Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / Trees of Christmas Past

Transcript

Trees of Christmas Past · PNW Haunts & Homicides

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: When you have a U cut Christmas tree firm and
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: you see the joy that people and families are having
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and it becomes a tradition in their family to come
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: up and we've watched little babies grow up.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Bill he used to tell people, if.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: You don't know anyone when you get here, you'll know
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a whole large family when you leave. That's the way
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that it became. People would get to know each other
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and friendships developed standing around that fire.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: I definitely remember the fire pit was huge. That was
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: like central to the experience site. Hi Caitlin, Hi Cassie,
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Hi creepy people. Hey, this is PNW Haunts and Homicides
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: where we chat about true crime, the paranormal, and all
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: things spooky in the Pacific Northwest the p and W.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: If you're nice, stick and.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: We also do a tarot reading at the end of
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: every episode for a little deeper insight into our topic.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: And sometimes our topic isn't even creepy or scary at all.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's just cool in specific NORTHWESTI So yeah, Holiday
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: and Happen tis this season and also sorry if you
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: do not celebrate Christmas. This is a Christmas heavy episode,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: but it's kind of for everyone too. It's not Yeah,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: you can still listen to it. It's not specific. We're
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: not just like telling the story of Santa Claus or whatever.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: It's actually pretty good. So even if you don't care
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: about Christmas, if you don't celebrate, it's still a pretty
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: good episode. I think.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: Well, and here's the thing is, Santa is a secular figure,
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: so even if you are not celebrating Christmas in the
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: maybe traditional religious sense, I feel like Christmas in terms.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Of Santa people.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, to all of us, Okay, that is true.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: If you want him, you got him.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: You got him. He'll be there. He sees you when
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: you're sleeping. He knows something. Oh no, which is a
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: series of spicy books I'm currently reading. Anyway, let's move
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: along because we're going to do some Patreon shout outs
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: that I'm not sure if we've actually done yet or not.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: So we're just going to either do them anew or
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: do them again and you're going to deal with it,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: all right. First off, we have Brandy and Taylan at
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: the Creepy People Tier. Hello, Hello Brandy, Hello Taylan. And
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: you guys might have heard of Taylor before. She is
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: our video edter Social media goddess keeps us in line
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: sort of. She's just becoming our manager. I think you know,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: she start booking us shows any day now, Taylan get
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: to Yeah, we'll just do what you tell us. We'll
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: do anything you say.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: I agree.
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: And we have a new member, Sam, not that new.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Also, we're a little bit concerned. Okay.
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: We try to stay really on top of these things.
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: But since you've been with us for long enough for
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: any one of us to have produced offspring, we want
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: to make sure that you got your welcome Patreon card.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: The police are coming to arrest us because we just
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: I know, we forget we might not have sent a card.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, Wow, coming in.
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: Hot, they are coming in real hot. So Sam, please
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: be sure to let us know if for some reason
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: that slipped under the radar.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we try, but sometimes if you join as a
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: free person and then you join like for real, it
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: doesn't email us. So we have to try to like
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: really check and figure it out. And sometimes it's just hard. So, yes,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: we've missed anything for you Patreon member, like just bug
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: us message us. You can private message us on Patreon. Yeah,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: if we missed a shout out if we missed your
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: welcome card. If you just want to say hey, if
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: you have a topic suggestion. Uh moving, moving quickly along
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: from the Patreon irritations, we have an update from Clint.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: After we did the AI art for Clint's story in
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: the Last Creepy People chronicles, because Clint saw a really
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: creepy possible cryptid where nobody sure, but we put his
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: description into AI and came up with this crazy Well,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: AI came up with this a crazy image of what
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: this thing might have looked like, and so we sent
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: it to Clinton was like, Clint, is this it? And
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: then Clint sent us back a drawing and a message
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: that all I want to text Caitlin the drawing really quickly,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: and then Clint's message, Oh, I'm so excited. So Clint says,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: that's close to what I saw, and it says, sorry,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: I'm not as good artist as you. You mean as AI.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: We didn't, Yeah, we didn't, and you're a great artist. Clint.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: I think this is this is answering a lot of
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: questions for us. So he says, somewhere between my memory
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: and writing things, I left out some details.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: Like like the dicks on its head.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Hey, Clint is a fabulous artist.
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: Okay, No, he's are just saying those are dicks on
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: top of his head.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: They do look like many beans, but he does describe
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: what they are. So he says, those are like tarantula
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: legs coming out of the top of his head, which
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: was pretty close to the to the drawing, but like
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: tranchil legs, I'm like thick and hairy like. So his
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: hair was shorter like tarantula hair and not we were
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: kind I was thinking like long long emo bangs. So yeah,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: the drawing like is pretty damn close.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: It really is crazy. It's a startling likeness.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he drew him from the side though, so it
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: looks like maybe he was seeing more of a side angle,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: which explains why we like the other eye you couldn't see.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: So he does maybe have two eyes, but we don't
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: know because we can't see the second one. Hard to say.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: Maybe he is a cyclopes, yeah, could be gosh, but
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: it is a very strange, just like circle body on
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: top of the legs. It's it's so weird, and it
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: does have arms. It has separate arms that are separate
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: from the tarantula arms coming out of the head. So
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: it has okay, two tarantula arm legs coming out of
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: its head, and then two regular arms and two regular feet,
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: well as regular as can be.
