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tapered bottom that helps you to get the tree plumb to the world before you screw in the screws that( theoretically) hold it upright. And the bucket holds a good bit of water, enough to keep the tree fresh for a month.
When you buy a tree from a lot, you’ ve got to cut the cap of dried sap off and trim off the very bottom of the trunk to expose the wood. Then you need to keep it submerged in water. The first couple of days after bringing the tree home and putting it up, it will suck up a gallon of water or more. It hasn’ t had a drink in quite a while, and it might be the last one it ever gets.
Another tree ritual of my youth was the testing of the light bulbs. The bulbs on strings of Christmas lights used to be bigger and they were wired in series, which means if any one light bulb on the string is burned out, none of the lights on the string will light up. This led to a puzzle of figuring out which bulbs were good and which were bad, providing hours of holiday fun.
The things we hang on the tree, the little balls and the various ornaments, the bells, angels, characters, and symbols come out each year and each year the whole collection is subtly changed— new ornaments are added, some are broken or carried off, separated from the tribe.
Each year’ s tree is like a new composition using mainly the same elements, but in a different arrangement, on a different canvas, and usually with some new additions. A box of ornaments is like a family history; here’ s one Mag made in kindergarten: here’ s one with a baby handprint that says“ 1985”; and there, a goofy fishing moose acquired at some office gift exchange.
According to tradition, the Christmas tree should remain up until Epiphany, January 6, also known as
62 Our Brown County • Nov./ Dec. 2015
“ Twelfth Night,” when it is to be burned in a public bonfire with all the other Christmas trees.
We live out at the end of the road, and winter is obnoxious, so I have developed a new tradition of just tossing the thing out in the backyard for the duration. Then, at our annual Saint Patrick’ s Day party, we drag it out to the fire pit out back and set it alight— our annual“ Burning of the Green.”
After a month of being the star of Christmas, and another three of lying out in an Indiana winter, the tree is engulfed in a truly impressive column of flame. For a few minutes, it burns bright as the spirit of Christmas present, casting showers of sparks aloft like the twinkling tree lights. Then it dies down into the bonfire, the glowing embers recalling all the warmth and color of the season.•
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enjoyed by older visitors. Geology programs can sometimes be accompanied with a few snores. Any live animal talk always trumps a slideshow. Bees in the observation hive can attract visitors for hours and the one-way glass window in the nature center bird room is a good place to linger and meet fellow campers. Parks are many things to many people.
In her book, The Art of Memoir, author Mary Karr offers several reasons to undertake a personal account. The main benefit is cathartic. We can better visualize the person we are, what makes us tick, if we actually write down the experience. Small farm advocate Wendell Berry would agree. He states in his theory of“ sense of place,” we can’ t truly know ourselves unless we know, and even write about where we are from. These approaches help us connect with the land, a not-so-lofty concept that needs constant reinforcement from educator, owner, and user. It is the land that will sustain, refresh and teach us. Perhaps arrogantly, I’ d like to think that at the heart of my programs over many years has been this tribute to the land.
“ Once you learn to read the land, I have no fear of what you will do to it, or with it. And I know many pleasant things it will do to you”. Author and conservationist Aldo Leopold’ s words ring loud and true for all of us as land owners, public and private. Read him. I suspect you will become inspired. Love the land— we all will sleep better! See you down the road. •