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Originally posted by American Forests
WASHINGTON – Today, American Forests announced a first-of-its-kind $20 million keystone agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service to help the agency organize and rapidly scale climate-adapted reforestation across millions of burned and degraded acres over the next five years.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2023 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced ways the Biden-Harris Administration is fulfilling long-standing Tribal requests for USDA to support and better partner with Tribal Nations in empowering Tribal food sovereignty and co-stewardship of federal lands and waters.
If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for December 6, 2023 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is slightly tricky; I got it in 3, but mainly out of luck. Beware, there are spoilers below for December 6, Wordle #900! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.
Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.
Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)
Ready for the hints? Let’s go!
We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)
Three of the letters are common. Of the other two, both are middlingly common but one lives near the end of the alphabet.
It’s feminine. If you would like a musical hint, Raquel Welch and Miss Piggy will literally spell it out for you here.
Nope! No doubles today.
There are two (different) vowels in today’s word.
Today’s word starts with W.
Today’s word ends with N.
Ready? Today’s word is WOMAN.
I got a yellow A on ARISE and a green O on TOUCH. After briefly considering OA (couldn’t think of anything good that I could make with available letters) I wondered what might fit into O_A_. All those grays in the first two guesses mean I didn’t have much to work with, but M and N were available, and I realized WOMAN would fit. Luck would have it, that was the answer.
Wordle 900 3/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word.
Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word:
Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)
Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)
Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)
With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.
What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:
CRANE
TRACE
SLANT
CRATE
CARTE
Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:
SALET
REAST
TRACE
CRATE
SLATE
Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.
We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.
The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.
One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.
If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:
Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.
Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.
Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.
Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.
Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.
There is a devilish trick in today’s puzzle, so buckle up. If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Wednesday, December 6, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for December 6, NYT Connections #178! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.
Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
You’ll want to know your horoscopes for this one. Some musical background wouldn’t hurt, either. And if you are aware of the fact that TAU is a greek letter, you can go ahead and forget that information today. It won’t help you.
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
Yellow category – You might play these on a piano.
Green category – You might see these in the stars.
Blue category – You might buy these for your turntable.
Purple category – The only way you’re going to solve this category is by referring to one of the previous categories.
Oh my, yes. There’s some category-spanning monkey business going on here today. You’ll need to know alternate names for the same category, and get a bit creative to even find them.
Ready to hear the answers? Keep scrolling if you want a little more help.
We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)
TAU is a greek letter, and a protein that builds up in the brain in Alzheimer’s. Neither of those meanings (or any other meaning) are important today. Just consider it as a syllable on its own.
The VIRGIN and the BULL are both symbols you might see in horoscopes, but they are in different categories from each other today.
You can play SCALES and NOTEs on a piano, but those are in different categories today. Only one refers to music.
CAPITOL and COLUMBIA can both be cities, but they are also both record labels.
All of the three-letter words go together today. That’s more of a hint than I usually give you, but you’re probably going to need it.
Yellow: FOUND ON SHEET MUSIC
Green: ZODIAC SYMBOLS
Blue: RECORD LABELS
Purple: ZODIAC SIGN BEGINNINGS
Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.
The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is FOUND ON SHEET MUSIC and the words are: CLEF, NOTE, REST, STAFF.
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is ZODIAC SYMBOLS and the words are: BULL, CRAB, SCALES, TWINS.
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is RECORD LABELS and the words are: CAPITOL, COLUMBIA, VIRGIN, ISLAND.
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is ZODIAC SIGN BEGINNINGS and the words are: CAN, GEM, LIB, TAU.
NOTE, STAFF, REST, and CLEF are all found on sheet music. (I briefly consider SCALES, but that’s not notation.) 🟨
I’m stumped here. What is TAU besides the greek letter, or the amyloid protein? After seeing several zodiac signs–SCALES, TWINS, CRAB, VIRGIN, BULL–I have the idle thought that GEM is the first syllable of GEMINI. Wait a minute–
CAN, GEM, TAU, LIB are the first syllables of Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, and Libra! 🟪 Which are, in turn, the CRAB, TWINS, BULL, and SCALES. (VIRGIN can sit this one out.) 🟩
Finally we’re left with CAPITOL, COLUMBIA, VIRGIN, and ISLAND, which are record labels. 🟦
Connections Puzzle #178 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦
I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:
First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Crossword app. You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).
Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.
You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.
The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.
If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.
Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!
When Beeper first released its iMessage-on-Android solution back in August, I was quite skeptical. While the dream of being able to turn those dreaded green bubbles blue was more than appealing, the way Beeper and other companies were doing it just wasn’t secure enough.
The main issue had to do with how these messages were relayed from Android to iPhone. In order for your messages to appear as iMessages on your friends’ iOS devices, you needed to sign into your Apple ID on a Mac mini in Beeper’s server farm. While Beeper didn’t have access to your messages, it would only take one bad hack for your Apple ID token to be stolen, exposing your Apple account to whoever wanted to steal it.
The company Nothing tried to do something similar last month, teaming up with Sunbird to offer iMessage on Android via its Nothing Chats app. Same process, same security concerns. In fact, Nothing Chats was almost immediately pulled from the Play Store, as researchers discovered the app was storing credentials in plain text. Hackers could literally read your messages alongside code should they gain access to the servers. So much for end-to-end encryption.
With all this drama afoot, the promise of sending iMessages from Android devices seemed misleading. So when Beeper announced it had a new approach to the issue, one that eliminated all previous security concerns, I had my doubts. I still have my doubts, but I have to say: this looks promising.
On Tuesday, Beeper announced “Beeper Mini,” its new approach to sending and receiving iMessages on Android devices. However, unlike the original Beeper app, Beeper Mini doesn’t rely on a Mac relay to pass iMessages through Apple servers. Instead, the app connects and sends messages to Apple’s servers directly, mimicking the same interaction an iPhone has with Apple to power iMessage.
This is quite the feat. Beeper purchased the findings of a researcher who goes by jjtech, who reverse engineered how Apple’s iMessage protocol works, and partnered with them to create Mini. With it, Beeper Mini is able to take a message you send from your Android, push it to Apple, then forward the message along to its destination. It works because Apple “thinks” your Android is an iPhone. Using a valid Apple serial number, Beeper registers your phone number with Apple’s servers, so the iMessage protocol sees you as a “blue bubble.” From then on, Apple sees you as part of its own and will happily take your encrypted messages and relay them wherever they need to go.
Encryption isn’t affected here, either: Your private keys (the tech needed to encrypt and decrypt your messages) stay on your device, and are never transferred to either Beeper or Apple. When you hit “Send,” Beeper Mini encrypts your message. It won’t be decrypted until it reaches it proper recipient, just as true iMessage does between iPhones.
Beeper is proud of this achievement, and invites scrutiny from security researchers. To that point, they encourage anyone to try out the tech for themselves: You can try an open-source Python proof-of-concept on your computer that does exactly what Beeper Mini does. You can see this in action in Snazzy Lab’s walkthrough of the service. It’s kind of wild to see that anyone can essentially run iMessage in Python, when Apple has kept the tech within their walled garden since its inception.
Once you’re up and running, you’ll find that many iMessage features work as they should. Of course, you can send and receive messages, edit and unsend messages, join group chats without issue, and send high-res media to other iPhones. Certain specific features, like location sharing, FaceTime integration, and iMessage effects and games aren’t available, but I imagine most people using this app won’t care. They’ll just be happy to not “wreck the group chat.”
I have to hand it to Beeper: This is promising. Neither Beeper nor Apple have access to your messages, all encryption happens on-device, and you don’t need to sign into a strange Mac in a faraway server farm. That’s a huge upgrade.
There are some quirks to the service that are worth keeping an eye on, however. Because Android doesn’t have support for Apple Push Notification (APN) service, Beeper Mini technically cannot notify you of new messages without you actively using it. To get around this, Beeper created what it calls Beeper Push Notification (BPN), which talks to Apple’s servers on your behalf to see if you have new messages. While this starts to ring some alarm bells, according to Beeper, BPN is a safe service: Apple allows Beeper to look for new messages without needing to have the encryption keys necessary to read them.
That means all BPNs can do is see if you have new messages to decrypt. It cannot read them. If it detects new messages, it disconnects from APN and alerts the Beeper Mini app. Now that the app is awake, it can pull new messages as if you had opened it yourself, and presto—Android sends you a push notification for new iMessages. Beeper knows this feature might raise eyebrows with some security sensitive folk, so they offer the option to disable it, so long as you’re okay opening Beeper Mini manually every time you want to check for new messages.
