Recycling memories: North Strabane woman repurposes old Christmas tree
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Carol Altman stands with the finished product, a great horned owl carved out of a 50-year-old Christmas tree.
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Joe King carves a great horned owl from a former Christmas tree at the home of Carol Altman.
Carol Altman has always had a reminder of Christmases past with the pine trees on her property.
Altman said there are about 65 pine trees on her two acres of land at Smith Place in North Strabane Township, many of them former Christmas trees.
“We always would dig our trees instead of cut them,” Altman said.
One tree in particular, a white pine, had been there for about 50 years.
“It was a healthy tree I’d had this many years. I liked it because it had such long needles, and I liked it for decorating at Christmastime. I could make all kinds of arrangements with it,” Altman said.
However, this past winter’s ice storms took a toll on the tree, taking out all of the branches on the right side.
“I was devastated,” Altman said.
She did not want to lose the tree completely, so she began researching local tree carvers. That’s how she found Joe King, of Champion.
King has been carving trees for 33 years, and can be found at his website, treecarver.com.
“I have worked in over 25 states and seven other countries. Many years at the beginning I did arts and crafts festivals as a demonstrating artist, and county fairs and things like that,” King said.
For the past several years, King has mostly been doing on-site commissions for clients such as Altman.
“Cut the tree down, leave the stump. I come and carve it,” King said.
King worked with Altman to figure out what the stump would become, and on Wednesday, he transformed it into a great horned owl.
“We always got a tree that we would dig. Because then I can say, ‘Gee, I remember when this was what tree, and all over the property. So now I’m recycling it. It’s not dying completely,” Altman said.