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: You know, it's all relative, I suppose.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, and he wrote it has short, dark brown hair,
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: and then the trantle legs are lighter brown.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Yes, I was noticing that I.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Didn't see the words on there originally. Okay, that's so cool.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: I'm glad that AI kind of got kind of got
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: the gist of what you were trying to describe it.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: I feel like it really captured it.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: I'm let's move on to our topic for the day.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: And I realized that I'm about to talk about trees again.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Oh boy, because I am a tree lover, a tree
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: hugging hippie from Portland, Oregon.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Literally like tes yeah, you guys, I hope, literally a
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: tree hugger.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: I like to feel their energy, their vibes. We've talked
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: about it.
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: I know, I love it for you.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: So when I came across this article called the Second
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Life of an Abandoned tree Field, I got very intrigued.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: And the tagline is can a Christmas tree field abandoned
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: for years become a plentiful source of tree and boughs.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Mark Rolfs think so and is making that a reality.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: So we're talking about Christmas trees today. I love it,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: so I said. It was like, you know, a little
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Christmas heavy, but it's just about the trees. So like
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: trees are forever about it, Like yeah, even though well
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: I'll get I'll get to my opinions. But at the
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: end about the Christmas trees. Uh oh no, no, no,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: it's not bad.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: I'm like, am I about to be canceled for my
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: Christmas tree?
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: No?
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: All, it's sweet, It's sweet, okay, Okay. In twenty seventeen,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Mark Rolf's decided to save what they call old fern flat.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: He did not want the overgrown and unshaped mess of
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: forgotten trees to go to waste, so they were sold
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: as natural noble furs at their La Christmas Tree lot
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: called Santa and Sons.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: Noble furs are expensive.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right, that's why he's like looking around this field
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: of It's one of the pictures I have for you
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: of the field of like the mess that they were
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: looking at here.
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, we had lengthy conversations about varietals of trees
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: when we went to go get ours, because Chris's parents
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: specifically like a different one than what we went with,
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: which was the Noble Fur.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: And it's not because it's.
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: A noble fur, like I am not such a brand
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: tour that I needed to be like, oh I want
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: the most expensive. No, it's just we we kind of
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: needed a smallish tree, and all of the kind of
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: smaller ones were noble fur. It seemed like, so yeah,
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: that's how that happened.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: I'll give you some fun facts about noble fur trees. Actually, okay,
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: the tree lot where they sell these Christmas.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: These chrees Christmas Church.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: The tree lot Santa and Sons where they sell these
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Christmas trees is in LA and they grow, Yeah, the
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: trees in Oregon. And that's because noble furs are native
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: to Oregon and they only grow in the Pacific Northwest.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: Oh well, maybe that explains my preference.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: The noble fur trees. A love of frosty winter and
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: elevations above four thousand feet. Oh that's pretty dang elevated.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: If you ask me, it sure is. And the Noble
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: Fur out sells all other varieties in the Western United States,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: so you're not the only one everyone loves a noble.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: Fur, makes sense, I will say, I don't know if
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: it's specific to the noble fur, but they also are
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: harboring erected fugitives, criminals that have snuck into my home.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Oh well, see, you took their home into your home,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: so it's basically your fault.
• 11:02
  Speaker 7: I know.
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: I just every year I think to myself, it'll be
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: fine because they run it through the shaker machine.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, and they like wind it up.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Have you seen I Actually this is funny. I have
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: a video of a spider web and a spider in
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: the middle of it in a windstorm, and it's just like,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: oh my god doing this and it is not budging. Dude,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: it's not budging. I should I should add that, put
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: that video somewhere.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you're yeah, you might have to make that part
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: of the social media for this episode.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you guys can't see my hand movements because we're
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: not doing video for this one. But man, I'm just
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: going back and forth in front of the candy.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: So, anyway about the Christmas trees. Santa Incens was founded
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: by Mark and his wife Patricia in nineteen eighty three,
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: and I have a really cute picture of Mark with
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: a Christmas tree just do too, Adores. He kind of
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: looks like Santa. I'm not gonna lie. He could be
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: as a farmer. Well, it's Santa and sons. He's Santa's son,
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: you guys, is an an. It looks like such a
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: perfect Christmas tree standing with.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: Oh no, that is just gorgeous. I would have had
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: to have like cut that tree in half to get
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: it into my place.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that looks like one of the more shaped, like
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: purposefully shaped, maintained taking care of from birth and not
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: just left to overgrow trees. But it turns out that
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: a lot of people love the rustic and unkempt style.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: They're usually with larger branches and they have more space
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: in between them for like larger ornaments and stuff. Yeah,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: so the really tall trees like the picture I sent
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: you first, they use just the tips of the trees,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: so they use those to sell for Christmas trees. They
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: like basically cut off the tips of the trees and
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: then all the boughs down underneath. They took them off
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: to make wreaths and what are they waths and garlands.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: Garlands.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so they weren't wasting anything and They also used
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: the clippings for regrowing purposes as well. Oh there's a
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: really cute video on one of the articles on their
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: website of Mark planting a little tree a little seedling.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: It's so cute. It's like cool to just see.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: I love it.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Literally, it's just like digging my hand, not using a
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: machine and planting the little seedlings. I mean, I'm sure
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: you've seen these Christmas trees before, but they have an
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Instagram post of someone posted one of their trees that
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: they decorated, so you can kind of see like all
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: the space that's in between the bigger branches. It's not
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: very it's not perfectly shaped.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, ours is definitely not perfectly shaped.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: Actually had to shape it yourself.
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: Yes, no, quite literally, and I and only shaping it
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: so that it can fit in our space, not to
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: like make it like a perfect triangle or anything.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: We had to saw some of the lower branches off
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: this morning so that it would sit in the tree
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: stand correctly, because like tree branches. Yeah, no, I'm serious.
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: It was such a Oh I think that's why I
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: needed to try to nap.
