Today was a rare day where I had a stat holiday but the kids were in school. I decided to take full advantage and get all the lights that were not reachable by ladder on the house.
Because of the snow I can no longer get up to my upper roof, going up there once it snows is much too dangerous. Because my garage protrudes the front of my house, there is no way for me to access the upper gutters by ladder. To get my upper level lights mounted I rented a boom lift.
Even with the lift, it didn’t have the reach to get all the way side to side and as high as I needed, I had to reposition it one time half way through.
Through the days I had some unexpected delays with my clips. Although the speed tabs are perfect for the LOR Pixel bulbs, I’d also ordered some of the professional grade ones which did not work as well and kept cracking when I pushed in the bulb. I tried modifying the holes slightly to fit the bulb better but this was taking too long so I tried using the heat gun to soften the clip, this seemed to work with no more cracking. Getting the bulbs into the clips took much longer than anticipated and really slowed down my progress, I should have really done these the night before to make the best use of my time with the lift. As night came I finally got the last of the bulbs on the house (I still have one row of RGBs to run along the front of that garage roof, but I can do these from a ladder).
I also hooked up the controllers for the second floor lights and ran the network cables. I could now give the lights a quick test.
I had hoped to be able to get the large spruce done while I had the lift but time ran out and it had to be returned. Fortunately the tree can be decorated from a ladder.
Renting the boom got the job done and was also a lot of fun. It also got my neighbors stopping to take a good look as they drive by,
Chasin' Rudolph 
4 thoughts on “Big Boy Toys”