Farming Advice: Extend the Life of a Christmas Tree, Beef Chili Recipe and a Painting Primer

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Diagram 1 and 2: Extending the life of socks takes only a few minutes of your time, a pair of scissors, and a sewing machine or needle and thread.
Diagram 1 and 2: Extending the life of socks takes only a few minutes of your time, a pair of scissors, and a sewing machine or needle and thread.
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F.R. Jespersen's automatic coop door opener.
F.R. Jespersen's automatic coop door opener.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS readers share their farming advice, fun tips and country folklore, including how to recycle and extend the life of a Christmas tree, a beef chili recipe for cold winter evenings and a painting primer to help make clean up a breeze.

How to Recycle and Extend the Life of a Christmas Tree

While driving through town on a blustery New Year’s Day, I saw dozens of discarded Christmas trees blowing around like tumbleweeds on the snow. Why not recycle our cut Christmas trees? With a little imagination we can extend their usable life. Here are just a few ways we can reuse them:

As a deluxe bird feeder

After removing decorations, bring the tree outside. Either leave it in the stand or stick the base through the snow and into the ground. Decorate the branches with seed balls, suet, popcorn and cranberry strings, and apple or orange slices. Smear peanut butter on the branches. This can be great fun for the whole family, and the birds will love it.

  • Published on Dec 1, 1997
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