Fresh Cut Christmas Tree

This year I wanted a little more nostalgic Christmas, so my wife and I went to Riehle's Tree Farm (Dousman, WI) and cut our own tree. As a kid we always had a real tree, but I couldn't remember actually going out to a tree farm, so this year we made our own memories. The folks at Riehle's made it easy, with a huge selection and help getting the tree baled and loaded on the van. We went with a Spruce, for the shorter needles and a more "filled out" look. Here's some pictures once we got the tree home.

Still baled and ready to go in the house

I trimmed the branches at the bottom first, to attached part of the base of our tree stand. The stand is kind of neat in that it has a two piece swivel base so that you can attached part of the base to the tree and then just drop it into the floor piece of the base. The swivel allows you to straighten the tree by stepping on a "release" lever. This came in handy as you can see from the second picture.

In the stand, but a little tilted

After a little adjustment it was much better, the tree is straightened and some LED lights are applied.

Straightened, lit and ready to decorate

Now I just have to remember to water it regularly, so far it seems to be needing about a quart of water a day. I'm sure some of that is just evaporation, but so far it's not losing a lot of needles.