I’ve been looking to get a project car for a little while, my 944 was supposed to be that but its a bit too nice, parts are a little too expensive and its a bit too complex for my skills (I have replaced just about every part I have the capability to do myself). I wanted to get something junkier, cheaper and simpler. After thinking about this a Jeep seemed like the perfect fit, its about as simple as they come, has a huge after market, will be fun off road or around town with the top down.
Continue reading “Chasin’ Rust”That’s a Wrap
All the lights are taken down and put away, which puts the final bow on the 2020 Christmas season. The teardown was completed earlier this year than it ever has been in the past, we had some good weather early January then a really nice March which allowed me to get it all finished up early. We are also still under struck lockdown conditions so have no commitments with the kids. Being done by Easter is usually a good year, this year we were done by the spring solstice.
Continue reading “That’s a Wrap”We are Live, 2020
At 6pm on November 28th the lights turned on for the season. Our usual light up party had to change due to restrictions on gatherings and the number of visitors to ones home. We managed to reconfigure the event to have a drive by bottle drive for the McKnight Atom hockey teams and also collect food for the Calgary Food Bank. Although it wasn’t the event it usually is, it was great to see many faces I haven’t seen in the last 8 months and have a short socially distanced chat with friends when they were dropping food and bottles off.
Continue reading “We are Live, 2020”2 Weeks to Light up
Its now only two weeks to our official light up on Nov 28th. I fell a little behind schedule on the install over the last couple of weeks but knew I could make it up this week as I had 3 days off work.
Continue reading “2 Weeks to Light up”Installation ’20 is underway
I have traditionally called my installation “build”, but since I have been building props; arches, north poles, stockings, RGB Santa and install structures for the last couple of months I needed a new word. My Install usually proceeds a couple of tasks I need to do to get ready. These are prune my trees, to maximize their light holding capacity and turn around my garage to put the car away and get out the lights. Canadian Thanksgiving is when I traditionally do these and this year was no exception, the difference was I also began my install this weekend too.
Continue reading “Installation ’20 is underway”Building the North Poles pt. II.
Well it has been quite an adventure getting my north poles built. I am now complete other than needing to get some additional re-bar for the install.
Continue reading “Building the North Poles pt. II.”Building North Poles pt. I
I’ve always wanted to add some North Poles to my display, this year when I was looking for some projects in spring I ordered the Holiday Coro Candy Cane Post Topper. These seemed like a pretty simple project, the kit comes with a topper that plugs into simple drainage pipe plus a controller and RGBs for less than $20, this looked like a great bargain. These would also be my first foray into DMX so a chance for me to expand my knowledge of RGB lighting.
Continue reading “Building North Poles pt. I”Tis the Season
Labour day weekend is traditionally my kick off for working on the display. I usually lock in my layout and get my LOR order in the week before to take advantage of the Light-O-Rama Summer Sale, then I begin converting my sequences to the new layout. This year has been a little different.
Continue reading “Tis the Season”Christmas 2020 build schedule
This being stuck at home thing has really thrown me off my usual process of creating my build plan. Usually I think about what I want to do, order the pieces when the LOR summer sale is on, then build my work back plan once I know what I am doing.
Continue reading “Christmas 2020 build schedule”I’ve got the Power
I am always very nervous that I start blowing breakers when I first turn my lights on. I get especially nervous as many of the lights run on the same circuit as my garage door opener, every time I hit the button to open the door I worry a breaker will pop taking out the lights. When I add an extra controller each year I am also very anxious around my load capacity so I decided to remove that anxiety. I’ve been thinking about adding more power to my front yard for a few years, being stuck at home I decided to action it and add some extra circuits in my front yard.
Continue reading “I’ve got the Power”
Chasin' Rudolph 