Burning Tree 2011

Burning Tree 2011

Years ago we kept our Christmas tree up too long and missed the recycle date and didn't know what to do with a dried out 8' tree the second week of January and so we decided to cut it up and burn it in the fire pit off the lanai. This tree burning has since become something of a family tradition. Now the day after New Years Day we pull down the lights, undress the tree and haul it into the backyard for it's fiery end. This year it was just Luke, Josh and I. Lei was working and Kai was uninterested and others who have participated in the past were unavailable. 

In years past we would cut the branches from the tree and add them to the blaze as it faded. "Torch the whole tree at once!" Luke suggested with enthusiasm. No I told him, we're not going to burn the house down with a Christmas tree. A flurry of but, but, but's was retorted by he but I held my ground and offered a compromise: cut the tree in half and set each half aflame individually. Not pleased, but realizing the whole tree was not going to erupt this year, he and Josh set about cutting it in half.

The top of the tree was flamed first and it burst into a sheet of flame rising some 18 feet in the air! After it rapidly burnt out the boys tossed the bigger bottom half of the tree onto the pure and it exploded into a huge blast of flame going straight up into the night sky some thirty feet high!

Young men and a gushing tower of fire equals joy and awe for those involved and such was the case with Josh and Luke. They both loved it and laughed like baboons! I guess the whole tree might have been a bit much, they admitted when we hosed down the burned trunk and talked about what an incredibly huge and hot flame had occurred. 

Yep, I said. Keep that in mind the next time you think about setting something afire, all's it takes is just a little bit too much to ruin your life.

Happy New Year 2012!

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