2023 Newsletter
Holy moly! Another trip around the sun is wrapping up. How are the years passing SO quickly? Right!?! I have my fingers crossed that the problem we had last year with non-delivery of almost half of our newsletters has been resolved. THAT was a real headache!!
We have a big announcement for you all at the end of the newsletter so be sure to keep reading. ;->
For the ‘Twitter crowd’, let me summarize what we’re doing this year in a few sentences. If you don’t understand or want more details, read the rest of the newsletter.
The long version…
The Trees
Looking at the fields after last year, we saw that nearly every tall tree on the place was taken! Wow! The trees have had a year to grow another foot but we have limited selection over 9’. This was Mike’s strategy since he was struggling to groom the larger trees but that’s changed now. You may find some nice trees without tags this year as we hold them back to get bigger for next year.
Doug Firs – These are native so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they did well with our warm, droughty summer. They are looking really nice. If you’re looking for a tall tree, you should check out the Dougs. There are some really beautiful specimens up to 10’ or more.
Grand Firs – The Grands grew surprisingly well again this year – maybe the cool, wet spring was to their liking. There are a LOT of gorgeous Grands out there to choose from – most 9’ or under. Grands are also the most fragrant of the trees so they’re really hard to beat.
Fraser Firs – The Frasers are native to SC where they get summer rain. They have a very shallow root ball so they’re really struggling with the droughty summers. We’re rethinking where we plant them but that’s not going to help for a while. We still have a good supply with some beautiful larger trees for this year. Going forward, hard to tell. They’re a really popular tree on our farm so we’re doing everything we can to keep growing them.
Noble Firs – The Nobles are really loving these dryer conditions! We used to lose up to half of our seedlings each year with the higher rainfall. Not the case anymore. They have lush growth and incredible color again this year. However, we oversold them last year so the supply of larger trees (over 8’) is limited.
Nordmann Firs – Some of the upcoming Nordmanns are getting into the 8’ range this year. There’s almost nothing above that size. What’s there looks fantastic – they didn’t miss a beat with the ‘new normal’ weather. There just aren’t many of them yet. They are sooo slow growing that it takes forever to replace each tree that’s cut!
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Many of you guessed this was coming sometime soon - Mike and Sheila are retiring from tree farming! We have sold the farm to George and Dixie King who will be taking over the tree sales this year. They plan to follow our procedures this year while they assess what works best for them and what they think is just bat-s—t crazy. ;-> In the future, they may tweak some things but they’ll keep you posted on any changes.
It’s been a privilege and an honor to be part of your family’s holiday tradition these past 19 years. We thank you for your loyal support of our little farm and for your friendship. We will truly miss seeing all your smiling faces each year.
Our plan is to move closer to our children and grandchildren and re-invent ourselves yet again – maybe with something a little less demanding!
Thanks for reading this to the end! In this short-message Twitter-era, we know what a challenge that is.
Stay safe. We hope to see you soon!
Mike and Sheila
George and Dixie
Lochsloy Acres
We have a big announcement for you all at the end of the newsletter so be sure to keep reading. ;->
For the ‘Twitter crowd’, let me summarize what we’re doing this year in a few sentences. If you don’t understand or want more details, read the rest of the newsletter.
- Appointments will be required except the last weekend – this is our ‘new normal’ to keep the crowding and unsafe road conditions to a minimum. Here’s the link: Note – Mobile devices may not work properly. Best to use a real computer to schedule your appointment.
- When you schedule your appointment, we have 3 questions to help us manage our process – the number of vehicles you are bringing (we’re checking to make sure you booked enough parking spaces – read the instructions!), the number of trees you want, and “What are you doing today?”.
- Trees can ONLY be reserved between Nov 4th and Nov. 13th. After that, it’s ‘choose and cut’ only, i.e. find your tree and take it home.
- Remember - If you reserve your tree, be SURE to schedule a second appointment to come back and cut it!
