you want to know what a turd looks like?  Well I'm gonna show you anyway.

It looks like this!!!

You won't believe the stunt he pulled tonight!  But first let me give you a little background.

The tree lot gets a little slower in the evenings, and I often have paperwork and stuff to do, so Chawley hangs out in the tent to sell the trees while I'm in the RV getting stuff done.  

Charley is a great worker, he will haul trees, sell trees, load trees, but he will NOT TOUCH the cash register.  He wants nothing to do with it.  So we have a system, when he sells a tree, I come out to ring it up and then he loads it.  To get my attention inside the RV, he has this tiny flashlight that is amazingly bright, he flashes it at the window where I sit and I always see it and I race right out to ring up the tree for the customer.  It's a great system,… until it's abused.  

Two nights a week, we have someone come in that can cashier.  Tonight, we have a cashier here, so I expected some uninterrupted time in the RV.  So when I saw Charley flash the light, I thought there might be some 'issue' that I needed to deal with.  So as always, I jumped up immediately and ran right out.  As I approached him and his customers, he said, "6 foot Noble fir, no tree stand."  So I went to the front, (where the cashier was standing), and I rang it up.  The customers came and paid for it, and the cashier helped Charley load it.

When Charley came back into the tent, grinning from ear to ear, I asked him why he called me out when he had a cashier there.  

He said that he and the customer we talking about wives.  (The guy had to text a picture of the tree to his wife for approval.)  Chawley said, "Oh, I have Linda so well trained, she jumps at my every need.  I don't even have to ask,  I just think it and she does it."  Then he says, "Watch this. I'll call her out to ring up this tree just by thinking about it." He then held the flashlight behind his back and flashed my window.  "She should pop out of that RV right… about… NOW!"  Just as I stepped out.  I walked over to where he was, he told me the size and type of tree and I dutifully rang it up.  

As he was loading the tree, the guy asked how he did it.  Chawley grinned and said, "I dunno, telepathy I guess. She just comes running."

The turd pulled the strings and I danced like a marionette.  He pulled it off perfectly.  

Some people are so Tree-tarded….

One of the reasons I like working with the public is because it is never, EVER, boring.

It's always different people with different personalities.  Some are funny, some are sweet, some are cranky,… and some,… are just plain stupid.

OK, I know people in Arizona are not used to conifers, (pine, fur, spruce, etc.), like people in the northwest are.  But I am amazed at how tree-tarded people here can be.

For instance:  Big signs all over the place say, "Fresh Cut Trees"

So how many times do I have to answer the question,… "If I plant this in my yard after Christmas will it grow?"
What the...  -  I answer nicely, "No, I'm sorry it won't."
"Why?"
At this point it's really hard not roll my eyes,… but,… I answer nicely,….
"It is a CUT tree, it doesn't have any roots."
As in: Cut OFF at the stump!  NO roots =  D.E.A.D.  you moron!

"Well, do you have any with roots left on them?"
"No, we don't sell them that way."
Because even if it did have roots,… look around here.  Do you see ANY conifers growing anywhere near here?  NO.  Because they can't handle the 117 degree summers, fool!  Thats why they grow Oregon, Idaho, Michigan, Connecticut….  Are you seeing a pattern there?  COOL.

I'm sorry, I just needed to get that out of my system.
But wait!  There's more!

The Ultimate Tree-tard Conversation

Take a look at this photo.  The tree on the right is 9 feet tall. That is a big tree.  The tree on the left is 14 feet tall.  That is a HUGE tree.

So I had this mother and daughter come in.  Mom about 50 ish, daughter probably mid 20's.
They want to buy the 14 ft tree.  Mom haggles over the price a bit, we agree on a small discount.
So I ask, "When will you be coming back for the tree?"
Mom says, "Oh, we'll take it now.  Is there someone that can help us load it?"

I look around the parking lot,… "Sure. Do you have a trailer or something big to haul it in?"

"No, but can't you tie it on top of our car?"
"A car? No, I don't think so."
"Well, it's pretty big, it's a Ford Escape." (Like this pic.)  

I explained that the tree was longer than the car and very heavy and would damage the top of the car.
Mom looked at Daughter, who pouted and said, "But I WANT that tree!"
So Mom asks "If we find a pickup, can you load it in to that?"
I explained that it was too large for a pick up because the beds are too short and the tree would stick too far out the back.
From the daughter, "But I WANT that tree!"   Mom - "Can't you lean it against the cab?"

"No, it's 14 feet tall, there's no way it would stay. You need a big trailer to move it, and some help unloading it."
"My daughter and I will unload it."
I explained that it was a HUGE tree, it weighs about 400 pounds.  It took 4 men to move it about 40 feet while it was in the horizontal position, and 5 men to stand it up.
Mom says, "Really? It doesn't look that big or that heavy."  She turns to her daughter, and says, "How tall are your ceilings?"
"I don't know - they're just normal ceilings! It's not like I measured them."
Mom asks me, "How tall are normal ceilings?"
"8 to 10 feet."
"OK, we'll go measure the ceilings and find a trailer."

They didn't come back for it.   -shrug-   Go figure.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Just a couple of pics - pounding the stands onto the bottom of small douglas firs, after they have been drilled.

Ready to go in the tent, be watered, then untie the twine, fluff, and sell!

The Tree Hunters...

One of the things I love most about traveling is the people I meet and the stories I hear.  Here is one of my favorites so far….

Roy and Rose 

The Tree Hunters

Yesterday, I had a couple come in, Roy and Rose, and they shared a story with me of one of the funniest Christmas traditions I’ve ever heard. 

Roy told me that one year, when he was in his early twenties, he and his father when out to cut a Christmas tree.  (They lived in North Dakota.)  They hiked around, found the perfect tree, and then realized that they had left their little hand ax back at the truck, over a mile away. (Each thought the other had grabbed it.) Well, as luck would have it, they were a big hunting family, so they both had their shotguns with them.  So they stood back, both taking aim at the base of the tree, and shot the trunk.  The tree fell over,... dead.  Needless to say the trunk was a bit ragged, but they laughed about the incident all the way back to the truck with their trophy. The laughter continued all season long,  each time the story of the ‘tree hunters’ was retold to a friend or family member.

Since then, the ‘tree hunting’ has continued every year.  When Roy had a family of his own, he took his 2 sons ‘tree hunting’ each Christmas.  

As Roy described it, “ We’d spot a good tree.  We’d sneeeak up on it,... hiding behind brush, and trees, and when we thought we had a good shot, we’d blast it!  Usually only took one shot to knock it over.  If it took more, there was a lot of razzing going on.”  

Roy said he is too old to go out tree hunting now, but his sons continue the tradition with their sons.  Now-a-days, you have to have a Christmas tree permit, but he said that just adds to the fun.  They still sneeeeak up on the tree,... shoot it, then tag it, and proudly take it home!