29 Palms, CA visit 12/26

Arrived friday 12/26 at the home of Nancy/Lisa in 29 Palms. The drive from LA was a long one do heavy traffic on I-10. During the drive (101,I-5, I-10) one could see the mountian tops covered in snow.

Sat. we took off to do some sight seeing. Went to Pioneertown where many western movies have been filmed including TV show Gun Smoke. Many of the buildings are just walls to look like building. Lots of snow still there. From there to a place call Christ Park. Its filled with white statues of christ. Interesting. Of course we looked for a geocache & found it. Alot to see in Yucca Valley. Then to an area in Joshua to see metal scuptures and a Retreat restort builded by Lloyd Wright. A spin into Joshua Nat'l park loop to 29 Palms. Great views. Fun day. Finish off with some pizza & wine at the house.

Merry Christmas 12/25

Started out the morning by going to breakfast with Bunny/Jay at Denny's. The only place open and it was busy. From there we drove around the area- just looking. I dragged them to a geocache site for a hunt. We found it, signed log. Later in the day we went to the movies but there were so many people we left. Dropped them off at their RV and off to do some more geocaching. Back for a nap. Nice relaxing day. Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve Dinner

We were invited to the the Bennett's home located in Valencia about 35 mi from here. Most of the other lot managers were there. A cater buffet dinner was at hand. Chicken/roast beef along with mashed potatoes and veg. Fun evening sharing stores and learning more about the history of christmas lots. Over all the owners were please with the out come. Some locations were down a little bit. Our lot was a new one for the location & business was good.

Christmas lot is now closed

Christmas Eve Day (wed).

The rain has been put on hold which is great while we get ready to close the christmas tree lot. The crew showed about about 8:30am. Taking down the lights and all the poles. During the closing we did sell and gave away some trees. Where did the time go? Its been a fast pace with long hours. Mr Bennett showed up to view the closing procedures and invited us to their home for a C.Eve buffet dinnner at 6pm. Now its all over. Another great adventure. About 5pm it started to rain. Expecting some heavy rain this evening.

Tent coming down at lot

Do to rain coming on monday, the owner wanted the tent down. It cannot be taken down when its wet. So about 1pm a crew came in to do the job. What an operation. During the process we continue to sell tree. People are looking for big discounts. We closed about 7pm. Just three more days to go and I want out of here. :)

Holiday Cheer at the Lot

A liitle camp fire and some Jim Bean made for the holiday cheer. Great bunch of guys helping out.

Rain & wind at the Lot

What a day. Rain Rain go away. And the Wind. At times we thought the big tent was coming down. We closed the christmas lot around 11 am to 4pm. We did sell some trees. Then we closed again around 8 pm. The rain finally stopped around 4 and the wind about 6pm. Tommorrow, the weather is suppose to be sun/cloudy with NO rain. Here some pictures trying to keep the tent stable.

Off to see Getty Center

Tuesday. Have the day off. After doing laundry, I set off to visit the J. Paul Getty Center here in LA. Just awesome. The center is located on the hilltop in Los Angeles Santa Monica mountains off of I-405. It open to the public in 1997. After parking one takes a tram to the top. You arrived at the Arrival Plaza and proceed to the various museum's. Lots of art. The garden 's were something else and great views. Spent 3 hrs there. No entrance fee but the parking is $10.00. Its worth it. Fun afternoon. For more info, go to their web site. I created another one of my WEB album's having more pictures.

12/13 &14 Wk end sales

Sunday night (late). Friday, Saturday & sunday were 12 hrs days. Wow we have sold 900 trees. Over all the people have been nice. Unfortunately there are some that are rude. Wanting deep discounts and using the phrase ..... we can go to WAL-MART and we tell them .."then go". One thing about Bennett's trees, they are fresh. We hear about the other places were the trees are dying or dried out. our hrs are 9am-9m. I start at 8am to get the lot looking nice , the booth clean, etc before opening the gate. Yesterday we had people waiting to get in before nine. By 9:30 Bunny & I sold five trees. We had 6 guys selling and putting the trees on the cars. Each one made way over a 100.00 in tips. Not bad. Our projected tree sale was 120 , we did 163.
Big rain storm coming in tonight. I' m sure its going to make a mess for us. Getting really cold.

Decorating the RV

Went to Big Lots and picked up a few things for decorating. Since I'm working on a christmas tree lot have to get into the season.

Day Off-geocaching

After doing some laundrey about a mile from here. I planned a route to do four caches which included some hiking.
_____ will come back to post pictures and more info ----

Sat Nite pictures

Just some pictures taken on saturday evening. 1. Corner of Victory Blv and Owensmouth. 2. Victory Blv, lights are really pretty. 3. Guess who? :) Wearing a Bennett's hat and jacket. 4. Bobbie doing the flocking.

Circus get's their Tree

Kevin from Circus Vargus came over to pick up the donated 12 ft flocked tree. We got it loaded using the "lift". I rode in the back to steady the tree. Only had to drive to the other side of the complex where the circus will open to night for 2 weeks showing.

Busy Days

wed-thur:
Not much to report. Tree sales are going up. Passing our project sales per day. some of the businesses near by are purchasing big trees. We have to spray fire retardant on them. A church purchased 7 trees which we had to cut them into different sizes. This new adventure has been very interesting from set-up to selling trees. This coming weekend will be the "big" one for selling trees.

Day off

Very very busy. Just tired at the end of the day. Basicly work the register and greet people. Today I had the day off. Worked on the RV-clean, water in battery & hooked up the external proprane tank. And of course laundrey. Later in the afternoon off for a long walk and doing some urban geocaching. Then took in a movie. In bed by 9pm.

Open for Business

Friday
Opening day. Slow during the day which was expected do to "Black friday" shoppers. Picked up in the evening. We beat our projected sells.
Saturday & Sunday.
Great sales. Selling 10 ft trees - whow. Hard to sell trees in 80 degree weather. :)

We are flocking trees and doing deliveries. Using my TOMTOM gps to get directions and miles. Fun. Long days. From 9am to 9pm.

Setup on Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving. Small crew came in to help with the setup. They require a fresh cut (bottom of tree) and stands with bowls. We did about 175 trees. Opening is friday at 9am.
Tree types are Noble, Douglas fir and Grand fir trees. Ranging from 1 ft to 14 ft. Also we do have some live potted trees.
Still alot of work to be done for the opening. We stopped about 4p and went across the parking lot to Coco's Rstr for our turkey dinner --- not bad. After dinner I went out geocaching. About 12 caches in the area and all in walking distance. Found three of them.

400 trees

Wed afternoon (rain) two trucks arrived with 400 trees. A small crew unloaded and drilled each tree. Tommorrow we have to put on the stands/bowls on about 200 trees. As we were wrapping up things on the lot, someone came in and purchased a small tree. $$$$

Mon/tue-Getting ready

Mon/Tue: Just getting ready. Jay & I assemble about 250 stands with bowls. Keeping the lot wet (shaving/saw dust) and getting the area ready where the trees have to be cut (on the bottom). Monday we did rec'd 7 trees that are 14-16 ft tall. A crew will come in and set them up. We were suppose to rec'd 300 trees today,tue, but the truck got delayed. They will be here on wed. Getting down to the wire to open on friday.