Christmas tree farm started small

WAUNAKEE - Joe CaPaul had a desk job and grew oats, corn and hay on 35 acres of his land in the town of Westport when he decided to dabble in Christmas trees 21 years ago.

At the time, his wife, Shirley, was terminally ill and the family of six was looking for a way to supplement the household income that didn't require him to be away from home any more than necessary.

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He joined the Wisconsin Christmas Tree Producers Association.

"I didn't know anything," he said.

In the first year, CaPaul planted five acres of trees on his property at 5949 River Road off Highway 113.

Each year after, he planted another five acres and in 1990, six years after he started, he harvested his first crop.

"It kind of snowballed after that," said CaPaul, who retired in 1993 from his job as data processing manager for the UW-Extension.

He now has 35 acres in trees, but his expansion efforts weren't limited to accumulating acreage in trees.

About 11 years ago, he added a gift shop where ornaments and other holiday-related items are sold and free apple cider is available to customers.

"It started out, I just wanted a little building I could stand in and stay warm," CaPaul said.

But he had remarried, and his new wife, Harriet, wanted a building to sell crafts and other items, a sideline of the business now handled by CaPaul's oldest daughter, Chris Barman, 44. She lives near the shop and works as a cognitive disabilities teacher's assistant at Waunakee High School.

With the shop came an official name change to CaPaul's Country Place Christmas Tree Farm.

About the same time, CaPaul added wreaths and roping, and five years ago, a pole barn was added to give more room for selling those items. Two rows of hooks for the wreaths line the interior walls, and tables are marked off to measure the roping.

About eight years ago, CaPaul added two reindeer, a business move that proved to be almost as exciting as Christmas morning.

"Like any business, you're trying to be innovative to get people in," CaPaul said. "So I thought, this will be kind of slick."

He plastered the media with ads announcing a naming contest for the reindeer ? two cows that became Holly and Ivy.

"That really turned a corner for us," said CaPaul, wearing a flannel shirt in green, red and white and a red baseball cap with his company logo.

His sales doubled, with incremental increases each year thereafter, just as before.

CaPaul, who has a full head of white hair, a white beard, a shiny red pickup truck and a 70th birthday on Thanksgiving Day this year, seems particularly suited to the Christmas tree business.

When he started his business in 1984, the mainstays for growers were Scotch pine and white pine.

In 1990, he got the idea - he says God led him to the decision - to start planting Fraser firs, balsam firs and spruce, and later he was glad he did.

"About five years after that, the whole trend in trees all switched," he said.

This is one example of the challenges of the industry. Because trees take awhile to mature, growers have to decide what buyers will want up to nine years in advance, depending on the tree and conditions.

The season is short, which gives little time to react to market conditions or to change prices. While CaPaul fills some special orders for places like businesses that need them for displays, he officially opens his business on Thanksgiving Day. A large number of people stop by after putting the turkey in the oven, he said, adding that by Dec. 10, most people have purchased their tree.

CaPaul contracts with a friend to sell some pre-cut trees for those who still want the experience found at the tree farm but don't want to cut their own ? a growing trend that has surprised CaPaul.

The keys to the success of his business are location and service, which includes personal contact, CaPaul said.

CaPaul's Country Place has an advantage because of its proximity to Madison and several other communities, making it easy for people to have that "cut-your-own" experience without driving too far.

CaPaul, who seemingly never stops thinking of ways to serve his customers, tries to have enough workers on hand so they can help haul a tree from the woods, clear brush out of the tree branches with shakers, bag the tree if requested and help load it onto a vehicle.

This is where his oldest son, also named Joe, comes in handy. The younger Joe CaPaul is a speech and English teacher at DeForest High School, where he is able to recruit "an endless supply" of young workers for the tree farm. They help on weekends during the selling season and at other times during the year. At planting time, the boys are given a spade and pails of transplants before being sent off to look for bare spots to plant the tiny trees.

High school girls are recruited to make wreaths and sell them.

The younger Joe CaPaul got involved in the business after getting a job in the area. He got married and built a house on the farmland just like his older sister. He has summers off for shearing, spraying, mowing and brush cutting.

He said he has learned a lot from working with his father, who has lived nearly his whole life on a farm, and finds the tree farm business a nice contrast to a job where he is constantly surrounded by people.

"It's just so nice to have something that is not being in a building all day," he said. "I'm a real outdoorsman."

In the spirit of compassion for those in need, the family business gets involved in a Thanksgiving dinner basket program in the Waunakee area by putting in a coupon for a free tree. At least 25 trees are given each year. Tree stands, lights and other decorations are available at the farm through donations by State Bank of Cross Plains in Waunakee.

The business also gives a refund and a new tree to any customer who says the needles on the tree have fallen out. The senior Joe CaPaul also has encouraged customers to look elsewhere when they don't find the perfect tree.

"Christmas comes once a year," he said. "I want you to have the tree you want for that special day of the year."