Side Roads and High Roads - I

Top of the World by J. Binford-Bell

It is that time of the year again when my sister and I go off-roading in search of the perfect Holiday Tree. And admittedly we do a lot more searching than finding. We can be very picky. Besides which the searching is a lot of fun.

It all begins with a trip to the Taos office for the Carson National Forest where a permit is obtained. Then you cannot go back by way of US 64 but must go through Talpa to take the backroads over the mountain while looking for a suitable tree. This you mark in your GPS so you can return on Thanksgiving day with the saw and tie downs, etc. The tree has to be cut on Thanksgiving which is why you just cannot cut it while going back over the mountain.

But it raises two problems: finding the marked GPS location on the GPS, and then finding it in the real world.

High Country Christmas Tree Lot

Then, of course, there is remembering which of those trees at that location you thought was so perfect. This year none of that seemed to be any problem at all.

Jeep with Tree

We even got the tree up on top of the jeep which the three inch lift and one inch bigger tires. And just us two short women to do it and tie it down. The fur kids were no help at all. In fact the fur kids were waiting for their own special part of the adventure - The Dog Races.

Adahy pulls ahead of Magique

But we accomplished all and got home in time to put the prepped turkey into the oven. And while it baked we erected the tree in the studio.

Waiting to be decorated

Mind you with all that activity and full tummies we did not get back to decorating it until Friday after all day off roading in other areas. More about those adventures in another blog.

2012 Holiday Tree

Hope everyone is having a great time making memories with friends and family. That is really what this is all about.

In memory of all those humans and fur kids no longer with us who we have shared this adventure with in the past.

Comments

  1. Ien in the KootenaysNovember 24, 2012 at 9:59 AM

    What a perfect tree! Won't it be all dried out and lose its needles before Christmas?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JBinford-BellNovember 24, 2012 at 4:16 PM

      No it won't. Those that you buy in lots are cut in early October. That is why they dry up. I generally keep my cut trees up to Epiphany without drying out.

      Delete
  2. The Blog of BeeNovember 25, 2012 at 8:32 AM

    This is a wonderful post. You know why I'm late. A great way to spend Thanksgiving. I hadn't realized that you need permit but I guess it stands to reasons. Your tree is spectacular - I love it. No 'live' trees here. I miss the needles and the smell of the tree.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I write for me but I care what my readers think. Please be polite and no scamming.

Popular posts from this blog

Polyethylene Packaging - a Dark Times Journal entry

Image
I was in the fourth grade when our family moved from El Paso, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We moved because I could not breathe the air there. I want to say they cracked petroleum there. But what did I know beyond the sky was sometimes yellow and I could not breathe. Mom was pregnant with Debbie, and Gary and I rode in the backseat separated by a round tank full of Dad's tropical fish. Dad had a job with Sealright, Inc which made paper milk cartons. Sealright was a polyethylene packing subsidiary of Phillips 66. The petroleum company. I was rather proud of myself for learning to say that, and to not laugh when adults would stare at me not knowing what to ask about that. Albuquerque smelled better. Then. Before all the freeways were built and the shape of the valley trapped the exhaust down near the ground in the winter months. We lived in the foothills. I could breathe. I learned that if I could see the air I could not. Still it was better than El Paso though I missed our trip...
Read more

Swimming

Image
For much of my college career my fitness workout was swimming on the B squad of the swim team. I remember it as the days before heated pools and women coaches. I also remember being so exhausted and cold I could only lean against the shower wall and throw up. Not exactly warm fuzzy images but I was in awesome shape. Needless to say it did not leave me with a overpowering desire to swim laps. Point of fact for years my swimming became really informal: Swimming to shore after the canoe tipped over, challenging my sister once a summer to across the lake and back, seeing how long I could back float without moving a muscle, and a scuba course. I also played around with other ways of staying fit: aerobics, bicycling, jogging, skiing and dance classes. All of which seem to be bad for the knees, back or feet. After my ski accident my physical therapist steered me back to the pool. Damn if I was going to swim laps! However, aqua fit was just getting rather seriously taken so I took it. It r...
Read more

The Pruning the Crown of Thorns

Image
Crown of Thorns Before I am a lover of Euphorbias . They are from the deserts of Southern Africa and Madagascar. They have evolved physical characteristics and forms similar to cacti of North and South America and are often incorrectly referred to as cacti. My big Crown of Thorns was one of my first of a growing collection of these succulents from the spurge family of Euphorbiaceae. I picked it up as a 6 inch plant in a New Iberia nursery when my sister and I were touring the northern gulf coast. I believe that was 15 years ago. I made an attempt at limiting its height a few years back to allow it to devote more energy to the new branches and make it a denser plant. That failed. And the height of the plant continued to challenge the window space and soon the long branches were leaning over and leaning against the window. I googled and found the proper way to prune this treasured plant. Still it was very difficult to cut off the four longer branches. Even with a plan. The f...
Read more