Despite the fact that I’ve yet to hang our outside lights, our house is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Yesterday was the day for the annual Christmas tree hunt with Kim’s family. Though we lived out of town for eight years we still managed to tag along for a few of these adventures over the time-span. It typically involves stops at a couple of different tree farms and yesterday was no exception.

First we stopped at Pine Achers (11469 County Farm Road, Aurora IN 47001) a place that I immediately remembered from prior visits. To me it seems that the owners of this farm are not planting any new trees, and most of the remaining trees are really big. In my opinion it is not worth stopping here again, though one of Kim’s uncles always seems to get his over twenty foot tall tree here.

24 Foot Tree

After only cutting down one tree at this lot we moved over to the somewhat nearby Mount Pleasant Christmas Tree Farm (21797 Mount Pleasant Road, Lawrenceburg, IN  47025). Again I immediately remembered this place from a visit quite a few years back. Unlike Pine Achers, the owners here seem to be growing new trees for future year sales. At first our group wasn’t finding many good ones for this year, and Kim and I decided to settle on one of the few decent looking bigger trees we could find. Later most in the group eventually settled on a tree from the lot, but overall the selection was again disappointing. Maybe we were just too late in the season, for this lot especially.

Our Tree

With the help of one of Kim’s brothers and one of the employees on the lot we got our new tree on top of the car and secured it with a strap I borrowed from a family member. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have anything to bail it together with, but we managed to get it on top of the car and only a little mud in the car. After a stop at my in-laws house for lunch, Kim and I took our tree home. Unfortunately along the way one of the clips on the tie down strap busted loose and the tree fell into the street. Luckily a couple of passersby stopped and helped me to secure it to the roof again and then we made it home with no further issues.

Decorated Tree

Since this was our first time dealing with a live tree, I was a little unprepared as to how much work it would take to get it setup inside the house. First I had to cut a foot off the bottom since it was a little too tall, even for our nine foot ceilings. Then I trimmed a bunch of branches off the bottom before dragging it through the front door. Once inside I realized just how big the tree was. Funny how seeing them out in the woods they don’t look so big, but once inside they become huge! Anyway, after messing with the stand for a half hour, our tree was finally standing upright. I quickly threw some decorations on it and called it done. Our old star shaped tree topper might not be big enough for this massive tree, and the two strands of lights I had may not be enough, but I think it looks pretty good.