Cholla Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 Now that we are back home in AZ we have resumed going to the national forest to cut our tree. Yes, it's legal but you need to buy a permit. Here in the Prescott National Forest, the permits are limited. Last year my wife was Johnny on the spot when the permits became available and we got on. The adventure was trying to find one we both liked. We followed the map to where the FS recommended cutting and didn't see any we liked. We headed higher up Senator Highway and finally found a nice one. This year we got busy and forgot to swing in and get a permit until after all were sold in the PNF area. Undaunted, I checked the Kaibab NF website and they had lots of tags left with a limit of five per person! The problem was the areas I knew had nice trees (Bill Williams Mountain) were off limits to cutting. The KNF did provide a species map and an area use map (private, wilderness, no cutting, cutting allowed.) With a little work we found a northern facing area by Sitgraves Mountain that had many fir and spruce. I think we got a dandy this year for a wild tree. We plan on continuing the tradition until we are too old to get out, which hopefully will be many more years. Last Year: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Jones, SASS 2263 Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 Nice tree. Merry Christmas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 Nice! Merry Christmas Hey, is that a stuffed squirrel in your tree I see? Pretty funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 It's nice to have family tradition. Yours looks like lots of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cholla Posted December 18, 2021 Author Share Posted December 18, 2021 My wife loves to tell friends of Christmas tree adventures past and we have had some crazy ones. Last year I eye-balled the tree and it looked close to the maximum 10-feet allowed. In cutting it, the tree fell the wrong way down an embankment and the top three-foot snapped off. In getting it back to the truck it was a little large compared to the Jeep bed. But, I tied it in and we took the "highway" back home. As you can see in the photos the Senator Highway is only correctly named in that it goes up high in the Bradshaw Mountains. Once home I used PVC pipe to patch the top back on and it stayed green for the holidays. As a reminder of the event my wife made an ornament. The scale is only slightly off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 Looks like a great outdoor adventure and a wonderful continuation of a tradition. Merry Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 We used to go to some of the local tree farms for "tree hunting." One year I was in the pickup with my wife's kids, she was in a car with my ex. I got there first, sent the kids in, got a cup of coffee and waited the minute or so for the ladies. She pulled up and said, "I found the perfect tree ". ???? She pulls up and says that? She saw my look. Took me to it while my ex looked for her tree. "Can I at least look around?" I asked. I found the kids, sent them to their mom (my wife) . Five minutes later we were cutting it. Loaded it into the truck, put the one my ex picked in on top, secured them. Dropped the ex and her tree off at her place, went home. Ours was 12 foot tall, when it was relaxed the spread was close to 7 foot diameter. It was full , it was even, it was perfect. Left it on the back porch overnight to relax. Put it up the next night with plans to decorate the next day. Two hours later it fell over. I reset it, put some cinder blocks on the legs of the stand. Two hours later it fell over. Put some eyebolts in the wall Reset it and tied it off at two points. Four hours later, at about 0300, it fell over. At 0700 went to the hardware store, bought a bigger stand and a quarter sheet if 3/4inch plywood. Put the stand together, secured it to the plywood with carriage bolts, put cinder blocks on the plywood, tied the tree to the wall. THAT let it stay up. But GAWD! It was, as the wife said, The Perfect Tree. Now, almost 30 years later we still joke about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watab kid Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 beautiful tree , nicely decorated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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