Another quirk comes if you want to send and receive messages on an Apple device like iPad or Mac. Your phone number is only required if you’re sticking to phones, but in order to rope Apple’s other devices in on the fun, you’ll need to log into your Apple ID. This is a bit tricky, since I love how Beeper Mini doesn’t require any Apple ID sign in in order to function initially. However, it is the only way to connect your Beeper Mini phone number to an iPad and/or Mac, so if you want to bridge all devices together, you’ll need to connect your Apple ID. I’m not sure I’d recommend it, though.
In general, I’m still a bit wary of connecting a service like iMessage through a third-party. Not that Apple is perfect by any means, but they do run a tight ship. As you mess with the boundaries of that situation, you risk running into security trouble. However, from the outset, Beeper’s new app is a lot more secure than before. Beeper made its tech open source, so security researchers can tear it apart looking for vulnerabilities.
As for me, I may wait for their initial findings before jumping into this service myself. But I’m impressed. This is, for lack of a better word, really cool.
Plus, there’s the argument that Beeper Mini makes it more secure to text between iPhone and Android. SMS is a wildly insecure messaging protocol, and Beeper Mini offers you end-to-end encryption. They have a lot going for them right now.
Beeper Mini also faces some potential challenges: Apple will not like it, as it relies on reverse-engineered iMessage code. (Props to you, jjtech.) Whether they will do anything about it remains to be seen. Apple does have plans to make texting between iPhone and Android devices much smoother, too: RCS support is coming late next year, which puts Beeper Mini in a weird place. Sure, it’s great to have an iMessage solution on Android in 2023, but what happens when “green bubbles” aren’t so bad in 2024? If people can essentially have an iMessage-quality experience texting between phones, no matter what phone you have, will people still want to pay to turn their bubbles blue?
The green bubble stigma is bad enough in the US today where that answer may be yes. But as it becomes far less obstructive to be an Android user in an iPhone group chat, that stigma may fade away, and with it, the need for something like Beeper Mini.
But, as it stands, Apple doesn’t support RCS yet. So, right now, this might be your best bet for secure, convenient messaging between your Android device and your iPhone friends.
Beeper Mini costs $1.99 per month, following a 7-day free trial. You can download it from the Play Store today.
If you were otherwise unaware, we’re big fans of cheeseballs here. They’re delicious, impressive, shareable, and just the right kind of crazy. I understand if you’ve only rolled up savory cheeseballs up until now, but whipping up a dessert cheeseball is the snack you need for upcoming festive gatherings. I’ll tell you right now, there’s a cannoli cheeseball recipe at the end of this, and it is resplendent.
Although I think the cannoli flavors of ricotta cheese, cinnamon, mini chocolate chips, and pistachios make for a flawless dessert (especially served with these cannoli crackers), you can make a dessert cheeseball with any sweet flavor combinations you like. Part of the beauty of cheeseballs is the versatility and ease of making them. They make a great party snack contribution with usually five to seven ingredients that you can bend to fit your budget. Use simple ingredients, or cheaper brands to make it more affordable, or go wild with artisanal chocolate and gold leaf if you want to. Try a peanut butter cheeseball covered in chocolate chips or Reese’s Pieces. Maybe the Nutella variety rolled in crushed hazelnuts is more your speed, or make it fruity and use your favorite jam for flavor.
Once you’ve decided on your cheeseball recipe, mix up the ingredients. I usually start with room temperature ingredients because they incorporate easier. Many recipes don’t specify, so it’s really up to how much elbow grease you want to put in. The benefit of working with cold ingredients is that the fats stay firm, so you can usually shape it into a ball right away and roll it in the outer garnish posthaste. If you decide to use room temperature ingredients and your mixture seems a little loose, mound it into the center of a sheet of plastic wrap, gather the corners and shape it into a ball with the help of the wrap. Cool it in the fridge for a couple hours until it’s firm, and then unwrap it to cover in the garnishing ingredients. I used a spoon to help press the pistachios and chocolate chips up onto the sides, and this helped me a great deal with shaping.
This cannoli cheeseball includes ricotta cheese which makes the mixture delightfully soft and spreadable, but it can add excess water. Before you add the ricotta, scoop it onto a couple pieces of paper towels and press it “dry.” After mixing all of the cheeseball ingredients, let it firm up in the fridge for a couple hours before you roll it in the chocolate chips and pistachios. Serve with cannoli crackers, plain tea biscuits, Nilla wafers, or any sturdy cookies.
