Monday, December 03, 2007

Christmas Tree Killing

This is Charity in my buddy Steve's driveway. As you can see, Steve is a four wheel drive enthusiast.

This is Steve and I. I'm the one in the Old Navy pullover. Steve lived around the corner from me on Humboldt Hill. Me and Steve have been friends since the eighth grade.

We drove up to Southfork Mountain in Trinity County. To get the kind of trees that are good for decorating, you have to get up to around four thousand feet above sea level where the white fir grows.

The most interesting sight on the way up was the guy cutting the backstrap out the roadkill deer on the side of the road. Here in Northern California, venison is a delicacy. The backstrap is that tender piece of loin on either side of the spine. I've heard of people taking meat from roadkill, but I've never actually witness it go down.
We took four trees Saturday. Trees never look that great out in the woods. It's not until you get them home and decorated that they look like Christmas trees.


Here's me slaying a young tree.

Here's me and Steve making sure the tree is good and dead before we drag it to the truck.

My trophy tree.

We dragged my niece, Ambir, and my daughter, Charity out of bed early in the morning and had them ride up to Southfork with us.


Charity is getting a whiff of Christmas. Who doesn't love that fresh Christmas tree smell?


We tied three trees onto my little car. I was pretty proud of that.

Finished product. Allie loves to lay on the floor and watch the lights flicker and flash.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's awesome, Bryon. We're headed up to the mountains to do the same thing this upcoming weekend.

Anonymous said...

We haven't actually bought a "live" tree or a dead one in several years, because we always leave for several days to go see my family. And there's no way I would trust our beagle with a tree, with lights and stuff; that would be way too much temptation. I mean, this little girl will chew *anything*! She'd probably electrocute herself within 48 hours. Once she pulled that tree over on its side, all the cords, lights, and other decorations would be so accessible. So enjoy yours and think of us poor, deprived types that don't even have a Christmas tree.

Btw, we don't have a "holiday tree," either. :o)

Anonymous said...

Sounds like if you carry a knife with you, you may score Christmas dinner on your way home some day!
You'll appreciate these lyrics:

Road Kill Stew Tune: Three Blind Mice

Road Kill stew,
Road Kill stew,
Tastes so good,
Just like it should.

First you go down to the Interstate
You wait for the critter to meet it's fate.
You take it home and you make it great!
Road Kill stew,
Road Kill stew.

Unknown said...

that looks like fun getting to cut your own tree :) Jody's little song cracks me up, how appropriate! are you and Ali still enjoying your 'new thing'?

Bryonm said...

liz: yup.

Mike West said...

With the current writer's strike going on in Hollywood, you might want to submit this for a new Lampoon Christmas story.