The first time I fell, I was trimming a hedge in the backyard. I thought my foot was on the bottom rung when I stepped to the ground. I was wrong. My foot was on the second rung from the bottom. At the precise moment in time when I fully expected my foot to make contact with planet earth, it just kept descending. So did the rest of my body. I fell flat on my back. Fortunately, I had just rototilled the dirt where I completed my landing, so it was relatively soft. But I quickly learned what it felt like to be a pole-vaulter back in the days when they finished their 18-foot flights by landing on a pile of sawdust instead of landing on the airbags of today.
The other fall happened while attaching steel roofing panels to a shade structure that I was building over our patio. I slipped. Instead of plopping to the patio, however, I was able to catch myself on one of the 2x6 beams supporting the roof. But the ladder slipped away. I hung to the beam while trying to hook my toe around the ladder and pull it back to me so I could climb down. I lost my toehold on the ladder and eventually had to release my grip on the 2x6 beam and jump to the patio. At least I landed on my feet this time.
So, I don’t like climbing ladders anymore.
But last Christmas we decided to hang outdoor lights along our roofline. I had to take the risk once again and climb the ladder to install hooks under the eaves. Debra held the ladder for me this time while I drilled holes and twisted cup hooks into place. Some of those hooks reached an altitude of 15 feet. Once the hooks were in place, I stored the ladder in the garage.
But the string of lights still needed to be strung along the newly installed hooks.
Last year was the first time I hung the Christmas lights without a ladder. The second time was just this morning. Instead of climbing to unsafe heights, I now use a pole with a hook on the end. The pole is a ten-foot PVC pipe, the same kind I used for our underground sprinkler system. The hook is a simple bracket bent with pliers to guide the string of Christmas lights.
Although I no longer risk falling off a ladder when hanging Christmas lights, there is another risk to consider. I just spent more than an hour today looking straight up into the air while hanging lights over cup hooks. I now have a kink in my neck.
It is much safer, when near a ladder, to always keep both feet on the ground.
The first time I fell off the ladder, I was trimming the top of this hedge and fell onto the freshly rototilled earth beneath me.
The next time I fell off the ladder, I was attaching steel roofing panels to this freestanding shade structure.
I hung on to this 2x6 beam when the ladder tried to escape from under my feet before this project was finished. I was installing the panels from left to right at the time.
The Christmas lights hang 15 feet above ground at the highest point.
They hang 12 feet above ground at the second-highest point.
The Christmas-light-hanging pole is 10 feet long.
A makeshift hook is attached at one end.
This is how it works. I am looking straight up.
This is the highest point. I am looking straight up.
This is near the end of the string of lights. I am looking straight up.
This is a bottle of Ibuprofen. It helps when you have a kink in your neck.
Nighttime at the house on Hybiscus.
7 comments:
Pretty clever!
Both feet on the ground - now that's MY kind of job!! I don't do heights well - not because I've ever fallen, but because I don't ever want to :)
Thanks for the cute story! I'm a Grandmother looking for easier solutions to hanging the Christmas lights on the eaves and your story is quite helpful and very humorous at the same time. Merry Christmas and thanks for sharing...
But how did the hooks to hold the lights get there?
He used the eye hooks and put them up permanently
I made one to put lights on my Palm tree in our front yard. I used a pipe clamp and bent it then bolted it on the PVC. It looks just like the one here in the picture. However, I tried and tried to put the lights up they kept slipping off of the hook. I finally used a bread tie to make a loop and used that to start them. Then I was not able to use the hook to install the rest. I wound up getting out my ladder to hang them. I will use the hook to take them down after the holidays.
I have been doing this since 1980 but with a pipe and curtain hook on the second story of my house
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