¼ cup ricotta (drained with paper towels)
½ brick cream cheese (4 ounces)
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
Zest of ½ an orange
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon pistachios, chopped (optional extra for garnish)
Mini chocolate chips to garnish (about a ⅓ cup)
Mix drained ricotta, cream cheese, and sugar together until smooth. Stir in the melted butter quickly, so it doesn’t get chunky. Mix in the orange zest, cinnamon, and one tablespoon of chopped pistachios.
Pour the chocolate chips and extra pistachios into a bowl wide enough to hold the cheeseball. Shape the mixture into a ball and roll it in the garnish, using a spoon to help press chips on the sides. If the mixture feels too loose, let the mixture firm up in the fridge first, or place the mixture into a piece of plastic wrap and gather the corners to help shape it into a ball. Let this chill in the fridge to set up for a couple hours. Take off the wrap and roll it in the chocolate pistachio mixture. Serve with cannoli crackers, cookies, biscuits, or just eat it by the spoonful (tested and approved).
Some folks can’t have salt, and salt-free chips are good for them. I am not this person. Salt-free chips make me upset. The time I accidentally purchased a “party size” bag of unsalted tortilla chips had me utterly distraught. (The bags look nearly identical. I don’t blame myself.) This unfortunate event has happened to me, friends, and family at least once in the recent past. Whether you’ve made the same mistake, or your chips just need a salty boost, there’s an easy fix: salt water spray.
Chips are great because they’re crunchy and salty. The potato, taro, or corn flavor of the once-pure vegetable is a polite undertone, but it’s boosted by the salt. Unsalted chips are the closest I come to throwing out good food. That is, until I thought of this easy fix.
Obviously you can’t just toss chips with table salt. The granules will just bounce off of the chips and settle to the bottom of the bowl or bag. Instead, we’re going to use the power of evaporation to help us evenly salt our chips. Table salt is primarily sodium chloride, and this chemical compound readily dissolves in water. When the water molecules evaporate, the sodium and chloride ions get together again and salt crystals are left behind on the surface. (There’s an enjoyable video here if you’re into watching molecules float away.) That surface will be chips in this case.
Dissolve salt into warm water—you can do this quickly in the microwave. Add about a tablespoon of salt to a half-cup of water in a measuring cup. Microwave it for 30 seconds, just to warm it up. Stir the solution until all of the salt crystals have completely dissolved. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Pour the salt water into a spray bottle. I used a Misto sprayer, which is marketed for spraying oil, but any liquid can be sprayed out of these bottles.
Lay the offending chips on a sheet pan. Spread them out in a single layer so they’re not overlapping too much. Spray the chips generously with the salt water, but no so much that it puddles up on the pan. I only sprayed one side, but you can flip the chips to do both sides. Alternatively, if you don’t have a spray bottle, you can quickly dip each chip into the salt water and lay it on the sheet pan. It takes more time, but it works. Bake the chips for five to 10 minutes to evaporate the water. You’ll see little white blotches turn up on the pan’s surface, and you might even be able to see the crystalline salt residue on the chips. The chips cool in no time, so you can start snacking right away.
Not only can you season the chips to save them from the garbage, but you can actually adjust the salt level to your personal preference. One tablespoon of salt to a half-cup of water produced a lightly salted chip, I would call this my minimum salt preference. The next time I do this (because I have half a bag of unsalted chips left), I’ll probably use two tablespoons of salt for my salt solution. If you’re the type that thinks a regular Lay’s potato chip isn’t salty, maybe use three tablespoons for your spray.
Yes, the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro were just released this October, but that’s not stopping them from joining in on the holiday deals. The unlocked 256GB Pixel 8 just hit a new low price at Best Buy, currently at $531 (originally $759), which is lower than it was during Black Friday, according to Honey’s price history. This current deal puts it even cheaper than the 128GB version at the moment, making the 256GB version a no-brainer. Meanwhile, the 128GB unlocked Google Pixel 8 Pro is back down to its Black Friday price at $799 (originally $999), according to Camelcamelcamel’s price history.
