Christmas Decorations - show 'em!

[MossRoad]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

When we bought this house about 20+ years ago, there was this nice blue spruce in the front yard, about 20 feet tall. I could decorate it with a step ladder and a stick. As the years went on, it got taller. I bought a longer stick, 19' painter's pole. Then a larger ladder, 16' step ladder. Then I had to cast the last 6' over the top. Then I couldn't reach the top anymore without great difficulty. After injuring myself earlier this year, I decided I don't need to take the chance off falling off a high ladder, and probably wouldn't fair well if I did. So I figured out a way to do it from the ground, no ladders. It's somewhere between 45-50'. Enjoy!

 

[RobS]

Very nice!

 

[AllByteNoBark]

Nice job, but you have to tell us how you did it.

 

[MossRoad]

We put a garland, lights and bows on the fence along the driveway every year. Looks nice when family and friends drive up.

 

[RalphVa]

Here they are:

Ralph

 

[MossRoad]

Nice job, but you have to tell us how you did it.

I bought this Bear 40# bow when I was a kid, and found a fishing line spool back then, too. I used electrical tape to hold it to the bow as there's no way to fasten it to the bow. Then I went fishing down at the river. Shot a big old carp first try! Well, then I had a big old carp with a hole in it. What's the point? So I gave the fish to an old lady that was fishing there and went home. Never used it again. Remembered it last week.

Shot a line over the tree, tied on a clothes line rope, pulled the rope up, then pulled up a string of lights with the rope. Worked great! :thumbsup: Once the lights are up to the top, I tie off the clothes line on the other side. Then, from the ground, I just flip the string of lights with a loop and side-arm motion, the loop runs up the tree and I work my way around. I keep adding lights to the chain until I get it to the ground, keeping track of how many lights are in the chain. This year it's 900, 3 strings of 300. Then I shoot another line over the top and repeat. I did three strings of 900, for 2700 lights total. I managed to space them out pretty well for doing it from the ground. I've had way more lights on it in the past, but decided this was enough this year.

Now, I'll tell you, it's very easy to get them up this way, it's not easy to get them off after the season ends. Especially if there's any wind that works the lights down into the branches. So, I can work about 80% of the lights back off the tree from the ground, but then it comes to a point where they just aren't going to come off. So I give them a hard yank, and it snaps the string of lights off and I discard the last broken string. Sacrificial. There's probably 10 strings of lights in that tree over the past 10 years.

I keep looking for a used man-lift, but the wife gives me "the eye" anytime I mention it. :laughing:

Anyhow, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

 

[MossRoad]

Here they are:

Ralph

Ahh, white lights in a snowstorm. Very nice! :thumbsup:

 

[outinthetalgrass]

Here is my 30’ tree.

 

[MossRoad]

Very nice! :thumbsup:

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Here is a few pics of the lights up on our new cottage

 

[groundcover]

I thought you used a drone Moss !

 

[MossRoad]

Here is a few pics of the lights up on our new cottage

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

I thought you used a drone Moss !

I live too close to an airport. :laughing:

Got some funny looks from the neighbor. Thought I was going for a woodchuck or something.

 

[groundcover]

Be a handy rig to get a line in a tree to pull up a bull rope to persuade the tree to go where you want it to !

 

[AllByteNoBark]

Aha! Good idea. Just don't want to launch it all the way to the neighbors! :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

Took me three shots to get the first one directly over the top of the tree. Kept pulling to the right. Had to account for the drag of the line. So I aimed about a foot and a half to the left of the top and I'll be if the third shot didn't go directly over the top. . I did the first string, shot the 2nd line, did the 2nd string and by then it was dark. But I could see the tree pretty well with the light up on it, so I shot the 3rd line in the dark and nailed it. It's a very heavy fiberglass arrow. I did remove the fish harpoon beforehand. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Aha! Good idea. Just don't want to launch it all the way to the neighbors! :thumbsup:

Yeah, I kept watching for them, their dogs, cars, etc... checked for power lines, all that good stuff. I stood back about 40' from the tree. Even at full draw, the arrow came down only about 15' on the other side of the tree. That line really puts the drag on the arrow, and once the line starts dragging on the tree-top it pretty much stops the arrow. It only penetrated the lawn by about an inch.

 

[Jstpssng]

Not a good picture, but it's all that I have. The lights are left over from decorating a 30 foot fir tree which my father planted on the site of the old family home where many of us started our lives... my grandfather was born there in 1898. When Alzheimer's took my father I vowed that I was going to put lights on his tree... no small feat since there's no power nearby. These are solar powered, and purple is supposed to be the Alzheimer's color.

I'll take pictures of the tree when I'm down next month; I put the lights up using the same tool as MossRoad.

 

[/pine]

This is hardly anything...we are in a remote area on a mountain river and neighbors are special...The neighbor across the river mentioned nobody ever put up any outside lights so I did this for her...found a few string I put on the hand rails of the steps down into the river and a bench...the neighbor sent me the pic...

 

[MossRoad]

Not a good picture, but it's all that I have. The lights are left over from decorating a 30 foot fir tree which my father planted on the site of the old family home where many of us started our lives... my grandfather was born there in 1898. When Alzheimer's took my father I vowed that I was going to put lights on his tree... no small feat since there's no power nearby. These are solar powered, and purple is supposed to be the Alzheimer's color.

I'll take pictures of the tree when I'm down next month; I put the lights up using the same tool as MossRoad.
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Nice story. :thumbsup: Merry Christmas.