Re: How do you decorate for the Holidays?
Montana Moose,
Yes, the fireplace is gas logs (Majestic) and I made the mantle, trim and installed the marble facing and hearth extension. It was a fun project when we built the house over 15 years ago. The Bose came from my late Mother-in-law's estate, and we've been enjoying Christmas music on it since Thanksgiving, and think of her every time we use it.
Gnu Bee,
OMG, you look like the real deal!!!!!!!!!! I guess there REALLY is a Santa Clause, and he hangs out on FAOL. :lol: :lol: Fantastic that the Christmas cactus bloomed. They sure can be fickle. Enjoy it while it's here. Great tree and cute kids on the floor.
Joe
Re: How do you decorate for the Holidays?
it's simple to make a Christmas Cactus bloom: on Nov 10th put it in a room you don't use, next to a window where you leave the shade open. the plant needs to know the days are getting shorter so it has to live in a room where you don't turn on the lights. ever since i took up flytying in the guest room, Best Fishing Buddy's cactus has had nowhere to bloom...do we need a bigger house?
Re: How do you decorate for the Holidays?
Fish and Wildlife takes all the discarded trees they can get here at home and puts them in the local streams as a place for the young salmon and steelhead to hide from predators such as larger fish and raccoons and various birds. Also helps with stream bank erosion.
Rocky
Re: How do you decorate for the Holidays?
Joe, Majestic, ok I'll have to remember that if I decide to have a visiting fly fisher/handyman install one, that and when I have the minor electrical repairs and some sheetrock and a little oak flooring repaired. Maybe a roof. Good looking mantle and trim there too. Yep, kinda guessed you'd have the Christmas music goin' on the Bose.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Re: How do you decorate for the Holidays?
We use a white pine cut right here on the property... they grow like weeds.
They don't have the"full" look of a modern pruned spruce or fur, but have a "period" look that seems to fit our
c. 1780's home
Besides, they're free, something all good New Englanders can understand :D
The tree is decorated with family heirloom ornaments, some of which go back to the 1880s
Re: How do you decorate for the Holidays?
In our area it is illegal to cut Christmas trees except on the power line right of way. Trees on the power lines are doomed anyway so there is no extra impact on the forest by taking one of them. When I was a kid each spring our dad would take us up into the hills where we had found some nice looking fir trees about the right size. We would take a machete and trim several trees into the proper shape, after doing this to a tree for a couple of years it would grow into a very bushy perfect Christmas tree. We took a couple each year , one for ours and one for my Aunt. One year to our dismay someone found our little grove of trees and took them all leaving nothing for future years.
Our current tree is a fake that we bought last year. Our previous one lasted 12 years. I went to a fake tree when one of our neighbours lost their living room and all their presents to a tree fire on Christmas eve 1993. It was a close thing but no one got hurt.
I love the new type of lights that run cool, take up far less energy to operate are much brighter than the old fashioned ones and best of all won't burn you if you should accidentally brush up against one.
Man didn't you just hate those strings of lights that wouldn't operate if any one bulb burned out. You would spend an hour testing each bulb till finally you just went out and bought a new string that worked.
My sister and her husband just got the very latest type of tree this year with built in lights. You take it out of its wheeled storage box, Set it up on its stand, push a button and it unfolds by itself. You add any ornaments you want and plug it in. Even the angel on the top is permanent.
After the season you pull down on a lever, it refolds up snug as a bug in a rug. Place it back in the storage box ( which is really a wheeled suitcase ) roll it into the closet and yer done. Pricey though, around $350.00 they said.
I do agree that some of those farmed trees are grown on agricultural land in a nurserylike setting. I don't agree with that idea, But most Christmas tree farms around here are grown up in the hills in poor soil. At harvest They cut the tree off, treat the stump with a fungicidal wax to protect it. Then it will grow another tree in a few years on the same stump. In my opinion as long as you don't clearcut an area, cutting down Christmas tree sized trees does the forest no harm as a new one will soon grow where the old one was removed from.
Re: How do you decorate for the Holidays?
When I was a kid we would go to a tree farms either in Half Moon Bay or the Santa Cruz mountains and cut down our tree. One year we cut a tree that had a family of mice living in it. When we got it home and my dad offloaded it from the roof of the station wagon what seemed like a zillion mice scurried out of the tree. :shock: My mom was not a happy camper. :lol: I was 17 then and that was the last year we cut down a tree. Since then we have gone artifical and the offical word at my folks place is mom's allergies won't take the real thing. :lol: Now that I have a family of my own, I am thinking tree farm starting next year.
Here is a picture of our tree.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a62...y/IMG_1594.jpg