Our next car better have 4 wheel drive.....

This year I wanted to get a nice head start on Christmas by getting our Christmas tree the week of Thanksgiving break.     We headed up the mountain to our favorite place, Little Bear Tree Farm,  with kids dressed in their snow clothes and thermals.   A fresh storm had left pillows of snow up there, and we couldn't wait to play in it.  It's rare for us to see snow on the ground at the tree farm.





Had we checked the news we would have learned Alta had been without power for days,  with people snowed in.   Trees had fallen on some houses too.     As you descend down the hill toward this quaint tree farm, there are windy steep roads taking you to the bottom of the hill.   Not a good situation if these are covered in snow and ice.   As we began to make our way toward the farm we started to worry a bit,  but noticed the tree farm road had been cleared and assumed it was open.  Not one sign anywhere that they were closed.  

 


  It wasn't until we headed down the steepest part of the drive that we encountered an ice covered road, with PG & E at the bottom of the hill trying to help the farm restore power.  There was no way out for us by this point and Travis had taken the chains out of our van a few months back. 

He parked the car and asked me to find out if they were running trucks for tree hunting.   As I got out of the van, the road was like an ice skating rink.   I took baby steps down the hill with my family watching and laughing back in the van at how slow and timid I was.  I did not want to fall on my tail bone!   They made fun of me the rest of the day for that!

Lainey sliding down road


I had only gone about 20 feet at a snail's pace when Travis couldn't take watching me anymore.  He clumsily skated past me down the icy road and quickly found out the tree farm was not open.  We could walk up the hill and cut our tree, but that would be the only service offered.   No hot cocoa, no homemade cookies, no bonfire, and no old Chevy truck to take us on a daring ride up the hill.   We decided to head home.

Travis knew this was going to be almost impossible going back up the hill without chains, but went for it anyway.   Our car began dangerously sliding, and the van stuck itself right in the middle of the road with tires spinning.

 

PG & E needed us out of the way ASAP to fix power around the town and helped pull us out out of the way, but with some bemoaning.  (it took many attempts)    They were finally able to pass us, but our van was now sliding against an embankment.   Travis had me get the kids out and walk to the top of the road so he could get the van up the hill without listening to my scared pleas.  I was very happy to do this.





We hiked and played for a while, patiently waiting at the top of the tree farm road.   Lots of time for pictures!
I only had Lainey's tiny elph camera with me, but we still snapped away!

Baila age 6

Izzy age 3

 

 


After Travis was unsuccessful, he began hiking back toward the town to find help.   It's now been almost two hours and the kids were getting very cold and hungry.  Luke didn't have snow boots that fit this year, and since we normally don't need them at the tree farm, I hadn't bought new ones yet.  He was only wearing leather cowboy boots, but with triple socks at least.   Lainey was also without proper snow boots.   Luke is our kid who never gets cold and refuses to wear jackets in the winter.  I knew when he began whimpering about his cold feet, he must have been freezing.  Then Isabelle began whining for me to hold her on the walk.

We were a little irritated that the tree farm had not posted any "closed" signs at the top of their driveway.  As we began walking further up the road, more unfortunate cars began driving down to get Christmas trees.



Travis had made it quickly to town but found it to be all shut down because of the power outage.   I had continued walking toward town with the kids to meet Travis, hoping to find a warm place to sit until the car trouble was figured out, but he had to turn us around.  All that hiking for nothing.   The three older kids walked back to the tree farm with Travis way ahead of me, while I was stuck holding a tired and heavy three year old the whole way back.

As I approached the descending road, the kids were sitting there waiting and reported that Travis had instructed us to STAY PUT.



We had to sit and wait above the most treacherous part of the road, where Travis was going to have the most difficulty getting past.  I wanted to walk down the hill and get back in the car so the kids could warm up with the heater at least, but they were insistent that I was not allowed to go down.
"Daddy found help" they kept saying.
But we were too far away to see what was happening below.

 

We must have sat there for over an hour.   I was afraid to walk the kids down the hill at this point, for fear that the van would be making it's attempt up the road slipping and sliding.    The little ones were now crying from the cold and I had to wrap Luke's feet in my scarf and extra clothes inside a bag.   This offered him some relief.




  We took more pictures to help pass the time and distract them from the cold.  I was hoping one of these could work for our family Christmas cards, but it didn't work out.



 

 The kids were gritting through the pain of cold snow on their tushes so I offered treats if they would try to smile good. 

 








Lainey tried to walk over and see what was taking so long.  She yelled out "can we come down yet?"  but her Daddy said to stay there and he would be up soon.



What we didn't know was there was a couple who had come to get a tree and had chains in their car.  They offered to let Travis use them to get up the road when he was unable to get help from the tree farm.

We were cheering as the van came up the hill rounding the corner, and could almost hear angels singing

Hallelujah!  

So long Little Bear Tree Farm. 
All that, and no Christmas tree.  But it all worked out fine.   The next day we found a beautiful tree for the bargain price of $10 at a local store.  

 

Ahhh, there is nothing like the smell of a fresh Christmas tree in our home!

 

The kids still love to talk about our adventure in the snow.   Although Isabelle let me know she doesn't want to visit the mountains again anytime soon!
 The first thing we did upon driving home was pull over for some hot chocolate!