We were driving down the driveway to go buy a Christmas tree at the local farmer’s market, when we noticed a beautiful cedar right in our yard. We have hundreds of cedars in our forest, but it’s unusual to find one that’s of suitable shape, size and fullness for a Christmas tree. So we decided to save some cash and harvest our own holiday tree.
But a common problem with taking a tree out of the forest is that Christmas trees always look smaller outdoors next to the larger oaks and maples. So just like last year, we hauled the tree indoors, only to discover that it’s about 20 feet tall and way too large for our tree stand. We had to cut off the bottom third of the tree, and the result is a pretty 12-foot tree:
LED Lights
If you are considering switching your Christmas tree lights to LED, definitely do it. These 10 strands of LED lights consume less energy than a single strand of traditional bulbs and only about half the energy of a typical incandescent reading light. LED also reduces the chance for fire because the lights remain cool.
Tree Fall
As we were decorating the tree, I suddenly got a funny feeling like I was falling into the tree. Have you ever been stopped at a traffic light and jerked in panic because you felt like your car was moving, however it turned out that you were still, but the car next to you was moving? Well, that’s what happened here. I wasn’t falling into the tree; the tree was falling on top of me.
I extended my hand just in time to stop its fall. I suspected the tree stand had tipped and dumped its dirty water on the carpet, but fortunately the 60 pounds of weights we used to keep the stand upright actually worked. The stand remained fixed to the floor, not spilling a drop of water, but the tree slipped within the stand between the screws. So we set the tree upright again, and this time we secured the tree to the wall with a few guide wires.
Talk about Christmas luck! Not only was there no mess, but I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time when the tree fell. I could imagine waking up the next morning to find the tree, ornaments and water sprawled over the living room floor in a big mess. But all’s well that ends well:
What a great picture! Awesome tree, glad you caught it and it didn’t fall!
What a great picture! Awesome tree, glad you caught it and it didn’t fall!
When Ry and I went on our X-Mas lights tour of Sun City you could really tell the difference between the old lights and LED. The displays were much brighter and had a cool sparkle to them.