Excerpt: Fork In The Road

Thanksgiving weekend came and went and the Scheer Tree Farm sold a total of three trees for a stunning revenue of $150. So far, it was the Newspaper advertisement 2,000 and the Scheer Tree Farm 150. Things weren't looking good for the home team. One weeknight evening, Sandy and I had the luxury of sitting in the living room in front of a slow-burning fire in the fireplace after the two youngest were in bed. Lisa and Jack were watching a DVD in another room.

"It's too early to give up, Jason. Is there something we should do differently? Or is there something we didn't do that we should have?"

The fire popped as a pocket of pine sap flash boiled in the log on the grate. A handy byproduct of having a tree farm was having a steady supply of firewood.

"I don't think so."

"We advertised."

"Right."

"We tried to place flyers around town."

"Right."

"We put out a sign on the road."

"Uh-huh."

"Maybe we should have considered something other than just retail."

"What?"

"You know, wholesale. Like selling our trees to a tree lot somewhere else."

"We talked to the tree lot owners in town. They were all subscribed already."

"I'm not talking about in town."

"Huh?"

"You don't remember, do you?"

"I guess not. What are you talking about?"

"Back when we lived in Texas and used to drive up to Indiana for Thanksgiving? Remember seeing all the trucks coming south loaded with Christmas trees?"

"Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot. What about it?"

"Well? Can't you finish the math on the idea? Do I have to tell you everything?"

"Oh, it's way too late for us to do that this year. We would have needed a contract in place probably by summertime for the Christmas season. Like you said, the trucks were running before Thanksgiving. If we survive this year, we can look at doing that next year."

"Well, that's my last idea. I'm done."

"Done with the farm?"

"No, silly, done with good ideas. Why are you so stuck on the give up spot?"

"Hey, we're 25% of the way through our selling season - the only selling season we have, by the way - and we've made enough to pay for, what is it, 7.5% of just our advertising costs, let alone the farm operating costs, which includes feeding me and you and the kids. We're kind of way behind the curve and I don't know, I'm not feeling real positive right now."

She reached over and pulled my head toward her face and kissed me.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"It's payment. There, you're ahead now."

"Oh, if kisses were dollars and you could put love in the bank, we'd have no problems. Makes one think we were newlyweds or something." She laughed.

"Yeah, or something," she said.

"You ready to go to bed?"

"I still think we should cut them all down and send them to Texas."