Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, You Should Never Buy a Fake One!

In my family, we celebrate Christmas. Not so much the honoring-the-birth-of-baby-Jesus way of celebrating, but a celebration of brightening the winter darkness with yummy foods, sharing drinks, lights, sparkles, and shiny things. And always the cornerstone of that celebration is the tree.

Putting a Christmas tree up is rooted in Pagan traditions, particularly in Germanic culture. According to the History Channel, “many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.” Until the the mid 1800’s, people thought bringing a tree in the home was strange, and witch-phobia 17th century America made decorating one a hangable-offense. It wasn’t until 1846, when the popular English Queen Victoria and her family was shown in front of a decorated tree, did the tradition become come popular.

The famous English engraving of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and their tree in 1848. Photo Source.

We have always had a real tree. I have very strong prejudicious against fake trees. They are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is a non-biodegradable petroleum plastic that off-gasses dioxins (which can be stored in the fatty tissues of us and animals, causing cancer, neurological damage, and many other serious health issues). Many trees, especially older ones, contain lead. Almost all the fake trees are made in China, furthering the environmental impact of shipping. They can not be recycled and are highly flammable. And, artificial trees were first produced in the 1930’s by a company that also manufactured toilet brushes. Do you really want a giant toilet brush in your living room? There is nothing that says Happy Holidays about that!

tree at the SF Ballet, pretty sure it was fake.

Real trees, however, are awesome, and I think the better choice. They produce delicious woodland smells, creating a natural air-freshener. Trees grown on a farm were planted specifically for the purpose of cutting, but while they were growing they provided wildlife habitat and produced oxygen and renewed air quality. When you’re finished with the tree, it can be composted 100% (unless you flock your tree- you’re just as bad as the fake tree followers….). There are about 400 million Christmas trees growing in North America, creating 500,000 acres of green space. For every tree cut down, one or more is replanted. Plus, you’re supporting local economy with your purchase.

Stella’s first tree shopping adventure. 2013

As a kid, my family would go to a tree farm or my dad would cut one off our property. I continued the tradition with my husband, and we have gotten a tree each year since we’ve been together. Sometimes they come from a fundraiser lot of pre-cut, once it came from National Forest with a U-cut permit, but almost always we cut our own from a christmas tree farm in Sebastopol. We wander around, finding perfectly good trees, but always continue the search in case “a better one is right up there”. Once we either find a perfect one or Matt gets annoyed at my indecision, I cut the tree (after all, I’m not a woodcutters daughter for nothing!) and Matt carries it back to the truck. We have very few traditions, but this is one of them.This year, I was interested in buying a live tree, as I was inspired by this project of collecting the trees after the holidays and planting them in Lake County to restore the land after the Valley wildfire. We went to Harmony, one of the participating nurseries, but I was saddened to find out that for the health of the tree, you can only leave it inside for 10 days. Since I like to have my tree up for the month of December and into January, we decided that our normal U-Cut from a tree farm was the best choice.

Tree hunting, 2012. Apparently, its also an unplanned tradition for me to wear the same NorthFace fleece every year as well….

So that’s what we did this past weekend, and then decorated the tree with a several strands of un-matching lights and the hodgepodge of ornaments! Our collection is made up of store bought baubles, glass antiques, pinecones collected while hiking, corks saved from champagne, and even the first egg we got from our first flock of chickens. I make sure that the bottom tier of ornaments are cat friendly or they are wired on tight, as we will inevitably lose one or more to the fuzzy creatures. Instead of a tree skirt, we put the stand in a big galvanized wash-tub, which is much easier to clean around, and the cats don’t treat it as a bed.

What about you? What are your holiday traditions like? Do you have a tree up this year? What do you like to decorate with? Do you hate fake trees as much as I do?

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“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” – Maya Angelou

 

Two Years Ago We Bought a House

Two years ago, we bought our house. The process of turning it into what we want and need continues, a well as the slow progression of building our garden. First year projects included removing blackberries, building the hen house and run, building the fence on the East side of the property, and taking down shed #1 of 2. In case you missed it, you can see the progression what we accomplished the first year here.

While the first year was all about learning what we had to work with and starting to work outside, year two focused on the house: painting the exterior, updating the kitchen, pulling up the carpet, and rearranging the living room more times than I can count. Here’s the journey of accomplishments from our 2nd year adventure in creating our homestead.

When we bought the house, it was painted a color I could only describe as “1000 Island Dressing” and HATED it with every fiber of my being. I tested several shades of grey before settling on this shade, which is Mercer Charcoal from Sherwin Williams, the trim is Swiss Coffee. The front door is Queen of Hearts. I still have to finish the trim, and there are sections on the back and side that need to still be painted grey, but I don’t see the hideous color anymore when I pull in the driveway, so I’m significantly happier.

The fence on the West side of our property is slowly reaching the finish point, we’ve got about a 1/3 of the way to go. Once that’s done, we’ve still got a back section of the existing East line to rebuild, and then the front sections. So many fucking post holes. Pretty sure that when we finally get done, I’m going to have a Scarlett O’Hera moment…”As god as my witness, I will never dig another post hole AGAIN!”.

The garden is coming along nicely, with all efforts focused on this east side of the property. To date, we’ve brought in 43 yards of compost. We’ve got all the permanent raised beds on that side built, and are finally harvesting good quality produce. The fruit trees are also doing well. Hopefully we can get the beds planned for the other side done this coming year, as well as some more trees and bushes, but first we have to get a tractor back to do some grading to solve our flooding issue.

We removed shed #2, which was the well shed with the broken pipe saga. The well hole is under that plastic container, needing to be re-lined and a new pump. It doesn’t look like getting that fixed is in this years budget, but we are hoping to get all the concrete around it broken up soon.

When we bought the house, we were told their was maybe hardwood under the boring beige carpet. Quickly after moving in, I pulled a corner up in the guest room closet, but only found pressboard. But then, while rearranging the furniture in the living room, I noticed a small slit in a carpet and peeled the corner back, to see the seams of hardwood. Unplanned chaos then commenced as we procedded to rip out all the carpet, revealing mostly hardwood- there are a few sections of pressboard and plywood. Because there is a door or an opening on every wall, and the front door opens into the middle of the room, the room is hard to arrange. I think I’ve finally got the living room set up in the most efficient layout.

And the most expensive project of the year: the kitchen. We replaced the cheap Home Depot stove with a 6-burner Blue Star Range. The standard flipped-house pressboard cabinets got upgraded to custom cabinets, which we saved thousands of dollars on by painting and sealing myself. They are painted Cloud White, by Benjamin Moore, and hardware is from Restoration Hardware. The counters are a brushed granite.  Top cabinets were replace with open shelves, made from boards reclaimed from the shed demo. The tile floor was replaced with the unfinished oak, and then stained. I haven’t sealed it yet, as I’m wanting to to get some scratches and scuffs in it to match the rest of the old flooring. Eventually, probably next year, we will refinish all the flooring and stain and seal to match.

As we enter year 3 of home ownership, we are turning our focus back to the yard. Finishing the fence will be the first thing, and then we hope to have the mess of concrete from the sheds and the patio removed. I’ve got one quote to break and haul, but its WAY out of our budget, so I’m now looking into just having it broken up and I’ll dry-stack it somewhere into a wall. After that happens, we need a swale dug and the yard graded, hopefully solving the drainage issues. That will likely take all our house funds for the year, but hopefully we can squeeze in some rain barrels along the chicken run, and rain tanks from the house. Oh yea, we also need new gutters and a sump-pump installed under the house.

The joys of home-ownership! Make sure to follow along in our third year adventure!