Christmas Decorations - show 'em!

MossRoad · Dec 23, 2019

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 · Dec 23, 2019

Very nice!

AllByteNoBark · Dec 23, 2019

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

MossRoad · Dec 23, 2019

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

RalphVa · Dec 23, 2019

Here they are:

Ralph

MossRoad · Dec 23, 2019

AllByteNoBark said:
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!