Wine,
Pine of course.
Ray
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Maple tree here. Not many leaves but the tinsel looks great!
Lee
Growing up in Arkansas where cedars were plentiful and already "Christmas tree" shaped, we cut a cedar every year.
But, I remember one Christmas we spent with my grandparents in Ft. Collins, CO about 50 years ago when granddad "made" the Christmas tree. He took something like a 3" by 3", about 6 ft tall, and slightly rounded it. He then drilled holes in it all around. He then went out and trimmed a couple of evergreens (I don't remember what kind) and stuck the branches in the holes of the 3by3.
It was a "full" tree, and when decorated, you wouldn't have had a clue it wasn't real. Actually, in a sense, it was real!
Alan - planesaw
Whatever fits in our small livingroom and will survive 2 large dogs and 3 naughty cats! Last year, Nick brought home a tree that was dubbed Fat Albert, as wide as it was tall!
Nope, shop will be lucky if I get around to heating it, let alone decorating.....
Plastic,
As sad as it is to admit, I have never had a real tree, for Christmas, I am allergic to the darn things and would end up in a hospital if I had one in the house. I can barely stand one for an hour or two when visiting friends and family.
Doug M
Doug, my condolences. My lady-boss down in Calif. (for 11 years) was also allergic, came on rather unexpectedly, and she did end up in the hospital. It's sad. However, I'd rather have that allergy than something ubiquitous like wheat (my grandson).
Artificial Christmas tree story: There was a small one stored, intact, behind the barn arena that had to moved recently for some construction work. The stable owner pulled it out from it's dark hiding place, and there was a nice well-used bird's nest tucked in the branches! Too funny.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Forest you sure hit a note on the.. and 3 naughty cats..
No cats now but most of my life I have had several of different moods and whatever a cat do..
They ALL loved to climb in the tree and ruin everything that hung on a branch!
EDIT:
I do not think any dog I had ever knew it was there?
Edited 12/15/2008 10:55 am by WillGeorge
The big hazard with the dogs is wagging tails! They go nuts when we've been gone for awhile (like 20 minutes, or 4 hours, doesn't matter). Wagging tails and wiggly bodies make things fly, fly, fly! This year's tree is a small one, we're going to put it up on a table, so will avoid the hazards.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
May I suggest electro-shock therapy for the dogs? (just kidding). My cats have never been that big an issue, the dog on the other hand got at least one bulb a year.
Doug M
Our Golden Retriever was trained to a "remote trainer" collar for hunting. Haven't used it on him in ages, as he now comes promptly, waits and sits from 50 yards, etc., etc., but if he doesn't stop eating horse poop, it's going back on! ROFL!!!!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
The sign of the times. Radio remotes on dog collars. When i was a kid my dog would come when called if she was was within about 30 feet of you after that she would ignore you. My dad tied 2 75foot ski ropes together and used them as a leash the dog did note know she had. After doing that twice, for the rest of her life she would come from any distance as long as she could here you.
Doug M
The long-rope technique is still alive and well, I used it with Cody when we first got him (11 months old) and he learned well. But in the field, where major distractions could endanger a dog running for birds (or, in his case, perhaps an alluring female -- he wasn't neutered until recently), the collar adds a margin of safety. These days, he only wears it when he's hunting, as a "just in case" thing. A very tiny tingle will get his attention should Nick's call not get through to the brain.
One of the scary things about hunting in Eastern Washington is the presence of porcupines. If a dog starts to chase one of them, you want them to respond immediately when you yell "Wait/Sit" or "Here". It can get reallllllly ugly otherwise.
Oh, the collars have been around for a long time, and were often used abusively in the past. They have some safeguards built in now, but still should not be in the hands of temperamental owners, for sure.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 12/16/2008 11:53 am by forestgirl
Yeah I understand the hunting bit. My dog was a hunting dog, she was a breeding experiment that was going on in Michigan for a while buy back woods (up north) hunters. I forget what breeds she was from but they took two breeds of hunting dog (call them A&B) to get C then took two (X&Y) to get Z then took C&Z to get my dog. Sort of worked. She could tree anything and come to a perfect point with out trying, she could swim like a fish, and all of that. To bad that she was scared to death of noises like gun shots and such. She also could swim well but did not really like water all that much. So in fact it was a failed attempt. We got her because she ran away from someone trying to train her to hunt we assume. Only reason we know about the breeding is because a friend of the family had an almost identical dog.
I don't hunt and she was only a house dog to us. Still she was a good dog. As for porcupines we have them around here also, my brothers dog (a Husky, nice dog, dumb as a rock) got into one of those once. It took my sister in law a long time to get all of them out of the dog (she is a Vet). So I can understand the issue. One thing I do wonder about how do the collars hold up in water?
Doug M
"Spud The Wonder Dog" is a great mix of unknown origins or proportions, but he is great with kids! He used to be a great solo hunter (birds, squirrels, rabbits, etc.), but he's 14+ now and he is mostly gifted at sleeping. My Young Bride always wanted a watch dog--and that's exactly what he is! He'll calmly watch about anything . . .
