Stealing Christmas Trees

stealing xmas trees
for the birds

Once you start stealing Christmas trees, you may not want to stop. I’ve got three right now. The best was the dried-up cedar by the curb a block over. My kid hauled it home for me, dragging it behind like a giant peacock tail.

From Dec. 26 through February, hundreds of used Christmas trees get tossed to the curbs at Metro’s 12 tree-cycling locations. Ideally, they all get chipped for mulch—mountains of free mulch—but the truth is, not all tree tossers read the rules. Trees that are stuck in stands, strung with lights, draped with tinsel, or flocked with whatever “flocking” is made of can NOT be recycled. They go to the landfill. So, these are rejects I steal first.   Continue reading “Stealing Christmas Trees”

Chickadee Nest, 3/23/13

moss, cedar bark strips
moss, cedar bark strips

Someone has finally begun to move in to Izzy’s bluebird house.  It stayed vacant all last year.

Izzy made the house in spring, when we chanced upon a program at Warner Park Nature Center. He trailed a group of children headed toward what turned out to be a planned project near the pond. A volunteer had cut cedar pickets into bluebird house panels, photocopied the plans, and even provided rebar and galvanized pipe to make a pole. The kids took turns with too few hammers, and Izzy managed to cobble together a house. The teen who loaned his hammer had quite a cold: at one point the reappearing snot rope stretched to a couple of feet before he snuffed it back in. I worried we were borrowing more than just his hammer. Continue reading “Chickadee Nest, 3/23/13”