Part 3: Holiday Weekend Wrap Up & Guess How Much We Paid For Our Tree

Part 1 here, Part 2 here.

So, after cutting our trees, we drove up the hill to another field where the attendant and baler were:

 

  

 

Most tree farms have a "baler", which is a device that holds plastic netting, and the attendant (or sometimes it's do it yourself) pulls the tree through the baler (sometimes there are different sizes of balers) which squishes the tree down and contains it with the plastic netting.  This is super helpful for two reasons.  First of all, if you don't have a pickup truck you're going to either have to put the tree in your trunk, or tie it to the top of your vehicle and it is WAY easier to fit it in the trunk or tie it down if it's been bailed because it's much narrower.  Secondly, it is WAY easier to get the tree into your house if it has been bailed - trying to get a large tree like ours through doorways results in a mess of pine needles all over, plus you can scratch or get sap all over the place too.  

   

So here are the trees back in the truck after having been through the baler:

 

   

So THEN we had to drive back down the hill and down the road to the main field to pay.  I am heartened that in this day and age this farm can still operate on this "honesty system".  Because we could have TOTALLY taken off with the trees without paying (WHICH WE WOULD NEVER DO).

We drove to my Dad's and dropped off his tree, helped him get it in the stand and bring it inside.  (We are going over later in the week to help him decorate it.)   Then we went home and put ours in the stand and brought it inside.

   
(Again, sorry for the overexposed pics.  The only features I know are how to turn off the flash and set it for macro.  There must be something to deal with bright conditions, huh?)
   
Link love and / or "fame and glory" to anyone who can correctly guess what we paid for our tree.  Here are the details: it's about 7 1/2 ft. tall Douglas Fir.  What do you think?
   
The end.