Webcam

This is absolutely a work in progress, but I have 2 webcam's setup for viewing the cars viewing the display.

I have one pointed out from Zach's room that has pan/tilt/zoom, and clicking the following link should take you there:

Cam1

Second, I have one in the master bedroom pointed out, but this one is VERY bandwidth intense, is being run from Mepis Linux, and using an old crappy cam:

Cam2

Christmas Playlist

12/3 - Here is the playlist of songs for this year

Quick update

12/2 - I haven't done much with the lights the past 2 days because it's been cold as a witch's ... freezer. Geez people, get your mind out of the gutter. Not much to report or any new pictures to post for now.

I had to pick up and fix a couple of things from the winds we've had the past couple days tonight, and I also expanded my music up to the full 22 Christmas Songs. (I'll export the playlist at some point and post it here)

I also worked in the background today on trying to get a webcam going again around my usual work schedule, and didn't get very far with it. I didn't write anything down that I did last year, so it will take me a couple days to get that going, I'm sure.

I made a video with very poor sound tonight, and will try to get another one tomorrow that will hopefully be better. We're supposed to get some snow tonight/tomorrow, too. If we do, I will get some snow covered pics and post them, along with a video.

Day 8...

What a miserable day.

11/29 - Cold. Wet. Freezing Drizzle. What a great day to work on Christmas Lights.










Here's a run down of what I got done today:

Replaced dead net light for bushes with red one, and also got a blue one so there are different colors on bushes now.

















Ran blue LED icicle lights on back half of roofline.














Fixed all channels I had left to realign.














Fixed 1/8 cord going across the garage floor.

Powered the FM transmitter with A/C.

Put all lights on timers.

Day 7...

11/28 - Worked on stuff for about 4 hours today, but mostly cosmetic stuff. I got a lot accomplished, but I still have a couple more hours to go to be happy with it being "finished." Most of what's left is wiring things right, and I need to make a run to get cords for what's outstanding, but I wasn't even going close to a store on Black Friday!

Here's a list of items I tackled today:

Put out Frosty the snowman. Frosty is our oldest decoration and is about 6-7 years old now.

















I trimmed the gargantuan shrub in the front of the house to make it about the same size as the others.













I also put up the net lights on the 3 bushes in the front, but it appears one is not working, so we'll add that to the list for the store. I also put up the multi-colored rope lights on the porch.











I decided to put up lights on the roofline of the south side of the house, and climbed up there and ran red rope lights for the entire surface, and blue icicle lights for about half, as I ran out of working strings. These are on the list for the store run tomorrow.

I also ran as many cords to the right channel as I can with my current ridiculous amount of extension cords, and did some clean up/cord management.

I have all three Light Controllers enabled now, and in their homes in the garage.

I hooked up the iPod and FM transmitter, and wired it all. On the list for tomorrow is also an extension for the 1/8" jack to run to the auxilary port in the second controller on the opposite side of the garage.







The one I have now reaches, but just barely and is exposed to cars running over it, which will not do.












I also put out the sign from last year telling people to tune to 88.7 for the music. I will most likely do a new sign this year and post hours for the lights once I get them on a timer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

11/27 - Worked a little on the lights this morning, with Dylan's help.

Cleaned up the snow globe a little more, and put it in the side yard. Seems to be working OK, and it's relatively windy today and it appears the spot will work OK.











Put the trees out in the front yard, and started wiring them. I had placed the trees out in the yard the other day, and the wind knocked them over this morning, so I figured I would get them done.











Fixed some more yard decorations, and think I have them pretty close to situated where I want them.


















Put the projector out, this year it will be ornaments on the side of the house. I didn't use this last year either, since we didn't do the side of the house. We're just pulling lots of stuff out of retirement, it seems.

Day 5

11/26 - It was kind of chilly when I started on the lights this evening, so I didn't really feel like doing it once I got out there today. Tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be nice now, so it was hard to motivate myself to do much outside!

I hung up the silver bells under the garage fixtures.












I also put out 3 more yard fixtures:
Santa with presents.
Santa Sleigh with reindeer.
Merry Christmas Sign.

Then I decided rather than freeze, I would try to ressurect the snow globe, our only remaining blow up. Last year I gave them all away so I didn't have to deal with them, but there is a story with the snow globe...