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: Oh.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, look at that. It's like all the way up
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: to their ceilings.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: I know it is big, but I do like kind
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: of the space in between and like the more natural look.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: I like both. I like it always, I like it allways.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I just like a good tree.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: So I did come across another article and it's called
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: the Third Life of an Abandoned tree field. So the
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: first one was called the second life, and then I
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: found one called the third life, and I was like,
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: the fuck happened? And then wow, I was like, oh yeah.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: So in September twenty twenty, forest fires ripped through most
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: of Oregon in the West coast. Yeah, they sure did,
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: including areas of Marx Farm. They lost a lot of
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: the natural fur field. And this was after they had
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: harvested Let's see, they started in twenty seventeen. This was
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty, so they had harvested a lot of it
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: already and sold it. But there was still some left
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: and that, you know, a lot of that they lost.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: And they also, yeah, they lost a field of thousands
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: of freshly planted seedlings. No, yeah, they were just like,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: oh my god, like hundreds of man hours planting like
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: they do these by they do the planting by hand.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: They don't use machines. Yea, and that was just completely ill,
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: completely lost. That is so heartbreaking. It's devastating. And I
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: can't remember which fire this was. There's been a few,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: like really really devastating fire. Do you remember what the
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty There could have been multiple too.
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: I don't recall it being like given a specific name
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: or anything, but I remember having like at that point,
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: that's when I was still I was living in Oregon City,
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: and I remember I had to leave work one day
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: and I was working probably about thirty During COVID, you
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: could get back and forth between the West Side and
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: Oregon City in less than thirty minutes, but I was like,
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: you know, it was thirty forty minute drive normally. So
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: I was very panicky because I had to leave work
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: in the middle of the day because as we were
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: in the red zone.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Ah, the fire was cz like as the crow flies.
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: It was only about a mile and a half away
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: from where we were living, and I was like, I
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: gotta go get my dogs. I got to go get
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: like the stuff that I can't replace, and I went
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: and stayed with a friend somewhere else because I just
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: thismog like, because I mean, it's not smog it's it's smoke,
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: but it was so thick.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw pictures of that. I have pictures of it,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: like rolling in and it looks like doomsday.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: It does. It looks like you're on Mars. And I
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: remember I was having.
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: A lot of issues because for I mean, I have asthma,
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: so for people with respiratory issues also during a literal
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: respiratory disease pandemic.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Yes, And they were like, I was so freaked out.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: I was so didn't go outside. And they're like, extra,
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: don't go outside though, like, don't even go in your backyard.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, but my dog has to want peace.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: She's gonna like die. And they were like, going outside
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: and breathing for what like five minutes is like smoking
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: twenty million packets of cigarettes. Not that exaggerated, but I
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: mean I'm crazy. Yeah, the smoke was.
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: Really really thick in some areas where it was very very.
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: Dangerous, like the air quality.
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: People who you know, eat their head, respiratory issues, children,
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: you know, seniors really having a lot of issues, like
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: it was not safe to be outside.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: It was scary. And I just did a quick google
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: and it says the twenty twenty Oregon wildfire season was
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: the most destructive on the record in the state.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, twenty twenty was. I've said it once twice. I
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: don't even know how many times.
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: Twenty twenty was very specifically the longest decade ever, and
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: I'm talking about.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Us in Oregon too, like these fires, protests, like COVID,
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: all of it.
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was. It was a lot.
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: I just felt like every single day it felt like
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: there was kind of a new crisis.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: I also went through a breakup at Oh God in
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: twenty twenty two, so it was just like every leason,
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: my life is on fire, and it turns out so
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: is the planet.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: So what are you gonna do?
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: At one point, wasn't there something about like killer like
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: giant killer bees or killer bees, yellow jackets or something,
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: and everyone was just like, oh, all right.
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: Well, and then I think I think it was.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: The next summer and fall that Australia it might have
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: still been in twenty twenty.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: I can't remember the precise dates.
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: But Australia had devastating wildfires too.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: Have they lost the kangaroo.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: And koalas.
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: I mean, and just like the devastation to you know,
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: their topography, like it's not good.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: So after the devastation of all of this loss from
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: the fire, really the only option to them was just
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: to start over. So they cleared the fields of burnt
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: timber and prep the soil for replanting. More hundreds of
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: man hours spent replanting like so thousands and thousands of seedlings.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: Well and whenever.
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: Like a Christmas tree farm that is almost always like
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: a family run business. It's like, it's so devastating to
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: think about that type of It's like, I don't know,
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: it's it's not good when other bigger companies have a loss, maybe,
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: but like more in economic terms, I just feel like
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: it's so personal to them, you know. It's like I
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: planted these trees.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Yes, And I'm going to read it literally with their hands,
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: with their feet, with their heart. I'm going to read
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: a quote from the end of this article. It says,
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: most people think our work is done once Christmas is over,
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: but it's just the beginning of a different type of work.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: With our crew in the fields every week. It really
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: is a year round job for us.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean you gotta keep planting trees, yes, gotta.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Keep care all year absolutely, And it really was like
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: reading this kind of was tugging at my heart strings
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: about the trees because I was feeling like, it's so
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: mean to just kill a tree and like keep its
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: dead body in your house for a few weeks and
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: then throw it out, Like I feeling like monster, right,
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: But then when you think about these people who have
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: these huge farms of trees, and they put all this
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: love and time and energy into growing this tree for
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: you so that you can have it in your home.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: It can light up your home and bring joy for
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: you for a couple of weeks and then it's you know, recycled,
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: Please recycle the tree. But it just made it feel
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: a lot more special to me and not so just
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: like gruesome, like oh my god, just putting a tree
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: to toss it. It really is a lot more special.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: And then these people, this is their livelihood, their farmers. Yeah, okay,
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: so do you want to hear something really really cool
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: about me that I don't know? I might have. I
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: might have mentioned this on the podcast before, but I
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: don't know. Honestly, you might know.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: Okay, I'm dying to know because I don't know if
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Okay, I know, but I don't know if you know
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: what I know that you think that. I know, Okay,
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: that didn't make any sense.
