Saturday, November 15, 2008

Christmas trees

While I was enjoying Sabina's Barefoot in the Orchard blog I was inspired to write the story and put up some photos of the work Mr Margie (Marc) has been doing for the last week, he has not worked in this area for eight years.




Mr. Margie has agreed to be part of a team at a farm owned by one of his friends. There are four men on the team and they are all cutting Christmas trees. The trees were planted eight or nine years ago on the farm about half an hour from where we live. All the trees (Nordman and Noble Fir)are colour graded and have been specially pruned each year to have the perfect shape for the Christmas market in Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Ireland. The soil in the river valley where they grow is the best soil in Europe for the trees and the root stock is of a certain provenance that grows fast and full. The farm has a replanting programme and treat the Christmas trees as a crop. The farm is full of wildlife and each morning before the cutting starts there are at least two dozen wild deer from the Wicklow mountains grazing in the fields. The farm is home to many decidious trees and an abundance of wildlife, pheasants, rabbits, hares, even quail. The owner has also dug a lake on his land, and stocked it with fish. The lake is now home to ducks, water hens, herons and swans.





Mr. Margie is obsessed with chainsaws. He is also obsessed with a challenge, and this work allows him enjoy both obsessions. Each day this week (he worked six) he has felled up to one thousand nine hundred, yes 1900 trees each day. That adds up to some serious bending each day. The target is 33,000 trees this year.






When all the trees are cut in the field, some fields have 5000 trees they are then netted by another team and brought to the yard where the different grades are packed into trucks and transported to the ferry. All the fields will be harvested and the trees out of the yard by the end of November. Mr. Margie is usually still sick at the sight of Christmas trees by December 25th. It will take coaxing and a few glasses of mulled wine to get him to go back to the farm with the family to choose our indoor tree this year. We have four rooted outdoor Christmas trees in the garden. But the indoor tree is always a cut tree due to the heat coming off the stoves during the holidays. I love the smell of the tree in the house.




It is offically ok to drink mulled wine now according to Lotta at My Lovely Christmas Home.

8 comments:

Annie Wicking said...

Wow, what hard work all those trees cut down just for one day... Will more be planted there again?

The first rooted xmas tree that my husband and I bought together is now growing outside my office window and stands as tall as our house.

I love having a real tree at Christmas and two years ago we bought another rooted tree and mangaged to keep it in its plant alive to use again last christmas but it didn't make it for this christmas.

Thank you for sharing your husband's work with us. I find it very interesting.

Best wishes, my dear friend, ((Hug))

Annie

Margie’s daughter Leiny said...

Hi Annie, thank you for commenting and yes to your question, the farm has a replanting programme, I will add some more information about the farm to the post. hugs Margie.

Deborah said...

We go to a local Christmas tree farm and cut our own. I LOVE the smell. We send the stump to a woodcarver in Texas and he carves a Santa for us. I have them dating back to 1998. It's always a treat to open up the box in the summer. Our radio stations are already playing Christmas music. I want to enjoy Thanksgiving first!!!

Stephanie - My Calico Heart said...

I would love to give you an award, pop on over to my blog if you would like to accept it.

Stephaniex

Unknown said...

Wow, what a great deal of work. I can't even imagine. Those trees are beautiful. We always used to cut down our tree each year. Where we live in New England there are many Christmas tree farms, and you can pick one out and they will cut it down for you. I love the smell of a fresh tree in the house. I like the idea of that hot mulled cider. Karen

Cape Cod Rambling Rose said...

Mmmmmm the scent of a fresh tree and mulled cider in the house! Love it!

(new blog for me, Margie,
-beachy)

Rumour has it said...

Dear Margie, thank you very much for all your nice visits and comments! I´m glad to meet you and to discover that your husband is Belgian as well :)
But I think he might do well there in Ireland, since many Belgians appreciate the Irish spirit. We maybe feel and are attracted by the Celtic roots and my husband (who is Lithuanian and an artist) loves that Celtic spirit and art very much as well.
Do you come over sometimes to visit Antwerp? My own dad actually was born in Lint, near Antwerp, and as a young boy he visited school in Lier.
Ah, I´ll watch out this year if I can find a Mr. Margie-Christmas-tree on the Belgian market!! He should label well those trees :D
Warm greetings, Marjolijn

(Since my bloglist became very long, I´ll add your link to www.lifestyle.pimpstart.nl in order to find you more easily).

CurtissAnn said...

Enjoyed reading your blog. LOL about Mr. Margie and his chainsaw. My Mr, and Son, are the same. "More Power". And I, too, love vintage linens. The texture draws me. Thanks for sharing.
CurtissAnn