We purchased the snow globe in 2006 for the display, and it didn't last for the entire season. One morning we had a fierce wind/snow storm roll through, and I awoke to the snow globe out in the street with several holes and much water in it. I placed it in the garage that day and we never got it back out that year. I had plans to resurrect it, but decided last year not to put it out because it would have to go in the same place it received the punishment the year before.

So, tonight I got it out of the box it has been sitting in for nearly 2 years to find that it was still wet in places - not a good sign.

I found all of the holes (I think, 3 so far) and patched them up with blue duct tape to match the blue plastic, and hooked it up to see what the damage is.

It is blowing up, but appears to be having issues with the "snow" being wet and not flowing back to the vacuum pickup, so I am going to let it run in the garage for a while and will hopefully drain out with it inflated.

I plan on putting it on the south side of the house, which we are decorating this year along with the front. Between the fence and house, it should be relatively protected from a repeat incident this year. (Famous last words)

I also took some pictures of the curling PVC before I really got into the snow globe while it was still light outside.

Day 4...

11/25 - Got the lights up on the house and wired for blue and red channels again.

I hate these lights, but I don't want white LED's and these or white are still the only ones I can find that aren't 8 gazillion dollars in LED's.

Put up 2 yard decorations as well.

Day 3...

11/24 - About 4:30 PM I started to question why I do this every year.

At 4:35 I went outside to start on the lights for the night. I started by putting in the green and red bulbs in the outside garage light fixtures on the house to make sure I accomplished something.

I then got out my calculator to figure out the spacing of the strings of lights. Started putting them down, and realized I must have done something wrong, recalculated, and started again. I had it right, just didn't take into account that my 5 feet from the hole should have been 10 feet in my measurement, duh.

BTW, to do the circumference, I cut a string of mason line to 5 feet after optically determining (aka looking at) what I wanted the shape of the tree to look like. Had Heather hold it to the base of the pole, and went around spraypainting a circle around the tree.

Then I spaced the lights at 10.5 inches between the strands, and secured the strings of lights to the ground with landscaping spikes.


I plugged all of the lights directly in to see what it looked like all lit up.


















Neighbors came out and admired it, cars slowed down to look, and the kids loved it.

Continuing the saga of the Christmas Lights....

11/22 - Painted PVC Black with plastic paint.

(Don't ask me why I didn't just get black PVC, because my theory was crap anyway.)












OKAY, since you asked... I was worried about black PVC "curling" in the sunlight, and losing it's rigidity and strength. I thought the regular white PVC was more rigid and thicker. It was all for naught, as you'll see later.


11/23 - Started assembly of the tree.

I was lax taking pictures that day because we had a family function and time was an issue. I did take a few to show the assembly process.

Used a section of 3 inch x 10 feet PVC for the bottom. It goes in the sleeve 2 feet into the ground, and is held stationary with a 4 inch to 3 inch PVC reducer. I als have 3 guy wires at the top of this section in a tripod to battle the wind.





11/23 - Hanging up the lights.

I worked with the top section upright at ground level to string the lights, and temporarily zip tied it to a ladder to do so. The top I fashioned for the top is a 3 inch to 2 inch reducer, with 13 eye hooks evenly spaced, and s-hooks to hold the strings of lights off of the eye hooks. I put 3 strings of lights on each hook, and zip tied them to ensure they don't go anywhere in the wind.

Dylan unboxed and stretched out the strings of lights in the yard, and I alternated the 5 colors around the tree as I secured them.








11/23 - Hoisted up the top section, secured it with a bolt through the reducer on each end, and guy wires mid way through the section.

I had to quit here for the day for the family function.

Started the lights

So, I'm a little behind on getting a site set up on the lights this year, and since so many people had issues with myspace, I'm moving here to try it out. Here is a recap of where I'm at for the year:

11/12 - Bought new light controllers.

This year I can input music from any audio source, and have moved from 6 to 18 channels on the lights. I'm still using an "out of the box" system that does not require programming, because I just don't have time for that!

11/20 - Brought up 3/4 of the decorations from storage in the basement.

11/21 - Brought up the rest of the decorations.











11/22 - Purchased all the materials for the PVC Mega Tree.


















11/22 - Dug 2 foot hole in the yard.














11/22 - Cemented in a 4 inch sleeve in the hole in the ground.












11/22 - Created tree top to hold all of the strands of lights.