Dec 4, 2004  And with the Lightup over...the countdown to Christmas begins.

Nov 28, 2004 The final preparations and countdown.....a crowd gathers

Nov 28, 2004 Kyle and Kyle setting up the road cones, and Elissa working on the very last light string.

Nov 25, 2004 Mom doing the last of the lights

            Nov 26, 2004 Signage all ready >

Nov 18, 2004 Coming along...

Nov 16, 2004 Going strong for 3 days now...

Ken finishing up his first arch, and the first injury.  The sacrifices we make...

Below:  Steph working on the large tree, Kyle with the first arch, and dad painting away.

Nov 14, 2004 Finally the assembly has begun.  Day 1 saw the fence, arch frames, and the large tree mast up.  It was a long wet day.

Nov 4, 2004 We've got the 5 foot stars totally complete now (Best use of election signs I've ever seen), as well as the treetop.  I've bought the greenery for the 2 new arches as well as the easels for the small trees.  All  that's left to buy is about 7,000 more lights, and all that's left to build is 11 more small trees.

Nov 2, 2004 We picked up another 5,400 lights over the weekend, and are past the halfway point on the small trees.  Dad has finished all the painting, so there's really not too much left to do except for the assembly.  We're going to start that Nov 14th.  I've got the week off work, and several people are coming out to help, so we should be done by the 20th to 25th.

< Kyle wiring my 2005 panel for me, and

Kyle's friend Steven building me some trees >

Thanks guys.

Oct 4, 2004 The pickets are all painted now, we just have to assemble the fence.  That'll be done next month. All the stars (including the tree top) and the second reel stand are now built and ready for paint.  It's all coming down to the crunch, but it looks like we might just make it.

Dad & I cutting pickets >

Sept 17, 2004  The painting is well under way.  The arches are painted up and stowed away, and Dad is close to halfway through the fence.  Send him an This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and tell him how much you like his white socks and Birkenstocks.  ;-)

I finally have a welder in my possession, (thanks Chris), so the second reel stand and the stars will be done soon. 

August 16, 2004  I've finally got the web site to like something that I'm not too embarrassed about.  I've got to figure out Dreamweaver and Flash though.  Soon it will be  somewhat less hokey.  

With the page done, I've got some more time to concentrate on the actual lights.  I'll try to get that schematic up soon.  

The guys from This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it have volunteered to come over with a bucket truck on the days I'm putting up and taking down the large tree out front.  That should really speed up the process.  Thanks guys.  

We've also picked up the lumber for the west fence, and completed the 2 new arches.  Things are taking shape...

July 28, 2004 OK, I take it back...it didn't work like a charm. On close examination, we noticed the tree has developed quite a lean. The join at the 2 lengths of pipe bent but did not break. If I guy it in 2 locations, that should remedy the problem. I guess the next step is to tear it down, and try that. I've noticed that the tree is also sinking into the earth, so a metal plate underneath is in order.

July 27, 2004 Well, it worked. We did the welding last weekend, and the 20 foot tree went up without a hitch. It was pretty hairy for a bit until I got the guy wires secured, but after that, it all worked like a charm. I'm glad we did this in July and not tried it for the first time in November, as there were quite a few things that had to be done more than once. We only managed to use 3,400 lights, and not the 5,000 we had estimated. It was a little on the sparse side, so come November, it will be 5,000.

July 13, 2004 The weather was good this week, so I managed to get 4 new 15 amp circuits run. The panel is now full, so next year will we will have to upgrade to 200 amp service and replace the panel. That will give us a total of 17 circuits (255 amps. Last year we had 90, and this year we will have 150).

Early predictions for this years display are 23,000 to 25,000 lights drawing 123 amps (Roughly half of our household power)

The forest is going quite slowly... I only have 4 of the 40 trees built. I've come to the realization that I only have enough spare lights to make about 10 trees. The rest are going to have to be last minute when the stores start carrying them again. Picture to the left is of the first of 40.

June 30, 2004 Although my first entry is June, that doesn't mean I'm just starting with the lights for this year. I'm just getting the website up and going.

I started this years display in the first week of January, believe it or not. Even before the 2003 lights were down. I spent a good chunk of time and money shopping for the after holidays cheap lights. I picked up another 5,000 or so. My wife thinks I'm obsessed/fanatical/nuts... pick one. Driving her crazy, I am.

We wanted to expand on last years display, of course, because that's what we do. We're planning to make an artificial tree 22 feet high, with a 10 foot diameter. This is to be the focal point of the display.

It will need about 5,000 lights and about 1,200 feet of garland. I've got most of the details worked out in my head, but some of it is still in the design stage. I'm planning to build a prototype in the backyard this summer/fall to work out any unforeseen problems. Got to get my hands on a welder too.

In addition to the tree, We'll be fencing the other side of the driveway (Get your paintbrush out, Dad), adding 2 more arches, making 2 small forests of 2 foot artificial trees. (About 40 trees in total... hopefully... more likely to be in the 20's due to the amount of work involved. Thanks to Chuck Smith of PlanetChristmas for the design idea. I'm also adding a dozen or so strobe lights to the large tree out front. I've already picked them up and modified them to flash a little quicker. I won't have any computer controls this year, however, I have built a timer to control the strobes, and modified a NOMA light string control to switch 15 amps. We'll be using that to control the forests. I'll post a schematic of it later.