Day Shot of GT

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Originally uploaded by danilope28.

Here is an early morning shot of the GT. You can't really tell how big this thing is until you see at night!

GT (Gi-Normous Tree) Top

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Originally uploaded by danilope28.

The top is a plumbing flange that is connected to all the coated wire. The lights are then attached to the coated wire.

Success!

I haven't been blogging for the last couple of days because I have been spending ALL my time getting the Gi-Normous Tree up and ready. I am please to say that I have achieved Stage 1, Phase 1 success. The tree is so large that I can see it all the way down the street - way down the street and it doesn't even have the star on top yet. All my neighbors came out last night and were commenting how nice it looked. One of the girls on the soccer team that I coach lives down the street and she called light night telling us that she could see the tree from her house.

Details:
The pole is up and reinforced. The lights are installed and tethered from the top.I had to reinforce the 10' sections of 1" conduit with a 10' section of 2" PVC schedule 40. I did this because at the union of the two sections it did not look stable enough for my liking. I slid the PVC over the pole and duck tapped it in place. Worked like a charm.

I also went ahead and bought dog stakes for the ground. My front yard is pretty much sand under our landscaping so I needed something that would hold. The cork-screw action of the stakes worked perfectly.

I took some early morning pictures (because I am a dork and forgot to take some night time shots) and posted them.

I am also working on our christmas arches that will be over the driveway.

Cheers!

-daniel

Test/Dry Fit Gi-Normous Tree

Before soccer practice yesterday, I put together the two sections of 10' conduit with a conduit sleave. I think erected the pole and placed it in the base that I had setup for the tree. Man, this thing is going to be huge!

I still need to get the wire connectors and attach the LEDs to the wires. I am off on Thursday and Friday so I hope to get a lot of this work completed. I will try to post pictures over the weekend of my progress.

Gi-normous Tree Update

The concrete has cured and it looks pretty sturdy. I went to lowes today and purchased 100' of coated 3/32" wire. The wire will be tethered from the top of the of the pole to stakes in the ground. The led lights will be attacked to the wire.

I really need to start taking more pictures of my progress.

Ping Pong

Ever felt like a ping-pong ball being played over the net of life? That is kinda what I feel like today.

Gi-normous Tree Phase I Completed

The hole is dug, the concrete has been poured and the base pole has been set. I went over to home depot and purchsed the following:
(1) 80 lbs. bag of quickcrete
(1) 1 5/8" X 8' base pole
(1) 8" X 48" concrete quick tube
(2) 1" X 10' rigid conduit
(2) 1" conduit joining couplings

So far so good. I will wait for the concrete to cure and then cut the base pole down to size and install the conduit poles.

Halloween Prop for Next Year!

I just found these at Gemmy.com. They are 7 foot hight gargoyle inflatibles. Pretty cool!

Hey CC how about we use a couple of these to adorn the walkway to the masoleum!

Lights on here!

Last night while we were eating dinner, a mysterious ring at my door bell did come. I opened the door and lo and behold - a box from Animated Lighting was beckoning me. I quickly grabbed the box and opened it up and what did await me, well twelve 23 foot LED light strings were twinkling right before me.

My wife asked, "What is this? What did you order now?" (I neglected to tell her about the $136 purchase I made for the lights. She is an accountant and gets a little stressed about all things pertaining to money!)

So quickly ripped open one of the packages and plugged a light set in. They are really bright. I was a little worried that they would not be bright enough, but they are very nice.

I am going to use 8 sets of the lights to adorn my gi-normous christmas tree!

Gi-normous Christmas Tree Update

My beautiful and extremely talented accountant wife helped me figure out the radius and lengths for the light strings that are going to hang down from the top of the pole. We are looking at a radius of 5' with an exposed pole height of 18'. The actual pole length is 20'3", but I am going to have 2'3" in the ground.

So after I get the air conditioner all closed up for winter, I will head over to Lowes and purchase the materials.

Not Carpel Tunnel Syndrome - Worse?

Went back to the doctor's today for a check up on my right hand. It still has been hurting but it is now isolated to just the thumb area. The last time I was there they had me do some blood work and he gave me the results. He said that I may have rheumatoid arthritis. This sucks...

Gigantic Christmas Tree Part Deux

I went over to Home Depot and spied around for some building materials. I think I am going to go with 1" conduit that comes in 10'lengths. I will have to connect the pipe together with a coupling to get a least 20' in height. I will also have to install a 1 1/2" X 24" pipe in the ground with concrete as a base. I will slide the 1" pipe into the base and this should keep it upright and steady. I am also going to buy this green wrapped wire and hook it to the top of the pole. I think this is going to look pretty cool...

Gigantic Christmas Tree Pole

I have this idea to create a giant christmas tree pole that would tower over our home. I figure I could set up a flag pole in our yard and then attach metal hooks to the top. The LED light strings would then drape down from the top and be anchored to the ground.

Here is my idea:

Christmas 2005 - Let the Madness Begin

So I have been racking my brain trying to come up with a plan for my christmas yard decorations. I found the site PlanetChristmas.com and they have a bunch of cool ideas and links to vendors.

I bought a few LED light sets last year, and I was intrigued by the miniscule amount of electricity that they draw. I decided to go ahead and try to incorporate more LED into my displays, therefore I purchased 12 units of C6 LED multi-color lights from AnimatedLighting.com yesterday. The lights are 70 count and span 23 feet each. I should receive them in a week and I plan on using them to construct my monster christmas tree.

Today, I ordered a Santa Inflatable from Wal-Mart.com. It will fit perfectly on the flat roof above my garage.

I am also looking at designing several wire frames to make stars and possibly and igloo. I would also like to incorporate some penguins and polar bears, but I do not know how much time I will have to complete all these tasks.

One idea I have is to create an army of toy soldiers (6 or so) to line my driveway. I made several chrismas cutouts out of plywood a couple of years ago and they work great. I will probably use this technique to create the toy soldiers.

The Joys of carpel Tunnel

Having a damaged carpal tunnel is not very fun!

About two weeks ago, while helping my buddy CC with his Halloween decorations, I felt a twinge in my right hand. At first, I paid no attention. But after a while, my hand began to cramp up and I lost the ability to use my pointing finger and thumb - plus the pain was tremendous.

I went home that night and woke up with the pain getting worse. I called my doctor and he told me that I need to be check out. So I went to a neurosurgeon. He hooked me up to this machine and basically shocked the crap out of my arm for about 30 minutes. Everytime he pushed the button my whole body would jump! After my electro-shock therapy, he tells me that I have damage to my carpal tunnel and prescribes me prednisone. Prednisone is a steroid used to reduce inflammation. The bad side of pred is that it makes you moody and hungry. I have been taking the pred for the past two weeks and I have been eating non-stop. I think I have gained at least 5-10 pounds. Thank God yesterday was my last day and I am not going to take this stuff every again. Pain be dammed!