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: Damn. It got real meta.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: So when I was a kid, I used to quote
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: unquote work on my u G my grandparents Christmas tree farm. Yes,
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: so I would. I wouldn't. I was really little, so
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: I was like, you know, serving hot cocoa, Like hell yeah.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: I would take people on a little animal tours. I
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: don't know if like someone told me to do that,
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: or if I just was like, I'm gonna go take
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: people on animal tours. And I would go around to
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: like all little stalls with the I don't know, goats.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: There was EMUs, there was peacocks. I'm sure there was
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: like chickens and pigs and ducks and shit. So I'd
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: go around and like take people to tour the animals
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: or something.
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: I like a little tiny girl boss entrepreneur. You're like
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: starting a whole separate side venture.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: I try. I don't know. I just I think I
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: really liked an off. I love animals. I'm like, hey,
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: let's go yeah, animals, I think, or maybe maybe someone
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: suggested it to me, maybe my grandma told me to
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: go and do it. I it was I was pretty young,
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: so I don't. My memories are kind of foggy about it,
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: and I didn't really think about like how special this
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: kind of was until recently, and I'm like, man, that
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: was pretty damn magical that I got to spend a
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: good chunk of my childhood at a Christmas tree farm.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: Seriously, it feels like a Hallmark movie.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: It does. And then even in the off season, like
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: we would be there all the time, and it was
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: just across the street from their house, so we would
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: just go across the street and go wander around through
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: the trees and there was back trails and I've I
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: remember me and my aunts and cousins would go walking
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: around back there in the trees and we found a
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: deer head or was like I don't know if it
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: was an elk or a deer, but I had really
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: big horns and it was on a stump, and I
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: just I thought that was the creepiest thing. And I'm like,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: who put this there? It was so mysterious to me?
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Is this like I don't know what. I don't think
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: I was thinking like Satanic rituals at that point, but like, yeah,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: something along those lines was cooking in my brain, like
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: this is spooky and like, yeah, cool.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: But it's like that horror movie that they made with
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: Winnie the Pooh. You're like, oh my.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: God, they made a horror movie with Whinnie the Pooh.
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, this is like old.
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: I don't know when this came out, but it's like
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: probably I'm gonna say from my memory, I think it
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: came out in like the last five years.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I go, we need to look that up.
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you're gonna have to look it up because maybe
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: that's what happened.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: But so I think we went back all scared to
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: the adults or something and we're like, well, we found
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: this head on the stump in the woods. And then
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: they were like, well, yeah, you you, when you kill
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: a deer or like an elk or whatever, you want
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: to have the antlers and the skull for a trophy,
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: so you leave it out so the bugs can eat
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: all this the flesh off of it. Oh. So it
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: was like totally a normal thing. Nothing creepy, nothing, no voodoo.
• 26:14
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: Still it sounds really creepy to me.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it is, but I think creepy cool.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: That's probably where I get a lot of my fascination
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: with like bones and dead animals and yeah, keeping them around.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: This is like your origin story kind of. We're learning
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: so much about you combining Christmas in creepy. It's my
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: favorite thing, my two favorite holidays.
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: Hello, please enter Tim Burton, sir.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: So, I'm actually going to talk to my grandma and
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: my dad about the Christmas Tree Farm. And I have
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: a couple of questions for them because since I don't
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: really remember a ton, so I want to know what
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: they know, like if they have any spookey stories about
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: the place or just an any fun things in general
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: about working on Christmas Tree Farm, because they remember it
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: so much better than I do.
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I have to imagine.
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: I have a piece of male you do from the
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: po box.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, oh okay, we open it.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know what it is, but I do
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: know who it's from.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: Who's it from? It's from Sam, Sam, the one we
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: were just talking about. Nope, difference.
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: Then, oh my gosh, this is so cute.
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: Okay, So this is like a little kind of Christmas
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: card and it says on the back it's got the
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: writing to explain, which is like all of my family
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: does that.
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: I feel like a lot of people do that.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, like what the picture is? Yes, a year and
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: who it is?
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: Sam at or in Vortex before two thousand and eight.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: Oh, I love had the vourtext. Dude, that is so cool.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: You have to send me a picture of that close up? Yeah?
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: I would.
• 28:14
  Speaker 8: I love that.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: Isn't that fun? Thank you for sending that, Sam. I
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: love that.
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: We got a Christmas card y'all.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: Were you gonna do a Christmas one?
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Okay, so spoilers for everyone who might hear this.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: This is so fucking weird because it's not a Christmas
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: tree farm, but my next episode has to do with
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: Christmas trees. Whoa that is weird? Yeah, spooky.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: We had no idea what we were going to talk about.
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: No, because I think at one point you may have mentioned,
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: just like in passing that like your family like had
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: a Christmas tree farm. But I don't think I knew that,
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: like you ever worked out there any I don't think
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: I knew any of that. Yeah, and we never really
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: coordinate on our topics. You know, we don't have to
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: because we talk about different things and were likely praize
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: each other most of them.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, most of the time. You'll still be surprised.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: That's so cool. I know, weird, right, Wow, Okay, I
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: have questions for you. Okay, date your name, date of birth.
• 29:24
  Speaker 8: No, I'm just kidding.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: This is my grandma Sandy, and.
• 29:29
  Speaker 8: I love her very much.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, I love you too.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: So I have some questions for you. Need to clarify
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: some things for the people. Because I was very young.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: So is it true that I used to work on
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: a Christmas tree farm?
