Almost tree-less

I almost didn’t cut a tree this year.

Busy with other things – primarily hunting – I was running out of time.

Had there been a Christmas tree lot in the little town where I live, I might have bought one, but there isn’t so I didn’t have that option. I’d even begun to consider a hassle-free artificial tree. No muss, no fuss. Ready to go year after year. Just bring it up from the basement and plug it in.

I realized, however, that if I didn’t go out and cut a tree this year, I never would again. And it’s a habit I wasn’t ready to quit.

For almost half a century I’ve harvest...