Tree hunting

I had my first North Carolina Christmas tree experience last weekend. On Saturday the fam loaded up the Expedition and trooped off to the tree farm. It was a nice little country place, packed out with families getting an early evergreen for decoration. At the shop I noticed a three legged tree stand that had only a solitary spike that you jam your tree onto to hold it up. I commented how it would probably fall over pretty easily, but a young female employee quickly came to it's defense asking how big a tree we were looking for. I asked what's the biggest they had and she pointed to a row of about 10-12 footers. I couldn't help but laugh inside since our NH trees averaged around 20 feet or so. We went out to the cut-your-own field where they had an assortment of cedars, long needle trees that were trimmed by a cone shaper, and some kind which looked more like they belonged in a fish tank. Needless to say, we went back to the precut douglas firs that were shipped in from the mountains. That's a little more what us northerners are used to. With no great room to put the tree in this year we ended up with a modest 6 footer. It still smells of pine and does the job, so I guess I can't complain. I suppose New England spoils a guy at Christmas time.