Saturday, December 22, 2012

O Christmas Tree!

We have several hundred Colorado Spruce growing in the triangle field south of the dugout.  Early in December we go there and pick out one that appeals to us and tie a red ribbon on it.  A week and a half ago Jim went out with the tractor and a saw, cut the tree down and loaded it in the tractor bucket, a much easier way to get it to the house than dragging it by hand!

A week ago we took it into the house and set it up.  It wasn't quite straight so he propped up one side of the tree stand to create the illusion that it was completely straight.  Over the weekend I added the lights and started hanging ornaments.

I like to limit what I use to create a kind of "theme" tree.  This year I first hung about 18 little brass coloured drums.  Then up went about 3 dozen hand crocheted snowflakes that I made a few years ago.  They were followed by a few dozen (fake) red apples.  Something more was needed, and that gap was filled with plain gold balls.  But I had only 5 of them.

Yesterday I found a package of 24 bright gold balls, unbreakable plastic, and placed them on top of the branches.  We think the tree looks great!

Jim takes care of watering it regularly so it won't drop its needles soon.  Last Monday he lay down on the floor to reach under it and poured a whole container of water into the tree stand.  He still couldn't feel the water rise to the top so he got another container full.  Still didn't reach the top.  He couldn't figure out what was going on.  Until, OOOPS!!!  There was a growing lake of water spreading under the tree.

Because we had shimmed up one side, the side nearest the room, the water was simply running out the back side of the tree stand as quickly as he was pouring it into the front!  What a disaster!  What to do?

We pulled the tree away from the railing into the middle of the living room and started mopping up the mess.  When the floor was dry I got out another plastic tablecloth to put under the tree to protect the floor.  We managed to slide the tree, stand and all
onto the new cloth and gently slid it back into position.  Several apples and snowflakes had fallen from the tree, not to mention lots of needles.

Eventually all was restored to its proper place and we've been enjoying our tree ever since.

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