NOT that we're counting down or anything. Dad and Mom's place is surrounded with Christmas tree farms (who knew there was soo much demand) farms with trees grown especially for the Christmas holiday and nothing else. And starting about the first week of November, many of the farms begin harvesting these small trees with a helicopter. So every year growing up there came the sound of what we called the "Christmas tree helicopter", and we would eagerly finish our school work so we could ride our bikes up to find out which farm it was at and watch the process. It could be hit and miss as there are farms all over the area and just a few helicopters. So some times we would have "Christmas tree helicopter" cases in the van. We caught on to the trick of following the helicopter gas truck, if it left a particular field you could follow him to where the helicopter would probably be next. The three little men got this fascinating privilege this week when Amma called to say the sound was there if we hurried we might see it.
And see it we did right up close, in a small field right beside the road.
Coming back for more.
It was close enough Phi decided it was "loudy" his word for too loud.
Dropping a load.
There's the driver, watching the cable to see when the ground man has it connected to the bundle of trees.
And there's the ground man running back as the bundle takes off. The occasional bundle is not tied well and will all fall out of the rope once it leaves the ground. Therefore the ground man moves, not wanting a 50 pound tree on the head.
A bundle enroute.
Almost ready to fall into the heap of cut trees. From there they're wrapped in twine and then sent by truck all over the country and even over seas I guess. It amazes me that they last so long after they're cut.
Our play pen.
One of his last toothless smiles for the next 80 years. His first tooth popped in today with another to follow soon.
And here's a video of the process, sorry about the quality, and the car parts in the way, I couldn't figure out how to stitch it so you get the unedited version.
3 comments:
Haha! Loudy! That is adorable! What a fun tradition to chase the helicopter!
Thanks for uploading that video, it's fun to watch. So very different from my dad's grain harvest! I can't believe how fast the helicopter travels. Are there men on either side of the field to hook and unhook the bundles? I just can't imagine that they can get in and out of there fast enough to not get whacked!
A guy hooks the bundles onto the cable out in the field, and then if I remember right, the helicopter operator releases it on the other side. There are guys near where he drops it to quickly pull the ropes out of the pile so it doesn't become a jumble of ropes. The helicopter is quick, I remember the guys on the ground always being on the run to keep ahead of him.
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