Ladies and Gentlemen:
Perhaps this will help you next year.
We usually cruise our woods for a young juniper to serve as a Christmas
tree. This year though the Mrs. won out (she thinks the junipers are too
old-fashioned and the needles scratch her hands) and I found myself wagging
in one of those furrin fir trees from the store in town.
When I got the thing home, I realized that the trunk was 6" in diameter.
How was I ever going to fit that into a stand? I dragged the guest of honor
out to the garage and was puzzling over this problem when a stack of old
wire wheels caught my eye. I grabbed the chainsaw and chopped the tree
trunk down to a smaller diameter. About the size of an MG wheel hub. Then I
selected a 15", 48 spoke wire wheel (painted, not chrome) from an MGA,
jammed the tree trunk into the splined opening and tamped it home by
thumping it on the drive way pavement.
It makes a perfect tree stand and is impossible to turn over. It also fits
nicely over a small drain pan which holds water for the tree. As Martha
Stewart might say, "It's a good thing."
Wishing you wheels on your trees for the holidays,
Regards,
David F. Darby
Missouri Ozarks USA
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