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Yes? It is.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: You did a great job.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, thank you.
• 29:48
  Speaker 8: How old was I do you remember?
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I believe you were when you started up there helping us?
• 29:54
  Speaker 7: You were eight?
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Eight?
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: I have memories of like surveying people hot chocolate, yes,
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: and working in the little like gift shop.
• 30:07
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: And there's ornaments everywhere, and just Christmas merch and things
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: that you made, right, you made wreaths.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: And stuff we made. I made wreaths. We also had
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Santa Claus.
• 30:20
  Speaker 8: Yes, Santa.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: You helped us with decorating four trees each year. We
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: picked the ugliest trees that we could find so that
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: we could prove to people that every tree can be
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: beautiful at Christmas time.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Really, I don't remember that at all.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: That was probably your favorite thing to do, Oh, decorate
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the trees.
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: Why don't I remember that you were young, because now
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: I look back and I'm like, man, that was so magical.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: I also remember like taking people on tours to go
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: see all the animals.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Right, we had a little pet and my sons and
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: I would go to the auction and again we'd pick
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: out the ones that looked homeless, that nobody else want,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: my God, and we brought them up. And there were
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: so many people we averaged between three thousand and thirty
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: five hundred people a year wow at the tree farm
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: during those weeks.
• 31:22
  Speaker 8: That's so cool.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: And a lot of people that grew up here in
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the city had never been around a lot of these animals,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: so for them it was it was fun. The kids
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: enjoyed it. We had everything from chickens, ducks, rabbits, to EMUs, sheep, goats, calves.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: When it came time to bottle feeding the little ones,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: we lent the children help us.
• 31:53
  Speaker 8: Oh did I ever do that?
• 31:56
  Speaker 7: Yes?
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 31:58
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: We had one calf that you really fell in love with,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: and you always went a bottlefeed, whether it was time
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: or not.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: Like now she's hungry, and I had to explain.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: To you that we couldn't give hot chocolate to the.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: Caf Oh why not.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: No, we had Hey writes.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: We had a what started out as a just a
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: little fire pit to burn things in as we were
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: cleaning up when we first started, and each year we
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: would spread the rocks out and make it larger because
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: there were so many people that started coming up and
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: by the time we got done, mikel how big would
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: you say?
• 32:43
  Speaker 7: That firepit was big? Oh?
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my dad's here too. Hell his name is Mike.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: I'm Families would come to you worked at one of
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the sliding windows in the front.
• 33:00
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I remember that.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: And they would come for their hot chocolate or their coffee,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: and then we had other things that I loved, the cookies,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: the hot dogs, and people would give them It's go
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: and stand around the fire. And the owner, I guess
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: you could say, was my father in law Bill. He
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: used to tell people, if you don't know anyone when
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: you get here, you'll know a whole large family when
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: you leave.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: That's the way that it became.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: People would get to know each other and friendships developed
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: standing around that fire.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: I definitely remember. The fire pit was huge. That was
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: like central to the experience, right right.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: So people would go out and cut their trees. The
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: hay wagon would go around the forty acres and they'd
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: get off and find their tree, and when the trailer
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: would come back around the tractor, they'd put the trees
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: on the trailer and then bring.
• 34:01
  Speaker 7: It back over cool.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: So when they were really cold, they looked for that
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: second or third kipt hot chocolate or cop Yeah, the
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: girls always kept that going.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's so sweet. So the animal tours, is that
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: something you guys just did or did I just like
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: take over and like make that up.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Well, you spend half your time out there, and you
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: like to show the children of the animals, and you
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: named a lot of Oh, of course, of course you
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: were kind of our tour guide out there.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: I was just wondering if that was like something that
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: you told me to do or if I just like
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: did it.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: You pretty much took it on your own.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: Oh okay, for your health.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: At first, and you loved it. You loved being around
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: the animals.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Entrepreneur, you know, Okay, I have this vivid memory and
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: I don't know if it happened of the roll Off
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: family taking a picture with Santa and me like run
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: through and ruining their photo. Did this happen or did
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: I make this up? It happened. I ruined their Christmas photo.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure they retook it and everything, but
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: I just like lived my entire life thinking, oh my god,
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: I completely ruined their Christmas photo. They had no Christmas
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: photo that year because this little dumb kid like ran
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: through their photo.
• 35:24
  Speaker 7: And I actually had them a couple of times.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: You loved it. You were so tired by the end
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: of the day that you were there bright and early
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: every morning to help me finished baking the cookies and
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: get them up there.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: You had the biggest smile on your face all the time.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: We missed it. Can we own a Christmas tree farm again?
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Is that like something we can do?
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: You can?
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: Is it hard work?
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Grandma's getting up there? Yes, yeah, it's her around.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: You know, you're either tipping, topping, trimming trees, fertilizing, cutting grass,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: cutting the.
• 36:07
  Speaker 8: Grass, planting new ones, the new ones.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a lot of work.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: But when you have a U cut Christmas tree firm,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: and you see the joy that people and families are
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: having and it becomes a tradition in their family to
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: come up. And we've watched little babies grow up to
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: be you know, teenagers.
• 36:30
  Speaker 8: Yes, that's pretty great. I love that.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: And having the Santa Claus there, that was great because
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: the kids would go in and they'd tell Santa what
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: they want for Christmas. And I remember once Santa he asked,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: what would you like for Christmas? And she put her
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: hands on her hips and she goes anything but Barbie
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: and more Barbie cloathes. And the father turned and looked
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: at me and said, I need to go shopping again.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: Oh no, Oh it was fun.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: One young youngster, he could have been maybe seven eight
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: years old. They had moved into a new home and
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: he was so worried that Santa.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: Wasn't gonna be able to find their home.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, so he was getting stip by stip instructions to
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: get to their new home.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in their old home. It was really cute.