- Dec 8-10th will be Open Farm (appointments are optional). If the lot fills up, we’ll close it except for those people with appointments.
- We are a U-Cut farm. Don’t assume we will cut your tree for you. We will if we can but staffing issues limit what we can do. We will charge $30/tree at the time of reservation or up to $40/tree any time after that.
- NO TRAILERS! If you show up with one, you may be turned away if there is no place to put you. (BTW – if you decide to bring a trailer anyway, make SURE you are able to back it up with precision.)
- No Pets Allowed!
- No Photographers!
The long version…
- Dates of operation: We will be open from Nov 4th – Dec 10th. Appointments will be optional the last weekend. If the lot fills up the last weekend , only people with appointments will be allowed in.
- Tree Reservations - We will only be taking tree reservations the first two weekends (Nov 4th - Nov 13th). We need time to finish the reservation process before we open for cutting. NO RESERVATIONS WILL BE TAKEN AFTER NOV. 13th! No exceptions!!
- Appointment Scheduler –The link for the scheduler is at the top of this email and will also be on the web site starting Oct 15th.
- The scheduler looks slightly different from last year. Each date still has its own ‘page’, accessible via tabs across the top of the screen. However, the landing page only shows 5 dates at a time. To see more dates, look for the tab on the right that says something like “+16 MORE” That will give you a drop-down menu with additional available dates
- As the season progresses, the schedule hours and slots may change.
- Your answers to the “How many trees?” question will allow us to monitor expected sales versus our goal. If we get close to our goal, we may reduce unscheduled appointment slots to avoid overselling.
- Employee scheduling may also affect the appointments. If we don’t have enough employees, we’ll have to cut back unscheduled slots. We will honor all existing sign-ups but there may just be a skeleton crew working.
- Multiple Vehicles for an appointment - Your response in the QUANTITY box on the scheduler (to the right of the “MY COMMENTS” field) indicates how many parking spaces you are requesting for your appointment. The default value of this field is 1 so pay attention if you want multiple vehicles! To make SURE people are following the instructions, we also ask how many vehicles you are bringing so we can check for errors. However, the App only uses the QUANTITY field to monitor capacity. We can’t change the App so we’re doing what we can to make sure we can manage the parking lot.
- We’ve added a question for you to tell us you’re doing, e.g. Reserve a tree, Choose and Cut, etc. This helps us anticipate the needs of the day. If you’d like us to cut your reserved tree, this should be indicated on the pick-up date, NOT the reservation date.
- If you schedule a date to reserve a tree, be SURE to schedule a second date to pick up your reserved tree, regardless of who is cutting it – you or us.
- We’ve allowed you to choose up to 5 trees with each appointment. If you need more than that (e.g. need 8 for church decorations), select 5 trees and add a note in comments, e.g. ‘Cutting 8 trees total’.
- Appointments are scheduled every 15 minutes to spread out arrivals so there’s no dangerous backup on the highway. Each appointment assumes roughly 1-1.5 hours to find your tree. No tailgating please – we need the parking spaces to turn over frequently to make the appointments work.
- PLEASE – if you need to change your appointment, use the link on your confirmation email to access or delete the signup. This App has no ‘look up’ or sort function so we have to ‘eye-ball’ hundreds of signups to find you. Our eyes aren’t that great anymore!
- If you have questions about using the scheduler, please ask.
- Trailers – We have no way to manage trailer scheduling and can’t guarantee you’ll be able to park or even turn around in our lot if you bring one. Add to that the number of people we’ve had who can’t back up their trailers and you see the potential for disaster on a busy day. If you MUST bring a trailer, we’d recommend scheduling your appointment on a non-holiday weekday when the parking lot isn’t as busy. If we’re too full, we reserve the right to refuse you entry.
- Bow saws. These will be available as usual. You may also bring your own bow saw, reciprocating saw or electric chainsaw. For safety reasons, gas powered chainsaws are not allowed, as usual.
