The Adirondacks Offer
Their Own "Christmas Decorations"
Sumacs decorate a hedgerow
A Maple Decorates Its Own Christmas Tree
Right after Thanksgiving we would go up in Arietta, with our deer rifles, to get our tree.
Not wanting to strain ourselves, and being resourceful "mountain men," we would "kill two birds with one stone." How? We target practiced by making our target six or seven feet below the top of a huge pine, shooting down our Christmas tree in the process! The top of some of the tall pine trees have the best shape, almost perfect, for a Christmas tree.
Ah, what a thrill to pull up your rifle, fire a few times, then watch your Christmas tree, trailing beautiful contrails of powdered snow, lazily spin to the ground at your feet!
Furthermore this protected these trees by limiting their height so that they wouldn't become a victim of a summer lightning storm and get killed.
We were the first ecologists! We never cut down trees, losing them forever, we just took a piece and left the tree! :)