Ever wonder what retirement looks like when you refuse to actually retire?
For most people in their late sixties, the dream is a condo in Florida, maybe some golf, a lot of grandkids’ photos on the fridge. For Bob Schrader, it looked like 133 acres of knee-high weeds and forgotten fir trees in western Massachusetts.
In 2010, five years before he planned to leave his desk job, he dropped $215,000 on a Christmas tree farm that hadn’t been touched in almost a decade. The place was so overgrown you could barely walk the rows. But Bob saw something no one else did.
A Father-Son Adventure That Became a Legacy
Fast-forward fifteen years and Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm is the kind of place people drive hours to visit. Think crackling fire pit, free hot chocolate, horse-drawn wagon rides, and thousands of perfect trees waiting to become the centerpiece of someone’s holiday.
None of that happened by accident. It happened because a dad and his son decided to build something together—something that would outlast both of them.
The Early Days: More Sweat Than Magic
When Bob bought the farm, the trees that were supposed to be ready for sale were either dead, diseased, or shaped like Charlie Brown rejects. The fields were a mess. The buildings needed work. Honestly? Most people would have walked away.
But Bob had grown up baling hay and tossing 90-pound irrigation pipes as a teenager. Hard work didn’t scare him. And when his son Jake graduated with a degree in plant and soil science, the duo quietly became unstoppable.
“I like to think I’ve been with my dad every step of the way,” Jake says with a grin you can practically hear. “Through frozen fingers, broken tractors, and years when we wondered if we were crazy.”
How Long Does It Really Take to Grow a Christmas Tree?
Here’s something city folks usually get wrong: you don’t plant a seedling and come back in a couple years with a chainsaw.
Real talk—it takes 11 to 13 years from the day a tiny fir arrives until it’s tall enough, bushy enough, and symmetrical enough to grace someone’s living room.
- Spring: Buy 6,000 five-year-old seedlings (already $2 each)
- Two frantic days planting with a machine
- Seven to nine years of mowing, fertilizing, shaping, and praying
- Another two to three years clearing stumps and prepping soil before you plant again
Every time a customer says, “Wow, easy money—just plant it and wait eight years, right?” Bob has to stop himself from laughing (or crying).
“The truth is a long, long way from that.”
Bob Schrader
Thanksgiving Weekend: Controlled Chaos
The season is short. Brutally short. They sell about 2,500 trees every year, and roughly a third of them go home with families the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Picture this: hundreds of cars, kids running everywhere, saws buzzing, the smell of woodsmoke and cocoa in the air. Bob and Jake are shaking trees, drilling holes for stands, tying trees to rooftops from dawn until long after dark.
Choose-and-cut trees run $75–$90. Pre-cuts are priced by height. Every single tree gets shaken, baled, trimmed, and inspected. No exceptions.
They bring in about a dozen helpers—friends, cousins, college kids home for break—to survive the rush. By Monday night they’re exhausted, filthy, and absolutely euphoric.
It’s Not Just Trees—It’s an Experience
Here’s where the Schrader family is brilliant. They figured out early that people don’t just want a tree. They want memories.
So they turned an old outbuilding into the coziest gift shop you’ve ever seen—handmade wreaths, local ornaments, tree stands, their own branded hats. Around 5,000 people walk through it every season.
- Free hot chocolate (yes, really free)
- $2 wagon rides pulled by massive Belgian draft horses
- Fire pit roaring from morning till close
- Photo ops everywhere you turn
Jake calls it “walking into a Hallmark movie.” He’s not exaggerating.
Those extras cost money—$400 a day just for the horses and driver—but they’re the reason families come back year after year and bring their friends.
The Money (Because You’re Wondering)
After expenses—seedlings, fuel, equipment repairs, horse rentals, part-time help—the farm clears between $50,000 and $100,000 profit most years. In four weeks.
They also bale 5,000 squares of hay on 20 acres, tap a few maples for syrup, and sell firewood. Every dollar gets reinvested or split between father and son. Neither draws a salary; the farm is the salary.
It’s not millionaire money, but it’s life-changing money—especially when you consider Bob bought the land for $215,000 and it’s worth dramatically more today.
The Real Challenge Nobody Talks About
If you think the biggest headache is Black Friday crowds, think again.
Climate change is hitting tree farmers hard. A wet spring this year brought phytophthora—a vicious root rot that can kill a young tree in months. They’ve already lost hundreds of seedlings.
Longer droughts, heavier rains, warmer winters that confuse insect pests—every season feels like a new gamble.
“Farmers are the biggest gamblers in the world,” Jake laughs, only half joking.
What Happens When Dad Can’t Lift Trees Anymore?
Bob is 72 and still out there every day, but he’s realistic. “I feel great now, but nobody lives forever.”
Jake’s dream is to leave his utility job one day and run the farm full-time. When that happens, Bob wants nothing more than to hand over the keys—figuratively and literally.
“I couldn’t do it without my father,” Jake says quietly. “I’m thankful he’s healthy enough to live his retirement doing exactly what he always wanted.”
And that, more than the profit and loss sheet, might be the real success story here.
Two generations pouring their hearts into the same dirt. Turning a forgotten patch of land into thousands of family traditions every December. Building something that smells like pine needles and hope.
Maybe that’s the best kind of retirement plan there is.
If you’ve ever thought about buying a little piece of land and turning it into something magical—whether it’s trees, pumpkins, weddings, or weddings under the trees—stories like this remind us it’s never too late to start.
Sometimes the best chapters begin right when everyone else thinks the book is supposed to end.
