Monday, November 14, 2011

Lights

We got one light up last night. After I got home, I headed out to do a few chores, and hanging one of the lights in the arena was on the list. I checked the wiring, put bulbs in, and it was working, so I packed up and took it over to the barn.

Next was the generator, but when I went to add oil, I realized that it didn't have an oil plug. Pack up, go back to Lowes and talk to them. We'd bought the floor model, and the guy said no one should have sold it to us. We walked over to see what else they had, and I was thinking we might need to get a 5k generator, but they had another 3.5kv one in stock, so I grabbed that and headed home. Add oil, gas, and it started right up, working beautifully.

Next was the hanging of the light. The arena is tall, 30ft in the center, and I knew we couldn't get close, but we could get up there. I put the step ladder in Tia's pickup, strapped it in so it wouldn't move, and backed it below one of the arches. I managed to throw a rope over one, about 18 ft in the air. Two of those up there and we were hanging the light fixture up. We pulled it up, along with an extension cord, fired up the generator, and we had lights.

Tada!

Not as much light as I'd like, but enough to show that we can do this. We decided to order 9 more lights, to give us ten, and then rent a lift and get them up there. My task this week is to also gather the supplies for wiring, pulleys, etc and get those ready. I'm thinking I need around 1800ft of wiring, 12-18 pulleys, some cranks, and a few more items that will get us ready to hang the lights.

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