What is a lodge without a great big Christmas tree for the holidays?
The Joe Breker family apparently had good fortune when they planted an enormous evergreen tree grove in the lodge pasture in the 1990’s. The intended purpose of putting the Breker kids though college by selling Christmas trees didn’t come even remotely close to fruition. The kids did end up going anyway (Go Bison!), but not with the help of any Christmas tree sales. Now the overgrown forest, known affectionately as the ‘Joe Breker Memorial Evergreen Forest’, named after the very much alive Joe Breker, will provide overgrown Christmas trees for the lodge great room for years and years to come.
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The tree is all done! We look forward to having you out to enjoy it with us. Merry Christmas!
Maria Breker did a nice job of ornament placement, wouldn't you say. She did have planty of input from onlookers.
It takes a big crew of little people to decorate a 15 footer.
The best way to decorate the top of a tall tree at the lodge is to wheel it over to the balcony!
Joe Breker fastens the tree into a heavy duty, rolling stand make by Doug Spieker. Nice work Doug!
We lifted the tree by tying it to a rope and using the roof truss like a pulley.
We harvested our tree from the grove planted by Joe Breker and his family. It is just below the lodge in the pasture.
Phillip uses a chainsaw (there has been no shortge of these at the lodge) to cut down a Colorado Blue Spruce for the great room.
Phillip Breker gets a lift on a telehandler to fasten a strap on a tree to lift it out of the tree row.