When Fall arrives we know the fun is just beginning! Rain, sleet, snow or driving wind - we work in all weather conditions to get the trees harvested on time. Everybody on our large crew plays an important role. While David is busy running the chainsaw, some of the crew skids (drags) the trees to a field road where Brenda operates the baler with her crew.
As soon as the trees are baled (wrapped in twine), the loading crew arrives (led by Grandpa Dave) with a trailer pulled by a tractor. The trees are loaded onto the trailer and taken to the staging area on our main farm where they are unloaded and covered in shade cloth so they can be protected from the sun and wind.
Now the trees wait until it's time to load them again in either another trailer or a semi so they can be shipped to their destinations. some of those trees will come with us down to the northern suburbs of Chicago where we will retail them on two separate tree lots.