Fresh Cut Christmas Tree

This year I wanted a little more nostalgic Christmas, so my wife and I went to Riehle's Tree Farm (Dousman, WI) and cut our own tree. As a kid we always had a real tree, but I couldn't remember actually going out to a tree farm, so this year we made our own memories. The folks at Riehle's made it easy, with a huge selection and help getting the tree baled and loaded on the van. We went with a Spruce, for the shorter needles and a more "filled out" look. Here's some pictures once we got the tree home.

Still baled and ready to go in the house

I trimmed the branches at the bottom first, to attached part of the base of our tree stand. The stand is kind of neat in that it has a two piece swivel base so that you can attached part of the base to the tree and then just drop it into the floor piece of the base. The swivel allows you to straighten the tree by stepping on a "release" lever. This came in handy as you can see from the second picture.

In the stand, but a little tilted

After a little adjustment it was much better, the tree is straightened and some LED lights are applied.

Straightened, lit and ready to decorate

Now I just have to remember to water it regularly, so far it seems to be needing about a quart of water a day. I'm sure some of that is just evaporation, but so far it's not losing a lot of needles.

Christmas' long long ago...

Well, maybe not that long ago, but it's kind a Christmas tradition on my blog to show one of the photos from my parents collection of 35mm slides that I had scanned a few years ago.

They don't make pedal cars like that anymore.
This one's a Murray "Holiday" Model from
around 1960

Looks like the drive up service was good too.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

A Silver Dollar Memory

It's just a silver dollar, but there's a story behind this one, from the time that I first saw it.


We have to set the WayBack Machine to around 1964, to the days when my sister and I would sometimes stay over night or over a weekend at my grandparents farm. Grandpa Bryan's farm was one of those self sufficient farms, that have all but disappeared these days, except for maybe the Amish. The crops that they grew, for the most part, went to feed the cows, chickens and pigs. They could then sell the milk, eggs and pork to make extra money. As a side story my wife and I may have met when we were children, long before we dated, when her grandfather bought milk and eggs from mine.

Anyway, back to the silver dollar, it was on one of those weekend stays, when I was getting ready for bed. I was sleeping in the spare bedroom during this stay and happened to open a drawer of an old dresser, that held all kinds of treasures, at least for a 7 years old. There were old pairs of glasses, small tools, a watch or two and a box full of old silver dollars. These dollars were bigger than the coins that I was used to handling and a few of them were pretty badly worn. After looking at them I carefully replaced them in the drawer and moved a few things around in order to fold my clothes and put them away.

I thought about those coins over the years and they are probably what led me to a brief period of coin collecting when I was a teenager.

Recently, after the death of my grandfather, those coins were passed down to my mother, but she in turn gave them to me. I cherish those coins because of the memories of those visits to the farm and I carry one of the coins with me today, as a reminder of simpler times.

Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

A few years ago, I borrowed my parents 35MM slides and scanned them, in order to save them digitally. I then made CDs with all the images, so that they would be easier to view and share. So, for the holiday season, here's a favorite Christmas picture of me and my sister.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year