Outdoor Lights

Today is the day to get the outdoor lights up and working.  After Christmas last year I stored  each set of lights in plastic grocery bags and small plastic garbage bags in several totes.  The extension cords are in one tote.  The lights were in two other totes. I had to move a lot of things to get back to where the totes were.  After moving things around I got the three totes into the house.   I put the tote with the strings of lights and some netted lights in the front room by the outside door.    I put them all on the floor and began to plug in each strand to check them out.  Most of them did not work or had only one strand that works.  There are two strands that had some single lights that were brunt out.  I spent over an hour replacing the burned out bulbs. 

There are two square pillars on the front porch.  I placed a netted on the east pillar and began wrapping the two strands on the east pillar.  Back in the house I found another netted lights.  I plugged it in and all of the lights came on.   I then removed the strands from the east pillar and replaced them with the netted strand.  It took a while.

We have a long white rope and two short ropes which one is red and the other is green.  Carol wanted them on the front.  They don't bend around a square post.  After some thinking decided to have the long white one start in the middle on the roof of porch between the two pillars.  How was I to use the green and red ones.  I decided to put the green and red start in the middle as I did the white one.  I could not keep the together.  I then taped the middle of the four lights together with clear packing tape.  I tape all the ropes together starting at the middle and right and the left until the red and green ropes were taped to the white rope.  I drilled a hole in the middle of the roof of the porch between the two posts.  I screwed in and eye bolt into the hole which I then used tie wire to hold the rope up.  I then attached them two a wire that was there from last year.  A few more adjustments and it worked just like I planned.  Turned the lights on and it looks pretty good.  As it got dark it looks even better.

The picture is pretty fuzzy.  It was hard for me to hold the camera still when it is so dark.