Tree tying

 Last week we told our neighbor, who owns the big tree farm behind our house, that we thought we'd like to buy some little trees from him. He said to meet him at his tree farm and he'd show us what he thought we ought to pick from.  When we arrived he showed us some really tall trees (fifteen footers) that were growing too close to each other and needed thinning, (or else he was going to have to cut them down) and if we were interested, we could have them for a really good deal!

Oo-duh-la-lee, I have been so excited I have hardly been able to stand it!!  There isn't much that gets me as excited as plant material. Barbara Kingsolver said in one of her books, "I have seen women looking at jewelry ads with a misty eye and one hand resting on the heart, and I only know what they're feeling because that's how I read the seed catalogs in January." I could really relate to that quote because that's how I feel looking at plant magazines every spare minute that I have ALL YEAR - I pour over them the way some women read "Vogue" magazine or surf all over the internet.  It doesn't matter what kind of plants; it can be flowers, shrubbery, trees or food- producing plants.

This is Shawn tying me up to a tree:)  I think I forgot to tell my face how excited I was feeling!

Well Saturday, around 6:00, John Ferguson, our generous neighbor, took us out to the farm to show us how to tie up a tree. He left, and then Shawn and I got busy for the hour before it got dark.  First you tie a bow line knot on a branch and wrap a bunch of twine around your right hand:

Then you go around and around the tree pushing the branches up and holding them tight with the twine. There I go just getting started with one:

Until it looks like this and Mr. Ferguson can get in there and dig it right up with his equipment without breaking off any branches:

Well, at seven O'clock it was already too dark to see and we had only finished eleven out of the 32 that we had yet to do.  We went in and ate a lovely spaghetti dinner made by our lovely Madeline Mary with consultation advice from her lovely sister Kami.  

This was the night after the big party we let the kids have, and Shawn was EXHAUSTED - we'd only had six hours of sleep and a hard day's work already.  I should have been tired, but I was living on excitement and all I could think about was getting the job done.  SO...I invited Caden to come out with me. (Shawn had asked Caden to remind him how to tie a bow line, so I knew Caden could do what I was too impatient to learn myself.)  Caden and I grabbed the twine and a lantern and headed out. It was kind-of creepy walking out there (although we didn't admit it to each other until the next day) because it was pitch dark and there had just been a bull moose in the tree farm the night before.

Once we got there and got working it didn't feel creepy, it was just really fun. Cade tied knots for me and timed me while I wrapped up the trees and tried to beat my previous times, and we talked and laughed.  Did I mention that tying trees is REALLY hard work?  I was sweating and panting like crazy! Caden was patient with me when I changed my goal number of trees- for that night- from 10, to 11 to 14.  We made a good dent in it before we decided it was getting too late and we ought to get some sleep.

Shawn and I finished off the trees today, and if the weather is good tomorrow, they will get moved into our yard.  I am SO excited!!