Day 108, The Christmas tree arrives

After a full of day of putting up lights on Tuesday, the first half of Wednesday was more of the same.  This time however it was putting up lights in the trees in front of the office and the large 22' spruce tree in the side yard.  It took three of us, about 3 and half hours to put lights in approximately 10 trees and around the building. 

22' Sequoya and kiosk's 

At 12:30pm out special ordered 30' Christmas tree arrived for the City and to my dissapointment it was approximately 22' with 3' of trunk.  It's a beautiful tree, but substantially smaller than the last two years and not what I was hoping for.  None the less, the vounteers from Knife River with a crane were there and my brother with his chainsaw.   With in minutes the trunk was cut to fit and with precision placement the tree was dropped perfectly in the stand.  With the tightening of four large screews, the placing of some 2x4's, the tree was in place.  Decorating of the tree will have to wait until Friday and the official tree lighting will be the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Immediately following the tree, 6 small kiosks started to arrive; again, with the awesome help of Knife River.  The kiosk are designed to look like small buildings (church, clock tower, candy store, etc) and they flank the Christmas tree and transfrom the space into a small village like atmosphere.  We will hang more lights and real evergreen garland on the builds, hopefully by Friday.  The garland comes from Costco and their shipment has not arrived yet.

At 3pm a winter storm warning was issued for the region lasting until 10:30am tomorrow morning.  Wind gust are expected to be as high as 60 mph and it made be think that perhaps the shorter tree might be ok after all.

I had my 4:30pm hour workout in Bend today, so I left at 4pm to get there.  I had work all day and did not have time to eat lunch, so I was wondering how the workout would go on an empty stomach.  When I got there I realized I didn't have my gym bag!  I was so bummed, but my trainer had no problem with me working out in my t-shirt and jeans.  So despite my winter shoes and jeans I actually got a pretty good workout in.  We focused a lot on stretching, since I had been climbing up and down ladders for 3 days.  At the end of the hour I was ready to collapse and I was starving.

I couldn't wait to get home and to eat.  I also had to check on the chickens.  This was another day of them being kept in the pen all day and I felt bad.  They have plenty of room to run around, but I know how they like to roam the yard.  There was only 1 egg - again.  They are really going out on strike and egg production is at rock bottom.  Their next move will be to completely stop production and then I will have to have to open negotiations or have myself a barbecue!