O Christmas Tree

The road I live on is pretty rural.  We live out in the woods, and the house sits pretty far back off the road.  Pine and Fir trees crowd the road, and during the winter months, it's a pretty dark drive.

This year for Christmas, I decided to give our road a little color, by lighting one of the smaller trees at the entrance to our driveway.  Now when I say "smaller", that doesn't mean that it is small.  It's still about 20ft tall. 

What I didn't realize was how difficult this project would turn out to be!  At first I drove my truck to the end of the driveway next to the tree.  I stood in the bed of the truck and attempted to hang lights on the tree, by dangling them from a broom.  I didn't have enough height, by a long shot.

So I drove the truck back to the house, got my step-ladder and headed back to the tree.  Because I hate leaning off ladders, I drove the truck right up against the tree.   It was still a pain in the butt to string the lights using the broom (they don't go where you want when you use a broom), and it was a little dangerous as well.

Not my rig, but this was the setup.  Safety first!

Eventually I got the lights strung down low enough to work from the ground, and so I finished up.  I had used six or seven 100ft strands.  Next I strung out three 100ft extension cords, so I could get power to the tree from the house.  When I plugged in the tree, I found out that several of the strands didn't work :(

I ended up going back out to the tree with the truck and the step ladder, and replacing a few strands... although at this point I was nearly as ready to give up as to finish the job.  I bagged all the connections so there would be no electrical faults. 

It ain't exactly how I would have liked it to turn out, but it's not too bad - especially since it was done when the weather wasn't very nice.  In any event, I have the best (the only) lighted tree on a 5 mile stretch of forest road.