You have to love the cold winter for the great food you can get to eat . Things that would be out of the question in any other season become something to savour.

Julie is making Beef Stew and Dumplings tonight  and I thought I would let you all know just to make you drool!

ok back to some serious stuff, I have some photos of us cutting down our Monster Triffid - Christmas Tree from out christmas tree farm backyard. (see more photos below)

Photo Courtesy of Gemma

I know Julie looks like she is doing all the work digging the tree out, but I had to do all the cutting and it looked a relatively small / short tree until you realise that we are stood on about 40cms of snow! (we didn't consider that) .

After I cut it down and dragged it into the garage we counted the rings and it was about 14 years old!

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Kathryn was hassled at work because of our ungreen approach to Christmas and cutting down a couple of trees. Then typical Kathryn pointed out that their Plastic tree probably caused far more damage to the environment in its manufacture and then even worse when disposed of. (Kat 2 - Tree Hugger 0). Besides we have planted other trees to replace those cut down.

Below are some snapshots to show why we call our back garden a Christmas tree farm.

Photos Courtesy of Gemma

Drive shovellers and trees on the right hand side of our house. All in nice neat rows perfectly spaced out.

View down the lower section of trees.

View from the back deck. You can just see Julie's Clementis Frame (bottom middle of the photo)

OK I am off to check on the beef stew  

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I hope you have all been good, remember Santa is checking his list (twice) so stay good, and after Christmas you can let rip, knowing you have over 300 days to be good again!

For those who wonder what a triffid is follow this link and buy the book