- Wreaths. We plan to have wreaths on display in the barn for purchase. We will take orders during the tree reservation period. You can also send us an email if you want something special (e.g. candy cane, large wreath).
- Note - Wreath availability may be limited. Most decorations come from China and availability is still a problem. Also, with our transition, we may not be able to make up as many as we’ve had in the past. We’re still figuring this one out.
- Cutting Assistance – We are a U-Cut farm so cutting your tree is not business we’re looking for. Staffing limits what we can do and when. However, it’s a courtesy we’ve offered for years so we’re looking for way to better manage it. We’ve broken these requests into two categories (and prices) – planned and unplanned.
- “Planned” cutting requests are those which are made at the time the tree was reserved. These will be charged at $30/tree for a specific pick-up date. With our “3 days off” schedule, we were able to cut the following weekend’s trees in a logical and efficient manner.
- “Unplanned” cutting requests happen when a customer finds a tree and wants us to go cut it for them on the spot. Also, when a customer with a reserved tree calls in the morning for us to cut that day. We have limited ability to do that and will charge $40/tree if you insist. If someone is clearly disabled, older than us, or 14 months pregnant, we’ll try to help them when we can get to it. Otherwise, please plan to get your hands dirty.
The Trees
Looking at the fields after last year, we saw that nearly every tall tree on the place was taken! Wow! The trees have had a year to grow another foot but we have limited selection over 9’. This was Mike’s strategy since he was struggling to groom the larger trees but that’s changed now. You may find some nice trees without tags this year as we hold them back to get bigger for next year.
Doug Firs – These are native so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they did well with our warm, droughty summer. They are looking really nice. If you’re looking for a tall tree, you should check out the Dougs. There are some really beautiful specimens up to 10’ or more.
Grand Firs – The Grands grew surprisingly well again this year – maybe the cool, wet spring was to their liking. There are a LOT of gorgeous Grands out there to choose from – most 9’ or under. Grands are also the most fragrant of the trees so they’re really hard to beat.
Fraser Firs – The Frasers are native to SC where they get summer rain. They have a very shallow root ball so they’re really struggling with the droughty summers. We’re rethinking where we plant them but that’s not going to help for a while. We still have a good supply with some beautiful larger trees for this year. Going forward, hard to tell. They’re a really popular tree on our farm so we’re doing everything we can to keep growing them.
Noble Firs – The Nobles are really loving these dryer conditions! We used to lose up to half of our seedlings each year with the higher rainfall. Not the case anymore. They have lush growth and incredible color again this year. However, we oversold them last year so the supply of larger trees (over 8’) is limited.
Nordmann Firs – Some of the upcoming Nordmanns are getting into the 8’ range this year. There’s almost nothing above that size. What’s there looks fantastic – they didn’t miss a beat with the ‘new normal’ weather. There just aren’t many of them yet. They are sooo slow growing that it takes forever to replace each tree that’s cut!
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Many of you guessed this was coming sometime soon - Mike and Sheila are retiring from tree farming! We have sold the farm to George and Dixie King who will be taking over the tree sales this year. They plan to follow our procedures this year while they assess what works best for them and what they think is just bat-s—t crazy. ;-> In the future, they may tweak some things but they’ll keep you posted on any changes.
It’s been a privilege and an honor to be part of your family’s holiday tradition these past 19 years. We thank you for your loyal support of our little farm and for your friendship. We will truly miss seeing all your smiling faces each year.
Our plan is to move closer to our children and grandchildren and re-invent ourselves yet again – maybe with something a little less demanding!
Thanks for reading this to the end! In this short-message Twitter-era, we know what a challenge that is.
Stay safe. We hope to see you soon!
Mike and Sheila
George and Dixie
Lochsloy Acres
.
There's a Christmas tree in there somewhere!!
Lochsloy Acres Tree Farm
425-308-0355
5511 State Road 92
Lake Stevens, WA 98258
[email protected]
Member of Puget Sound Christmas Tree Association
http://www.pscta.org
