I fought the tree and the tree won.

I purchased my tree on December 4 and left it outside on my deck. Too early to decorate so outside it needed to stay. That was the first weekend of real snow for this season and the tree ended up under several inches of snow. I decided it was good insulation for the tree, especially when we are having -30 temperatures.

Sunday had been designated as tree day but given my weekend I decided against a full out decorating day and wanted to just get the tree and put the lights on. Later this week when I am hopefully in a more jolly mood again I would/will put the actual decorations on. I brought the tree in and placed it on a tarp in the middle of the living room floor to melt and thaw out. Several hours later I began the task of cutting off the bottom couple of inches to get a fresh cut which would/will hopefully draw water up the tree and keep it from drying out completely. It was a long hard struggle but I finally got the cut made and managed to get the tree stand on. I stood the tree up, turned it so the best side faced out and then tied it to the window frame. In my household we always tie the trees to the wall to prevent them from falling over. Based on experience from the one year I didn't and had the tree and all the ornaments tip over I knew it was wise and safe to tie it to the wall.

I used the same nail as last year and tied it good and tight. Then I strung the lights. I like lights and with a black and silver tree I think lots of lights are important. It glowed quite nicely. I watered the tree and went to bed.

About an hour later I heard 'whumph'. I got up and crept out to the kitchen to find my tree laying half in the living room and half in the kitchen. Apparently the tying to the wall was not enough. One of the screws in the tree stand seems to have been stripped, or rather I guess the hole it pokes out of has been stripped. It didn't sink into the tree the way I would like it to. I assumed if the other two screws were in tight and the tree was tied to the wall it would all be ok. Nope.

I stood the tree up barricaded it up against the fridge and put the chair tightly in front of it then mopped up the water and returned to bed.

Tonight I stopped at Canadian Tire and purchased a new tree stand. It is supposed to be a much better system then my current arrangement and for $39.99 it better be. There are no screws in this set up. It has four pieces that you can push towards the centre and 'clamp' around the tree. It has a much deeper pot that my other stand and I feel very confident in its ability to hold the tree upright--without being tied to the wall. I will give it the night and if it is still standing in the morning I may even decorate it when I get home in the evening...maybe.

The following picture shows almost all of the needles that were lost during the falling over, removal of first tree stand, sawing off of lower branches, and finally pushing tree into new tree stand wars. It is a big pile. Days like this make me question why I don't just buy myself one of those really nice artificial trees. The dead needles all over my kitchen, living room and bedroom (apparently I was covered in needles last night but failed to brush them off before climbing into bed after the fall.




Hopefully I don't wake up during the night to 'whumph' or a crash--I'm tired of sweeping up needles.