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: It's very important.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, Sana, Now did.
• 37:28
  Speaker 8: You get that?
• 37:33
  Speaker 7: We do?
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: We have a Santa's Helper actually right here. How how
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: does it feel to have helped Sanna out and pretended
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: to be him.
• 37:44
  Speaker 7: I think I need to bleed the fifth.
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: You were Sanna. Don't lie to the people, I mean
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: Santas helper helper.
• 37:54
  Speaker 7: Yes, well, it depends on which children he.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: Asked, So you took a lot of requests, A lot
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: of requests. Had to deal with sticky smelling children all day.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: I thought that must have been just a blast.
• 38:09
  Speaker 6: They had to probably deal with me more than anything.
• 38:14
  Speaker 6: How many they chased me around for a while? And
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: remember that, did.
• 38:18
  Speaker 8: You give out candy cans?
• 38:19
  Speaker 7: Candy canes?
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: How many candy canes do you think you gave out
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: in your sandt a lifetime?
• 38:23
  Speaker 7: Oh gosh, I wouldn't even be able to answer that.
• 38:26
  Speaker 7: A lot?
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: How many thousands.
• 38:31
  Speaker 7: Now kids deserved just one candy cane?
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: Oh so you spoiled them rotten, I see how it is.
• 38:38
  Speaker 6: I think my favorite memory was it's okay that came
• 38:41
  Speaker 6: up and asked me if I could make it snow.
• 38:45
  Speaker 7: Oh well, i'll tell you what. I got friends in places.
• 38:50
  Speaker 7: Let me see what I can do. And it wasn't.
• 38:53
  Speaker 6: An hour later it was almost a blizzard. What really
• 38:59
  Speaker 6: was like America?
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: So you're the true Santa Claus to.
• 39:03
  Speaker 7: Me, give me a big old hug, thank you.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: That's how the universe works.
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: Man was like the best ever, okay, And being out
• 39:15
  Speaker 6: there leaning all the kids around.
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: That's so funny. I just had ship to do.
• 39:21
  Speaker 7: You know, he needs a break right now, so you'll
• 39:24
  Speaker 7: be you'll be back.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: Too. Yeah, my, but my brother was there, yes, sometime
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: he was four.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: He started, Wow, we had the tree farm, what seventeen
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: years time?
• 39:38
  Speaker 7: Just subs by good times.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: So I have this memory and this was I think
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: during the off season.
• 39:47
  Speaker 8: It could have been fall, I'm not really sure.
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: And it was me and like probably Jody and Nikki
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: and Stacy like going across to the Christmas tree Farm
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: when no one was over there, you know, and just
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: like wandering around and we would explore the forest or whatever.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: And I remember we found, uh, like a deer or
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: an elk head on a log out there, and it
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: was the spookiest thing I remember ever seeing. And I
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: just didn't I didn't know until you explained to me
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: that you when you want to keep like the bones
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: and stuff, you let the bugs eat the all the
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: meat or whatever and all the creatures so you.
• 40:25
  Speaker 8: Can just have the bones.
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: But I just thought it was the spookiest thing to
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: ever happen.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: So this was real, right, Probably the elk passed through you.
• 40:36
  Speaker 6: Were on a farm out there, I mean there was
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: every now and then we'd find your horns or skulls. Yeah,
• 40:44
  Speaker 6: different animals.
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: But this was like just purposely placed on a log.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, like you know, devil worship
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: or something.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: No. Yeah, elk migrated through and they'd go down. Do
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: you remember the pond down at the bottom the edge
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: of the property.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: I kind of do.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: They would go down.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: There and that's where they'd stay, and then they'd pass
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: back through. Your Dad and I and up early one
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: morning it was before opening, and I'd fix coffee and
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: we were pouring our coffee and looking out the kitchen
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: window towards the pasture, and I would Mike, we don't
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: own that many horses, and the elk were in our
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: pasture out there with the horses were just running.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: Around going nuts.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: They were just grazing. But yes, they passed through twice a.
• 41:46
  Speaker 8: Year, Mike.
• 41:49
  Speaker 7: Sometimes just depends.
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: There was a migratory herd and there was a non
• 41:54
  Speaker 6: migratory her So the one the non migratory.
• 41:57
  Speaker 7: Would just do circles.
• 41:59
  Speaker 6: They as through the property quite a bit more often
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: than he realized.
• 42:04
  Speaker 7: The migratory herd would show up.
• 42:06
  Speaker 6: You know, I kind of group up all before you know,
• 42:08
  Speaker 6: the winter months, and they created a bunch of having
• 42:12
  Speaker 6: for the farmers. M I remember looking out across the
• 42:16
  Speaker 6: field when you know, across probably two miles away. I
• 42:20
  Speaker 6: could see the neighbors farm over there one year, and
• 42:25
  Speaker 6: the day before it was all green grass, all luscious,
• 42:29
  Speaker 6: you know, beautiful colored hillside. And I looked looked out
• 42:33
  Speaker 6: that day and seeing said, well, they must have plowed
• 42:36
  Speaker 6: their field. About the time I said that, the whole
• 42:39
  Speaker 6: hillside shifted.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 42:41
  Speaker 8: They were nothing I've ever.
• 42:43
  Speaker 7: Seen in my life. They got spook and took off.
• 42:46
  Speaker 6: But I was actually looking out a whole herd about
• 42:50
  Speaker 6: from the distance that was, it looked like it was
• 42:52
  Speaker 6: like a freshly plowed field.
• 42:53
  Speaker 7: Wow, that's how many was out there.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: So people hunt out there always, Yeah, not so much anymore.
• 43:01
  Speaker 7: Most most is private.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: But whose head? So whose deerhad was this that was
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: out there on the log?
• 43:10
  Speaker 7: Who knows we had? We had elkhorns to the entrance,
• 43:15
  Speaker 7: you know, hanging up above.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: So that's why it was named elkhorn tree Farm.
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: Oh. I didn't even think to ask what it was called.
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: I didn't know what it was called.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: That's hard for picking up horns that you know, they
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: had shed during this season started.
• 43:34
  Speaker 6: By Bill and Marge, Wilmine, and and and and sons
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: and you know, and grandsons and daughters, and there's everybody
• 43:47
  Speaker 6: fished in and did their part for a while and
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: had it going on for years.
• 43:53
  Speaker 7: You did your part.
• 43:54
  Speaker 8: Family farm.
• 43:55
  Speaker 7: It was family farm. It was family tree farm and nursery.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: And it's not there anymore, right, Nope, nope, bumber.
• 44:03
  Speaker 6: Now there's three big mansions on the entire properties.
• 44:06
  Speaker 8: Of course, there's a great.
• 44:09
  Speaker 7: Vineyard back there, winery or something. I don't know, it's
• 44:12
  Speaker 7: been a while.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: We have a total of eighty acres.
• 44:15
  Speaker 8: Wow.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: So Prety puts on one side of the road where
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: are the horses in our home?
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: And then right across the where's the tree bar?
• 44:28
  Speaker 7: And that led into more you know, bile land land and.
• 44:32
  Speaker 6: Power lines and stuff back there, so we really didn't
• 44:34
  Speaker 6: have any neighbors on the backside.
• 44:35
  Speaker 7: It was yeah, nice place to grow up.
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember just wandering around everywhere in the forest.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: You go out and be busy all day rolling.
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: Around, find our way back. Me who doesn't know directions,
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: would find her way back as a child from the forest.
• 44:53
  Speaker 8: I have no idea how.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: You get that being lost from you and Caleb for me.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: I do. That's where I got it from my grandma.
• 45:04
  Speaker 7: Yep, you do.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Mike, Jason, and Tim, we're constantly's saying, Mom, you missed
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: the turn. Where are we now?
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: I should be going the other.
• 45:15
  Speaker 8: Direction, going on an adventure.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Even when we traveled that year and a half, they
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: wouldn't even let me hold the map.
• 45:23
  Speaker 6: The answer was the same, we've never been down this
• 45:26
  Speaker 6: road before, and then see what's down here exactly?
• 45:29
  Speaker 8: You never know what you're gonna run into.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: We decided to go the other way this time.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: So I have to ask if anything scarier spooky happened anything.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: Do you see any ghosts on the tree farm or
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: any cryptids?
• 45:42
  Speaker 8: Bigfoot?
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: Nothing?
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: Black bear?
• 45:46
  Speaker 8: Black bear?
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: Okay, well bear's a theme on my podcast.
• 45:49
  Speaker 8: You didn't know this, but.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: No, we had black bears that can Wow.
• 45:55
  Speaker 8: Did you have to scare them off?
• 45:56
  Speaker 6: Or I only came across and it was more afraid
• 46:02
  Speaker 6: of me than it was than it was I mean,
• 46:05
  Speaker 6: it's it's scared the crap out of me.
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: You're sure it wasn't Bigfoot, That wasn't it.
• 46:12
  Speaker 7: No, I see him all the time further out Chill
• 46:15
  Speaker 7: National Forest.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: Oh okay, we'll have to have you back on the
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: show and tell us about that.
• 46:22
  Speaker 7: Get a few stories for you.
• 46:24
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: So there's really no ghosts or anything creepy that happened
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: up in the woods.
• 46:28
  Speaker 8: It was just a magical place.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: It was. I mean, I love that, but I'm also
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: slightly disappointed.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Sorry, we need to find that place.
• 46:41
  Speaker 8: The shadow guy in the at the tree Farm.
• 46:49
  Speaker 6: In the window of the shop, the upstairs, the old
• 46:53
  Speaker 6: the old shop that we built that used to be
• 46:55
  Speaker 6: the original homestead house.
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: Oh okay. So when I ask something spooky happened, y'all
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: say no. And then you're like, oh, well wait, there's
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: a shadow guys.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: I forgot all about that.
• 47:10
  Speaker 7: You want Christmas to scary?
• 47:12
  Speaker 8: Okay?
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: Tell me we need okay, because in the in this
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: Christmas song, what's the one where they talk about scary
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: ghost stories.
• 47:20
  Speaker 8: We gotta tell sairy scary ghost stories at Christmas.
• 47:23
  Speaker 7: Okay. I was.
• 47:24
  Speaker 6: I was coming back from the from the tree farm
• 47:26
  Speaker 6: on the the shide of the road, heading back to
• 47:28
  Speaker 6: the house, and I was the only one on the property,
• 47:33
  Speaker 6: only one there.
• 47:35
  Speaker 7: And I got my big.
• 47:36
  Speaker 6: Mag light with me, mag light, mag light, the old
• 47:40
  Speaker 6: school flashlights, you know, and then and uh, I get
• 47:45
  Speaker 6: to the gate across the road, get to the gate,
• 47:47
  Speaker 6: and then somebody's up and upstairs standing in the window
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: of that old old house which is our shop, and
• 47:57
  Speaker 6: like right, and I yell, who's up there?
• 48:01
  Speaker 7: Who are you?
