I put the base on the tree for the Christmas Parrot and my ex and my son fought with it until we wrestled into his room. Below you can see the semi finished product.
My ex will wrap some rope around the trunk so the Parrot can climb it, we have already drilled holes in it so we can hid goodies for the bird to dig out…we hope this will make her want to hang close to her tree. We have ordered natural light lights for the lamp, apparently birds need sunlight just like the rest of us. Heck I'm almost as excited to get this bird as he is…
First you need to drive around and find a pine tree that has died. That’s not too hard in the desert because they really won't live here without someone watering them fairly regularily and that takes commitment. We all know how our society is about commitment...sorry, another topic for another time.
Anyway find the dead tree that will work for you. The one I chose turned out to be almost 10 feet high after I cut the roots off of it...a little much for my son's room so we started with the trimming.
After I got the roots cut off of the bottom (I guess I really didn't have to add bottom since that's where all roots grow on trees...oh well) I drilled two holes in the 2'x2' piece of plywood I purchased at Lowe's for $9.00...it pays to line them up with where you want the holes in the trunk of the tree too.
Once I had holes drilled in the base (the 2x2 piece of plywood), I drilled corresponding holes in the trunk of the tree and put 6" Lag bolts in to hold the base onto the trunk of the tree. I did countersink the holes so the base was sitting flat on the floor instead of cutting big gaping wounds in my hardwood floor.
Once Lag bolted to the bottom, I took 8x11 pieces of felt (6 of them) and a can of spray adhesive and fixed the felt to the bottom of the base (now it just slides across that wood floor like it was made for it) and trimmed the edges. Let it dry before you sit it on your hardwood floors...;-)
When it was dry, it took me, my ex-wife and my son to get it into his room...it really isn't heavy. I was a little surprised to find out that even though you cut it down to 7 feet tall, if its 9 feet wide it still won't fit through most standard doors. I know, some of you will say that it depends on how the limbs extend from the trunk, well all I can say to that is that if you'll let me know who you are I'll make sure your handy when we move. We had to cut and play twister at the same time. Put the top three limbs in and rotate the tree 45 degrees and put another limb in, move the base to the left and rotate another 45 degrees, back up, rotate it back 15 degrees and move the base back to the right. Move forward 4 inches in 15 minutes and start the process over. Remember the damn thing is 7 feet tall...let’s see 7x12=84 inches...84/4=21 four inch movements...21x15=315 minutes and that equals 5.25 hours. Oh HELL NO, you don't really think I'm that stupid do you? I've got a saw...remember what it looks like...
prp
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