There has been activity every evening and weekend since the day after Halloween. A lot of the lights are up, with the goal of having all lights strung this weekend. The boom lift from Riggsby Construction of Lake In The Hills is coming Saturday so I can do the roof and help the neighbors (that again for your support!). Also, thanks to Tony from Tony The Light Guy for lending a hand. But even though lights are going up, there is still a long list of things to attend to:
- Rebuild mini-tree
- Run the miles of extension cords
- Build new controller
- Plug existing controllers
- Re-address controllers
- Get more extension cords
- Sequence more songs (8 are done)
- Stage the 'Tune-To' sign

And only 14 more days to get it all done, not to mention going to my day job and attending to family matters. Mrs. Elf and the 'lil elf need attention to!

The lights are slowly going up. The porch gutter lights are now up (3 different colors; some needed major repairs so they were replaced), and a few minor breaks repaired on other strands. Bushes are done. Garage door and front window/door are done. Pillars are coming along. Putting up the lights is the easy part. The hard part is getting the controllers ready and sorting out the few miles of extension cords. And as always, there will probably be numerous trips to the hardware stores for small incidentals.

Starting the Countdown beginning November 1st. Lights go on Thanksgiving evening around 7:00pm.

My old hooks used to fasten the numerous lights to the top of the Mega Tree were not quite up to the task of all the weight, so some strengthening was needed. It is fairly easy.
First, make a template so you can properly space the holes needed for the hooks for each tree facet:

Next, mark the PVC cap:

Drill holes and bolt in the heavy duty hooks: