photo #1707399

I was home on leave, and my brother, Father, and I were back in force. I still think our wives had devised a shift work plan so there'd always be one of them watching us. Out of the clear blue, my Dad started talking about the good old days when the men went and fetched the tree and the women decorated it. He called the Forest Service, and confirmed we could purchase a tree permit on the way up into the Sandias. We resolved to go first thing in the morning, and asked who wanted to go with us. Mother had bad knees, my brother's wife didn't like hiking, and my wife at the time got lost in the garden center at Home Depot, so it was the three of us. The next morning around 6:30, we loaded up the truck with a double-bitted axe and a bow saw, jumped in, and went on the great tree hunt. NOW I finally understood how smart my Dad really was. He had absolutely no intention of traipsing around the woods, he just wanted a break. We went to the Forest Service office and bought a $5.00 tree permit. We then proceeded to grab some lunch at The Windmill restaurant and Bar at the turnoff to the hunting grounds. We each had a huge cheeseburger with fries and a beer, and the plan unfurled. This was going to be epic ! We drove around for quite a bit before we found the perfect tree back in town. Then, we pulled through the drive-up and got a case of cold beer, and proceeded over to my brother's rental. It's a good thing it was only about 8 blocks away from Dad's house, or we'd have definitely gotten arrested finding it. We laughed, joked, and got snockered at my brother's place. We traded stories and lies until the beer was gone. The three of us COULD get in some interesting trouble, and could start fighting each other if there wasn't anything else to do. Now, however, we had a story to stick to. We affixed the tree tag to it, and proceeded home at about 5:00 pm, just in time for a cold beer while we unloaded the tree and put it into a bucket of water on the back patio. Well, after supper, we sat around drinking more, the wives were sipping wine, and the joviality went quite late. The women were ecstatic about the tree, and never even picked up on the fact it was a Douglas Fir instead of a Scotch Pine. Doug Firs didn't grow out there ! Didn't matter, we'd pulled it off. The women were busy decorating the house, and causing a racket loud enough to wake the dead. The three of us went outside, and put the tree in the stand. It looked quite full, so we didn't even have to "plug it", and we carried it into the house. We set it up, and mumbled something about shopping, and ran for our lives while they decorated the tree. Of course it was a beer run for later ! We'd only been gone about an hour and a half when we got back home. Things were too quiet. There was a note on the tree for us. It seems the women were going out to a local bar for a ladies "time out", and they'd be home when they arrived. In the meanwhile, we were cordially invited to decorate the tree. We did, although it took a couple of hours. Yeah, we'd started into our beer stash, confident they'd be home in time to cook supper. Did I tell you those three women were crafty? Seems they'd learned a trick or two over the years from US. They proudly marched in half an hour late for supper feeling no pain, and slapped a bag of cheapie burgers and fries down "for you boys". We managed to eat the food, and finish off our beer by ourselves, the women laughing and talking about their restaurant. We were beginning to understand something was afoot. We'd been had. But HOW? Note to the wise : tree farms tuck a tag inside by the trunk identifying where/who it came from. This one was from Colorado ! Who knew ?