If you can’t decide between the two phones, our guide that breaks down the main differences will help you decide. Ultimately, it comes down to your budget and whether you must have the best camera and latest features. The current deal at Best Buy may make it a little easier to choose the Pixel 8 over the Pro, given it has twice the internal memory.
You will still get the newest Google-made chip, Android 14, and 7 years of guaranteed software support (meaning you’ll be getting updates until 2030). You’ll also get the same new AI features, like the “Audio Magic Eraser,” which gets rid of distracting sounds in videos you shoot, and the “Best Take,” which lets you pick the best face from a series of photos. (No more ruined pictures because you blinked.) Like the Pro, the Pixel 8 is also IP68-rated, meaning it is water and dust-resistant. You will also be able to use Google’s new Titan M2 security chip, which supports face unlock and in-display fingerprint unlock.
Unless the camera quality is a big deal to you, the Pixel 8 will likely be the best choice for most people.
If you celebrate Christmas, you probably put up some kind of Christmas tree to mark the occasion (and to place presents under). While artificial trees do a satisfactory job of generating the necessary cheer and holiday spirit, a live tree will always feel just a bit extra. It’s the smell, the glorious randomness of its shape (as opposed to the machined perfection of a fake tree), and the family ritual of picking out a tree and wrangling it home.
A live tree is just that, though—something from nature. And when you bring something from nature into your house, there’s potential for chaos. If you’re planning to have a live tree this holiday season, there are a few things you should do the moment you bring it home in order to make it last as long as possible and to ensure you have the best possible experience.
Trees grow out in the wild, and despite the best efforts of the tree farmers overseeing the process there is a very good chance that your gorgeous live tree is jam-packed with insects. Like, thousands of microscopic little critters. From aphids to spiders, from beetles to praying mantises (!), the tree you just drove home from the lot might be a vector for a bug invasion.
That means your first step before you bring that tree into your home is to inspect it for bugs. Using a flashlight if necessary, visually inspect the tree, looking at the trunk, branches, and needles. If you see anything creeping about in there or any suspiciously egg-like deposits on the branches or needles, start by giving your tree and good shake to knock them loose. Then you can actually use a vacuum on the branches and needles to collect them and dispose of them—just do it outside.
The time to shape your tree is when it’s still outside. If you lug it into your home and then decide it’s not the perfect shape—or discover there are low branches that prevent it from fitting into the stand—you’ll have a much messier time of it. Cut off the netting or string and let the tree open up, then go ahead and trim off any bumps in the shape until you’re satisfied. If you’re not going to install the tree immediately, find a cool, sheltered place to store it, like a garage. You should place it in the stand and water it while it waits.
If you’re putting it up right away, you probably need to give the trunk a fresh cut. Unless the lot cut the trunk for you when you bought it, you should assume the tree has lost its ability to soak up water and will need a fresh cut. Trim about half an inch off the bottom—and remember, the tree must be in water within an hour after the cut or it will seal up again.
An anti-desiccant spray like Wilt-Pruf can help keep your tree fresher longer. These sprays are derived from tree oils, and simply coat the needles to prevent water loss, slowing down the drying-out process that transforms your lovely holiday tree into a fire hazard. If possible, apply the spray before you bring the tree inside so it’s easier to clean up afterward.
You probably know where your tree is going to stand in the house, but even so, you should prepare the room for it. Your tree won’t do well in a warm, dry room, or if it’s too close to a heat source like a furnace vent or radiator (keep it at least three feet away from those if possible). If possible, make sure the room is cool—somewhere in the high 60s or low 70s.
Set up your stand and make sure it can hold enough water to keep your tree hydrated. Your tree can soak up about three quarts of water a day, but it might drink a lot more when first put in the stand—this is actually a sign that you have a healthy, fresh tree.
Finally, once the tree is in place, don’t decorate immediately. Let the tree hydrate and rest for 24 hours. This will allow the tree to hydrate and let its branches completely settle while it acclimates to the indoor temperature and humidity.
A live tree during the holiday season makes any home feel cozy and really emphasizes the sense of celebration this time of year inspires. Do these five things right away when you bring it home and you’ll have the best possible tree experience.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched an online application for Direct Loan customers. More than 26,000 customers who submit a Direct Loan application each year can now use an online, interactive, guided application that is paperless and provides helpful features including an electronic signature option, the ability to attach supporting documents such as tax returns, complete a balance sheet and build a farm operating plan.
