The Hanging of Footlights…

Before Hubs went under the knife he had something he needed to accomplish at Footlights.

He had been working on the entryway to our property for months and months.

Using wireless radio towers, grey paint and muscle he managed to haul the almost completed product down to the main entrance.

He dug holes, bought the concrete but decided against using it yet, good thing too as you’ll see later!

He put up the two uprights and lashed them to the fence,

“How are you going to get the crossbar up without help?”  I asked repeatedly.

“You need a cherry picker to finish it off…”  I couldn’t leave it alone.

“Invite a few of the neighbors on the lane…they wouldn’t hesitate to ask you for help…”  I persisted.

I need to remember Hubs is a Texan.

In fact he’s my blue-eyed cowboy,

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and reluctant to share the glory with anyone…

…except me.

“I’m working on it,” he said with a twinkle in his eye on the day before he was due to be admitted.

He rigged an elaborate system of pulleys from the back of my old heap, Uriah, and strung the cross piece at eye-level,

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all on his own that Sunday afternoon,

“It’s a one man job,” he assured me.  I believed him- somehow- but kept an eye on him just in case he needed instructions shouted out from the ground.

He fetched the sign from the garage,

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where I snagged him and persuaded him to guzzle a couple of cups of water under my steady gaze and take a few minutes break while I had him in the air-conditioning.

As the afternoon faded he bolted and chained the sign at eye level from the relative safety of the truck bed and there it was when I headed off for my early evening walk,

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I stopped to make sure the young men in the barn, there just so happened to be three of them that day, made good on their promise to come help hoist!

“We’ll be right there, just eating a snack,” they texted.

Ten minutes and a few celebratory photos later,

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they were ready for instructions from the gaffer,

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and then Daughts, filmed the amazing feat,

I sat on the gate and watched while they effortlessly hauled the ropes attached to the pulleys and made it most of the way!

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Really, I wouldn’t have known where to start!

Did you notice the shift of the uprights? And catch the wisdom of not cementing?

It’s lacking about 6 inches from the top and Hubs is not going near a ladder or the unsteadiness of my truck bed for several weeks!

Pretty impressive though don’t you think?

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Just hanging there announcing to our visitors that they’ve arrived at our pad,

Footlights!

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