The Bovine Bugle

Dog Days of Summer require working on Christmas trees

The last three days have been unseasonably hot here in northwestern Vermont. The temperatures have been in the upper 80's with muggy conditions. So it seems pretty funny to tell you that Karen and I have been focusing our attention on, of all things, Christmas trees.

We have been shearing our balsam fir and blue spruce trees to get them ready for the upcoming Christmas season. We use both pruning knives and hand clippers to shape the trees. By doing this work this early, it gives the cut ends of the branches time to heal and harden over so that they won't be sticky when it is time to cut and handle the tree. The trees look really good, and we think we will be open to sell trees for the first time in a couple of years.

It's a nice change of pace from the normal farm chores to go over and work in the trees for a few hours a day. The solitude is relaxing, and seeing a bushy tree transformed into a nicely shaped potential Christmas tree is very rewarding. Yukon, our black Lab, likes to tag along, too. He likes to explore the meadow and woods while Karen and I work away. With the heat, he worked up quite a thrist. Karen helped him out by pouring some of our water into a recess in the truck's tailgate.


--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at September 16, 2005 04:41 PM