Washington Trip Part 2--the Christmas Tree Farm

Marianne checks out some of the trees for sale.

Every year starting right after Thanksgiving, Pat and Darcy spend their weekends up north of Burlington about 45 minutes in Deming, WA at the River's Edge Christmas Tree Farm.  They help the customers choose their tree, help them cut it down if they need it, carry it to the wagon and haul it up to their cars and then assist them in tying it down to their car.  Darcy has a side business of selling holly that he cuts from the tree in their yard in Burlington.

  Cutting Holly For Christmas

Last year I wrote about the holly so this year I will be writing about the tree farm.

A lovely setting for the farm.  You can see the trees off in the distance.

The Farm is owned by Larry and Bea Walton who are good friends of the Ailles family.  The farm is located along the Nooksack River and is quite beautiful with views of  Baker mountain near by and tall trees and woods plus the actual different pine trees growing for purchase for Christmas trees.

River's Edge Christmas Tree Farm

  Marianne, Bob, and I drove up one Saturday to visit the farm.  It was a sunny cool afternoon and business was brisk.  Marianne and I walked around the some of the property.  They used to have blues concerts

A tree that was marked by a customer.  They come cut it whenever they can come.  Some are even chosen the summer before.

 on this property in summer.  It has a nice big clearing in the woods and lots of space for camping.  The river is a short walk from the clearing and there is good fishing as well as some pretty scenery along this stretch of the river.  It is very peaceful in the clearing.  Larry has been thinking about making the area into a place for outdoor weddings and that would be a perfect sight to do it.

We walked down to the river and watched some fisherman and boats go by and then walked along the different plots of trees from very young, little ones to some very tall ones that were not chosen and have grown too big for houses.  We  visited with some of the customers and looked at the mountains in the background.  It is a lovely spot in very northern Washington, almost to the Canadian border.

The house and store are in the background.  Woods and mountains surround the area.

Larry and Bea are gracious hosts and seem to know how to take care of their customers.  Many people make it an all day outing and bring picnics with them to eat out in the Christmas trees!  It was nice to get out into the brisk sunshine and take a walk.  What a great time we had.

On the way home we stopped at another special place.  It is not too far from the farm, maybe 2 or 3 miles away.  It's called Everybody's Store and is well known in Northwestern Washington.  It is a little country store that carries a large variety of cheeses domestic and imported and a delicious selection of sausages as well.  They have all sorts of kinds of exotic groceries to buy.  We have made special trips up to this store just to get their sausages and their extra sharp cheddar cheese!  We always come away with 3 or 4 other types of cheese when we stop there.

Close to the woods and river.

It was a fun trip.