• 48:01
  Speaker 6: You know? And I headed for it and then I
• 48:04
  Speaker 6: got there pretty quickly. There's only one way you can
• 48:08
  Speaker 6: come down that place, and there stairwell in the back,
• 48:12
  Speaker 6: and that stairwell, nobody was there. I went straight upstairs
• 48:16
  Speaker 6: and nobody was there.
• 48:19
  Speaker 8: So it was a ghost for sure.
• 48:21
  Speaker 7: That was my spooky moment up there.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: Did you hear anything or answers?
• 48:27
  Speaker 6: Even went back to the gate and looked back up
• 48:30
  Speaker 6: to see if maybe there was something there that was
• 48:32
  Speaker 6: casting the shadows that maybe I saw.
• 48:35
  Speaker 7: There was nothing.
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: Thereat, the bats in the shape of a human, all
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: the sky puppies.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: He was.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: Mason was just really young. I think he was only
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: about four. And Tim and Mason started in there because
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: I put pumpkins inside and they were going to pick
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: up these pumpkins and walked in and I heard Tims
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: green like a girl there running out and stand there.
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: With the pumpkins. I love you, my uncle Tim. Scared
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: of fats who knew Wow, Okay, we're going to do
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: a moon oracle reading, just about think about the Christmas
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: tree farm and the stories you told, and just kind
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: of go through the deck and pick out a card
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: she's pulling. Okay, what did we get? Oh okay, we
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: got tranquility. Oh my gosh. Look there's a bunch of
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: trees on it. So it's like a crescent moon with
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: a bunch of trees and a bird on top. And
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: it's called tranquility. And then I have an interpretation in
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: here that we're going to read. There's a quote and
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: it says the mind is like water. When it's turbulent,
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: it's difficult to see. When it's calm, everything becomes clear.
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: That's kind of interesting because right now we're sitting in
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: my car and it's downpouring and it's like a flood warning.
• 50:21
  Speaker 8: That's pretty funny.
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: The keywords are calmness, meditation, and healing. Use the powerful
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: realm of your mind to bring you into a state
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: of tranquility. Only you can do this for yourself. Allow
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: peacefulness to replace any negativity trying to harbor inside of you.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: Choose to plant loving thoughts in your mind and banish
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: all negative energy from taking hold. This process does not
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: take practice.
• 50:46
  Speaker 8: Oh wait, just kidding.
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: This process does take practice. So please do not become discouraged.
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: Let light into your life little by little, or pull
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: the blinds wide open. Guard yourself diligently against harmful energy.
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: Try your utmost to avoid any darkness.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: Yesterday, I mean I was living. Yeah, this morning, I
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: gotta Okay, you need to stop. Yeah, only you can
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: change what's happening. So I'm tired of negativity. Yeah, and
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: so I decided today I was going to go forward.
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: Oh well, it sounds like it's a good thing. It
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: sounds like the cards are telling me.
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: To do that.
• 51:30
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I know. I love how the cards work.
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: Seek out methods to promote your positive mindful tranquility, meditation, yoga,
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: self help books, maybe useful practices and tools, but it
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: sounds like just changing your mind, like a more positive
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: mindset is.
• 51:46
  Speaker 8: What you're trying to do.
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: Infuse your being with love and light, Sit with your
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: soul quietly, find inner peace.
• 51:53
  Speaker 8: I really like that too about the Christmas tree pun because.
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: You're saying, how like peaceful it was and nice and
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: it brings light and joy.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of work, Yeah, it was worth it.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: Just watching those family Yeah, spending all the time with
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: our family doing it altogether.
• 52:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah, you girls.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Had a lot of fun.
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you. Thank you for letting us kids work,
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: you know, like you could have easily just made us
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: sit down and shut up.
• 52:23
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah on your TV.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Kids need to stop doing that. They need to
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: stop spending so much time with their games and TV.
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and trust them with work. I mean, even if
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: they don't do it perfectly. I'm sure I did not
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: do it perfectly.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: But Cassie, I've been working since I was thirteen years old.
• 52:47
  Speaker 8: Me too.
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: I'm a lot like you work wise and things life wise.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Dad always said, you just do what you have to
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: do to survive. It doesn't matter if you're rich or
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: you're poor. You just make just do it. So that's
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: why I'm working. Everybody's always just sit down. Don't you
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: ever just sit in There's things that need to be dead. Yeah,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: time to sit down in the evening at the end
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: of the day.
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: Exactly got you to do running around? That's where I
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: get I think you like me running through someone's photos.
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: I was probably just trying to get to the next job. Like, well,
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: thank you so much for talking with me.
• 53:31
  Speaker 8: I love you, I love you too.
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: Have a creepy holiday season, and we'll see you next Thursday. Yeah,
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: on Christmas. I can't believe Christmas is the fucking week, dude, Like, bye,
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: Christmas is next week.
• 53:49
  Speaker 8: We're gonna do one more recording after this.
• 53:51
  Speaker 7: To like say goodbye, thank you.
• 53:53
  Speaker 8: I love you, I love you too. We're not done.
• 53:56
  Speaker 8: I'm gonna force you to do this again.
• 53:58
  Speaker 7: Why I want to hear stories?
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: Tell me too.
• 54:03
  Speaker 8: I love them stories. All of your stories, they're great.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: Some of them you don't want to hear.
• 54:11
  Speaker 8: Oh no, those are the ones I'm so interested in.
• 54:14
  Speaker 7: Grandma used to be a cowgirl.
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like I feel like I'm going on roundups and ship.
• 54:19
  Speaker 8: Yeah, she has a lot of stories.
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: We're gonna have a whole Grandma Sandy podcast dedicated to
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: you in your story.
• 54:26
  Speaker 8: Yes we are, We're doing it.
• 54:29
  Speaker 7: Okay, we'll get it out of you.