FERRIDAY &8212; For something that only comes once a year, Christmas and specifically Christmas tree farming is not an easy task.

Just ask Marie Potts, 62, a local Christmas tree farmer in Ferriday, or David Gaude, 47, a former Christmas tree farmer in Natchez.

&8220;You&8217;ve got to be a nut to do it,&8221; Potts said with a smile. &8220;And you have to be able to devote a lot of your time to it.&8221;

Potts works Tuesday through Thursday tutoring math to children but the rest of the time she has to spend on the farm.

Potts planted the first trees on her farm in 1995 and 1996 and is still maintaining some of the original trees today.

Every year starting the day after Christmas and lasting until the middle of January, Potts said the 16 acres of land on Doty Road has to be re-tilled to prepare for the seedlings for future crops.

Next, Potts said, new trees will be planted and the existing trees fertilized. During the spring, summer and fall months, Potts said the trees must be trimmed and sprayed for insects.

&8220;And that&8217;s just before Christmas and harvest time starts,&8221; Potts said.

The day after Thanksgiving, Potts hires seven boys to trim and cut down trees for customers, and two girls and two ladies to make wreaths from the tree trimmings.

&8220;It&8217;s extremely labor intensive,&8221; Potts said.

&8220;And I used to do most of the work myself.&8221;

Gaude said he planted his 12 acre farm with Christmas trees in 1983 and farmed it until about five years ago.

Gaude said he gave up the tree business because it was too much trouble between working his regular job as an electrical and air conditioning contractor, raising a family and taking care of Christmas trees.

&8220;I would come home from work, sit down for just a few minutes then have to go outside and take care of the trees until dark,&8221; he said. &8220;It just got to be too time intensive and too hectic and I had to pick between raising children and raising trees.&8221;

Like Potts, Gaude said he would do most of the trimming, spraying and other preparation work himself until Christmas season when he would hire help.

&8220;I&8217;d hire about 10 or 12 boys to help with cutting, shaking and loading the trees from Thanksgiving until Christmas and one week after to clean up,&8221; he said.

Gaude said time wasn&8217;t the only thing that got him out of Christmas tree farming. Weather played a part, too.

&8220;One year we had high winds come and blow hundreds of trees down and another we lost about 200 to an ice storm,&8221; he said.

In 2001, he called it quits with Christmas tree farming and last year bulldozed the remaining trees on the property to make pasture land for raising cattle.

&8220;Something had to give and I guess it had to be Christmas trees,&8221; Gaude said.

But he said he would always miss harvesting trees this time of year.

&8220;You would meet so many people every year that had their own Christmas tree stories and every year elementary school children would come out for field trips and I would tell them the story of Christmas trees,&8221; Gaude said. &8220;That&8217;s something I&8217;ll always look back on and enjoy.&8221;

Potts shares Gaude&8217;s enjoyment of people coming out to her tree farm and cutting down their own trees.

&8220;I love meeting the people and hearing how everybody has their own tradition of cutting down their own tree,&8221; Potts said.

Potts said she thinks the reason people discontinue Christmas tree farming is because they are getting older and cannot devote most of their time to it.

Potts said she too might give up farming in 10 years or so but is already looking for a replacement in her great niece Christina Peoples.

&8220;She seems to have an interest in it but she also has a job and two kids to take care of, so I don&8217;t know if she&8217;ll be able to take over,&8221; Potts said.