After visiting with Nancy, we stayed overnight with Kirstie and Dave, two old college friends. They have a cat and a playground, 5 star accommodation for a toddler. The next morning we drove 5 hours up to my dad's farm/cabin in Potter County, PA with a mission to plant 1500 Christmas tree saplings. Since we live in the city, it was nice to be out in the country. Gianna got to see "cow, more cow!", take a tractor ride, throw rocks in a creek, and help plant Christmas trees in the wet dirt. My dad and brother Jeff picked up 1500 Christmas trees (Frasier, Balsam, and Douglas) from a somewhat local sapling dealer. Even though it was rainy and windy, we had to get them in the ground. So taking shifts either planting or watching Gianna, we planted all 1500 trees in about 8 hours split between two days. Thankfully on the second day the rain cleared up and we even saw some sun. The pictures from this part of the trip are very interesting, if you ever wondered what it takes to start a Christmas tree farm. The final nursery contained two beds, one with 9 rows, the other with 12 rows. We covered the rows with floating row cover to protect from frost and herbivores and put up a fence to keep out the deer. They will be transplanted out into the field in another two years. After the planting was finished, Gianna and I went back to the Philadelphia area for her doctor appointment at CHoP, but the rest of the crew stayed up there to work on the farm house remodel.
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