Our Cody is 99% pet dog, 1% hunting -- this was his first year to get to go, as last bird season was over-taken by memorial services. The collars stand water just fine, far as I've seen. We sent him to a trainer for a month, he swam once or twice/day. Ducks aren't his specialty, though, he prefers pheasant. Too bad about your dog being gun-shy. Seems once they are, it's near-impossible to cure, and some dogs are "just that way."
Here's our handsome boy......(another Craig's List find!)
View Image
He and Boo-the-Collie fetch sticks together:View Imageforestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Nice team work on the stick. As for the being gun shy, it was never an issue as I do not hunt, and the only hunting the family ever did was dear, and you do not use a dog for that. As for the other stuff, treeing and pointing and such it was nothing I ever cared about but was something she just did. Looked a little odd on her, as she was not a good looking dog. Frankly she was a bit, umm, ugly. Still one of the smartest, best trained dogs. We could leave food on the floor and leave it for hours unwatched and she would just look at it. When she got to the property line she would just sit right down on it. Great dog, but alas she got old and is no longer with us.
Right now I have a cat. Note a fun as a dog, but a LOT less work, and I can stay out for hours and not feel bad about having to get home to leave the dog out.
Doug M.
"We could leave food on the floor and leave it for hours unwatched and she would just look at it. When she got to the property line she would just sit right down on it. " That is fantastic! Must not have had tooooooo much hound in her, LOL. (I love hounds, but they do have their challenges)
"Right now I have a cat. Not a fun as a dog, but a LOT less work...." Amen to that. I've been a "cat person" all my life, find it very easy to live with them and get a great deal of companionship from the kitties. Have always liked dogs, but wasn't very good at living with them and their needs. The big collie in the pic above has taught me to be a "dog person." forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
FGI have friends who are potters, and their Rhodesian ridge backs would hang out in the shop. They learned the hard way not to store pots on the lower shelves in the inventory room--a ridge back's wagging tail is akin to a baseball bat! Their business office was upstairs from the inventory room, and the dogs would go in search of the master, and upon seeing them at the top of the stairs, would begin wagging their tails, effectively sweeeping the shelves clean before they could get downstairs! Only happened once....! If we were in West Texas, our tree would be a mesquite, but around here, in SE Texas, it's an old pine tree. Tom"Notice that at no time do my fingers leave my hand"
I hear ya on the Ridgeback tail (great dogs, BTW). I had a roommate in college who had an un-docked Weimaraner. He'd accompany you to the door when someone knocked, and leave lash-marks on your lower legs as he wagged in excited welcome to the visitor.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I'm on the east coast. Just bought our tree this weekend, a six foot fraser fir. I think they are supposed to hold their needles longer, who knows.
No time for decorating the shop, just the 2009 Penthouse calendar. Its the gift that keeps on giving.
I'm going to decorate my shop with router dust. First, some basswood, then some redwood, and finally some green bits of poplar. ;-)
I love Christmas, but I'm not so big on Christmas trees. My Young Bride has a now pretty sorry looking 6 foot tall artificial tree that is proudly decorated with 37 years worth of memorabilia. Of particular value are a glass "Dad" ornament that belonged to her now long deceased father, and myriad paper and popsicle stick ornaments made by our now adult children. We don't have any cats and the dog doesn't come into the living room, but the grandkids sometimes play havoc with the tree. Time does seem to march on . . .
Merry Christmas!
11 foot balsam fir this year. I used to get a Frasier Fir, but those tree guys don't seem to know there's a recession. The place I always buy my trees from every year wanted $150 for a 12 foot Frasier Fir this year.........no thanx
Jeff
The last real tree we bought was a living one. Kind of small but we planted it after the holidays and now its 20 ft tall and still going. When we bought cut trees I would take the tree and cut all the branches off (after Christmas!!!!) giving a nice turning blank. Kind of a mess with the pitch but at least its not a total waste.
Now its a fake one because we are lazy and cheap.
No decorations in the shop because its a total mess with a remodeling in progress.
I get a Concolor Fir, beautiful, long soft needles, full but with room to hang ornaments and if kept watered will last from the Friday after Thanksgiving until the first Saturday of the New Year.
I go out and cut one, tie it on the car, take it off, set it up in the Living Room in its stand and then starts the 45 minute debate about which side is the prettiest, since I am doing the moving and fussing with it, I do not get a vote (it being a conflict of interest). This year we did two full revolutions.
Nice part is that once it's in place my direct involvement is over. I am not allowed to touch the lights or ornaments at all. Here is a word to the young husbands out there. You must absolutely do the worst possible job putting up lights on your first Christmas tree with your Newlywed spouse. It has to be so bad that she can never again trust you with so important and delicate task.
If you do not follow this advise you will spend the rest of your days on a stepladder adjusting lights in front of a tribunal of harsh critics (your wife and kids and maybe your Mother-in-Law) barking out such helpful advise as, "There are too many lights on that side of the tree!" and "I can see the wires, you shouldn't see the wires." DAMHIKT!
I figured it out and it's much better since I screwed up this job in front of my SECOND wife!
Oh, as for my shop the only decorations there are shavings, ankle deep.
BTW, my uncle (a skilled woodworker) used to decorate his tree with a chain made of thick shavings, sort of like a child's construction paper chain. He said you have to set the plane to a rank cut and skew the cut in nice straight grained stock to get the shavings to curl right. It was very pretty. And a fire issue too, no doubt.
David
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