EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
While running power and water to a chicken coop that I'm building in my garden, I decided to add a night light out there. One of our dogs had knee replacement surgery, and we are having to take her outside at all hours during the night on a short leash. Having a light should just make this easier for us to see around while she does her business.
I started with a 16 foot treated post set 3 feet in the ground with several sacks of concrete to hold it in place. I ran water to the post with two spickets for watering the gardens. I knew I wanted to use a cedar tree for the light, but finding one the right size and shape proved to be challenging. Eventually I found the perfect tree that matched the picture I had in my brain.
After cutting it with the chain saw, I let it sit for about a month to dry out. Then I fine tuned it with my sawzall and belt sanders, then finished it off with the palm sander.
My first attempt to install it was trying to climb up my 12 foot ladder carrying it. I made it half way before realizing I was going to kill myself if I stuck with that plan. It's probably close to 80 pounds. At least it feels like a sack of concrete!!! My backhoe had the hay forks on it, so I took them off and put the loader bucket back on and used that to lift it and as a platform. Good thing I did that, because it took everything I had standing on a solid platform to get it into position and tighten the lag bolts down!!!!
I anchored it to the post with three ten inch lag bolts. The dragon came from Petsmart. It's for aquariums, so it should hold up fine to the outdoors. At least I hope it will. The light is from Lowes, and I put a LED bulb into it with a dusk to dawn sensor to turn it on and off.
We're getting rain right now, so when it dries out, I'll stain it and seal it, then post more pictures then.
I started with a 16 foot treated post set 3 feet in the ground with several sacks of concrete to hold it in place. I ran water to the post with two spickets for watering the gardens. I knew I wanted to use a cedar tree for the light, but finding one the right size and shape proved to be challenging. Eventually I found the perfect tree that matched the picture I had in my brain.
After cutting it with the chain saw, I let it sit for about a month to dry out. Then I fine tuned it with my sawzall and belt sanders, then finished it off with the palm sander.
My first attempt to install it was trying to climb up my 12 foot ladder carrying it. I made it half way before realizing I was going to kill myself if I stuck with that plan. It's probably close to 80 pounds. At least it feels like a sack of concrete!!! My backhoe had the hay forks on it, so I took them off and put the loader bucket back on and used that to lift it and as a platform. Good thing I did that, because it took everything I had standing on a solid platform to get it into position and tighten the lag bolts down!!!!
I anchored it to the post with three ten inch lag bolts. The dragon came from Petsmart. It's for aquariums, so it should hold up fine to the outdoors. At least I hope it will. The light is from Lowes, and I put a LED bulb into it with a dusk to dawn sensor to turn it on and off.
We're getting rain right now, so when it dries out, I'll stain it and seal it, then post more pictures then.
