Anyone desperate enough to burn a Christmas tree??

LOL nice. I saw a place that feeds them to goats. I burn mine in the kiln every year. Local place has a massive bon fire with them.

I wonder what the tinsel does to the goat's digestive system. Despite folklore, goats don't really eat tin cans but they have been known to eat the paper labels off them.

Good for the seller! Better than all those trees on the curbside.

I always keep mine for the annual torch up bonfire on Thanksgiving day....man they go up in flames quick.

They used to get lit up on the City streets between cars when I was a kid.

One year (and only one) I salvaged a few Xmas trees for their trunks for following year's firewood. Lots of work stipping the branches, little wood to show for it.

The City collects Xmas trees now, with drop off at firestations. If I were really desperate maybe I'd get the wood from the stands, but not the trees!

Peace,
- Sequoia

I burn my Christmas tree, I just don't do it all at once. I cut it into small pieces with garden snips down to the trunk, then let those pieces dry for a month or so. When dry, I use it for firestarter, little bit at a time. Just did this (the cutting down) last week, and from past experience, I should be good to go early March give or take. Plenty of time to burn it off at that point, even in VA. Sure, a little tedious, but it beats TV (most of the time) IMO.

When I was thinking about a gasification chip boiler I thought that I could advertise as a drop off point for xmas trees and get lots of chip material. But the people over seas don't seem to want to sell their modulating chip boilers over here because of all the various regs and laws we have. Chips are very easy to come by and available anywhere. A modulating 10% to 100% 93% efficiant residental boiler sure would be nice. They run like a pellet stove but with out being tied to fossil fuel price. Well, maybe in a few years...........
leaddog

Archie said:

...it beats TV (most of the time) IMO.

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What doesn't?

Yeah.......sure.... I burn my Christmas tree...... in my outside firepit.

fossil said:

Archie said:

...it beats TV (most of the time) IMO.

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What doesn't?

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Had to think about this for a bit...how about dentist appointments?

I use them to start the burn pile

Well, I dont have a christmas tree. But I was outside a few weeks ago to see my neighbor cutting his up into chunks with a sawzall that were about stove length. I didnt think he had a fireplace so I asked what he was doing. He replied that he was just cutting it up so it would fit in the city composting bin. I told him to just toss the trunk chunks over the fence on onto my wood stack. He did, then bucked up last years tree too which was sitting next to his house for the past year.

So to answer the question. I will next year I guess. its on the top of the stack.

t

I greedily accept them. I usually cut off the bottom foot of tree for the wood pile and use the rest of the tree for fish habitat.

yep crappie cover

Mine sits under the bird feeder until June or July , shelter for the birds and then gets chewed up for mulch.
We used to put bright colored yarn and string on the branches instead of tinsel and have the kids go looking for robins nests made of bright colored yarn and string in the Spring.

velvetfoot said:

They used to get lit up on the City streets between cars when I was a kid.

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Some of my friends growing up in Boston, would pile them up on the trolly tracks and make a huge bonfire. Was pretty funny then, but seems foolish now!

billb3 said:

Mine sits under the bird feeder until June or July , shelter for the birds and then gets chewed up for mulch.
We used to put bright colored yarn and string on the branches instead of tinsel and have the kids go looking for robins nests made of bright colored yarn and string in the Spring.

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When I was using blue tarps to cover my wood I would find blue nests.

I saw a video once, maybe you tube or a training video, lit a tree in a room. The room was hot and black, ready to flash over, in 45 seconds. The number one reason I will NEVER have a natural Christmas tree. Well, maybe number two, after the two houses I've seen destroyed by fire that started at the tree.

We have a Xmas tradition that is burning the tree. We harvest from way up in the national forest with a permit and end up with nice stout noble fir trees. They aren't particularly dry by new years but they will burn, the tradition also includes wrapping paper and cardboard from gifts. All in a 4 foot diamter outdoor fire pit.

From what I hear, if you had one of those illegal burn barrels it works very well to shove the tree into the barrel like a pipe cleaner and then light it up from below. Apparently the barrel acts as a flue pipe to accelerate and concentrate the draft against the burning tree. Makes a lot of noise and a very tall fire for a short time.

jeff_t said:

I saw a video once, maybe you tube or a training video, lit a tree in a room. The room was hot and black, ready to flash over, in 45 seconds. The number one reason I will NEVER have a natural Christmas tree. Well, maybe number two, after the two houses I've seen destroyed by fire that started at the tree.

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They're not as hazardous as you would think . . . providing you keep the tree watered.

Some of the commonly found products in a typical home can also burrn as quickly if not more quickly with a lot more hazardous products of combustion . . . i.e. think of all the plastics, carpeting, etc. found in most homes.

The curbsides here have lots of used christmas trees laying around, and I see that each one has a round of firewood at the bottom. Sure, it would be a hassle to get each one foot long softwood round, but 6 or 8 christmas trees and you could have a nice, albeit short-lived fire. You may have guessed that I am a wood scrounger.

We have made it a tradition to burn last years christmas tree the following year, gotta have a pretty freakin big tree to actually make it worth it.