Christmas tree becomes goat treat

Alas, all of the Christmas decorations have been tucked away (except the village, which can stay all winter.) So even though the naked Christmas tree was still extremely green and vibrant, it was time to feed it to the goats. This is considered a Big Treat!

Sammie loved it the most and immediately went to work!

Of course, first he had to battle it. He totally won.

This also seemed like a good time to give a shout-out to our Christmas tree infrastructure. With real trees there is always the issue of what kind of stand you use and how easy it is to get (and keep) the tree straight and how easy it is to know the water level and keep it topped off. Also, because water is involved, you have to be careful of not ruining the floors.

We lay down an old rug (that ironically was ruined when it got soaked under a un-protected Christmas tree stand!) which defines the space. This is especially important since we don’t really have many presents under the tree these days.

Then we add a WeatherTech brand rubber mat, designed specifically for this purpose. It has a little lip in case of any spillage. Brilliant product expansion for a car floor mat company.

The star of the show is our amazing stand. It is VERY heavy duty and has a cool mechanism that automatically clamps around the tree. Very strong! It also has a water gauge that gives an easy visual if the water level is dropping. Super sturdy for our giant trees.

We use a little extended funnel to do the filling. The first fill is with hot water, which helps melt any sap that has formed at the cut. After that, just regular tap. The tree really sucked it up those first few days, but didn’t take much after that (despite being right next to the always-running pellet stove!)

We cover the base with a cute plaid hard-sides fabric tree skirt ring. Perfect setup achieved! And it only took us 35ish years to figure it out.