Playing with last years Christmas tree (359, 324).

Getting the Christmas tree out of the house and into the garden. Then coming back a month later and having a go at making a den.

359 – Taking the Christmas tree out

Tuesday 7 January. Sunny spells. 5°C

It’s time to take the Christmas tree out. I wondered if this counted and then told myself not to be ridiculous.  Of course it does!  Our Christmas tree is definitely a natural thing – we went to Ty Cerrig to get it at the start of December.  Learning from last year we took a big stick with us to remind me of the height of our ceiling.  The tree B chose was lovely and not disastrously tall but very wide, which made getting it in and out of the house quite a challenge.  We named it Barkey. 

At the weekend we did most of the work of taking off the lights and baubles and now, on the 7^th January, it’s going to live in the back garden while it’s still green and till I get round to cutting it down.  That is in theory, if we can get it there. It sort of staggered into the house. The garden is in the other direction though. I wonder if it will fit down the narrow hallway to the kitchen. We ponder what we need and get a sort of gurney thing that lives in the downstairs cupboard to help with furniture.

Getting the holder off the bottom is the first challenge. It’s a new screw in one which we had to get in December because the trunk was too wide for the old one. It’s worked well but has an inch of dirty water in it which I don’t want on the carpet. We get in position – B keeping an eye on the holder while I try and pick it up and put it on the gurney. There’s a lot of panicked calling of directions. We get it on but it’s clear we need to unscrew it before moving the tree any further. B goes for it, wiggling underneath to get the best angle. She gets stuck with the most stubborn one and I dive in, getting needles down the back of my top. Then B hold the holder and I try and pull it out.

Me: “Is it working, is it working?”

B: “Nooo… yes, yes it is”.

It comes out, B holding the holder down but then I have nowhere to put the tree which ends up on the carpet. Arghh!!! I get B to hold the tree and remove the holder from the gurney. Then try and get the tree back on.

Then we try and get it into the hallway. It’s quite a bit taller than the door frame so we have to tip it to one side to get it through. B is a star, taking the top end and guiding. We look down the narrow hallway and know there’s not a chance it’s going to squeeze down. It is ridiculously big.

Me: “Fine. We’ll get it out the front door and carry it round the back”.

This works surprisingly well. The hallway, for about three minutes, becomes a crazy place, full on, noisy and completely overwhelmed with tree. Then it is out and spreading its’ dying needles in the winter sunshine.

B takes the front end, i take the back and it’s surprisingly easy to carry the 7 footer round to the back gate. We get it in through the garage and leave it by the trampoline to be enjoyed by our pet bunnies.

Then we head back to clean up the hallway and hoover the carpet.

Big boots (358) >

< Night time garden adventure (360)

324 – Making last years Christmas tree into a den

Tuesday 11 February.  Cloudy. 6°C

It’s now mid February and I’ve remembered that I’ve not yet done anything with the Christmas tree.  I need to cut it down – the pines have finally gone brown – but the rabbits are enjoying the cover it gives them in the garden.  B loves dens at the moment and I wonder if we could make it into one…

I start cutting back the branches at the bottom, leaving the ones at the top, and try attaching them so that they create a sort of wall.  It’s fiddly.  They will rest on top of each other (using the mini ends of the branch to wedge over higher ones) but then fall off if pressure is applied.  In the end we give up and get some wool and try tying them on to higher branches.  B gets inside and guides where we need to cut them off from the inside.  We end up with a sort of tree tent, which doesn’t quite reach the ground.  We can get a picnic blanket under it and it will create a sort of house but it’s cold and B doesn’t fancy it.

We’re leaving it there for the moment.  I have a feeling we’ll come back to it and work on it again soon.  In the meantime, the rabbits seem to approve.

323 – Listening for night noises and finally finding the full moon >

< 325 – putting a pulley system in the garden tree.