Bagged,tagged and.....

 Both the Mr.and I grew up in families that hunted.  Wild meat was a staple for our winter table!  As we raised our children, we continued to hunt. No longer do we apply for that license, and we do miss the meat, but it is hard work. We used to load our game and it was "bagged, tagged and gutted."
On occasion, we would also buy a tree permit and hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. That also was hard work!!  The tree always looks so perfect in the forest and after searching for the very best tree, it was cut down, dragged through the snow, (there was always lots of snow), loaded and hauled home.  Beauty is only skin deep thank goodness as these trees were always much more ugly when they were actually in the stand in the house. But they were fresh....not a month old as were those at the local tree sales.  So........this year, since we are so close to the forest, our friends and neighbors wanting a fresh, fragrant tree urged us to go get a tree with them.  With permits in hand (they are only $10.00) and lunches packed we went to breakfast first for a great start to the day.  The Mr. always questions what MARVELOUS adventure we might have.  We have always made it home, but we have been in some tight fixes over the years embarking on these adventures.  We have encountered bears, been stuck and cold and come upon fires in the forest among other things. We have no snow here...No moisture which is badly needed and the temps are moderate.  So as we made it deeper into the forest, alas-snow! We hunted in a large clearing, finding several candidates, but decided to go further into the snow covered roads.  Finally, as the snow deepened, it became apparent that we should go no further.  Although we got the truck turned around, it slid into a ditch..stuck.  Chains---yes, shovel..no!  Who doesn't throw in a shovel?  So after much effort (I won't go into details) and a few laughs, not to mention wet clothes, we were back on the search.  Our two men have been stuck a lot and have much experience at getting un-stuck.  We finally settled on two trees, but the chain saw did not want to cooperate so that provided a few laughs so we headed home with our trees in hand, bagged, tagged and GUTTED!

Our redneck tree is decorated below the elk horn mount with it's holiday lights and we came to our home and ate our peanut butter "sammies" and laughed about our adventure.