LED Lighting on New Stairway

Josh and Chelsea planned to camp out at the property on Labor Day weekend and working a kayak trip in while there. We figured it was a good opportunity to go up so Lorraine could see the stairway, me to install some LED lighting to increase safety of travel when dark, and to spend a bit of time with them. Molly and Nate, along with Nate's family, also came over for a day.

The pavilion clearing, which is still a work in progress, was pretty thick with weeds. It is amazing that once sunlight can get to the ground how fast things start growing. A mix of pulling tall weeds and weed-whacking had things cleared out enough to support a crowd of people. But we made progress on clearing this area, along with cutting up some drooping trees. The trees in a forest are all held up by each other, so as soon as you create a clearing those trees that you did not take out are not supported any longer, so they droop over. We cut up some of these also. We still have some stumps to get out and some leveling to do before we start on building the pavilion, but we keep making progress.

Nighttime was supper and a bit of hanging out, but took off before it got too late. Lorraine and I were staying at the hotel on this trip.

I was up early Saturday morning and took off to the site to determine how I was going to install LED lighting on the new stairway. Ron and I had checked it out at nighttime and it was somewhat of an optical illusion where you could not see where the stairs ended and where the landings started. So I knew we needed to get some subtle lighting on the stairs. Of course, I wanted LED lighting with solar power to accomplish this. I was able to locate 100 feet of LED "fairy" lights that are controlled with a solar panel feeding a NiCad battery, but you can also have (3) AA batteries for backup when the solar panel can not supply enough power. Better yet, I could buy them at 50% off, so I could get two for the price of one.

Once I had a game plan, I did some more clearing for the pavilion area, but then got going on the walking trail to the outhouse. This was starting to grow in a bit, so widening this was a good use of some of my time.

Molly, Nate and Nate's family got to the property around noon, and after showing them around they took off to the flea market in Hatfield. Hatfield has a large flea market every summer holiday weekend.

Josh and Chelsea wanted to paddle, and Hall's Creek was too low on this weekend. So we got them all geared up to paddle the Black River. It was running at about 280 CFS, which is higher than the other times we had paddled, but still at a reasonable rate. I put them on the water at the powerhouse off of Powerhouse Road.

Then it was back to the property to install the LED lighting. Multiple attempts in the morning had lead me to conclude that the only solution was to staple these to the bottom of the safety side runners on the stairway. So I spent alot of time on my side and back, dutifully stapling LED lighting. In the end, it turned out great although there is a section not lighting that I will need to troubleshoot.

Supper at night and then a quick trip over to Oxbow Pond, but no luck catching any fish this night. Molly, Nate and family had taken off after supper, so it was just me, Lorraine, Josh and Chelsea who went there.

A bit of time by the fire, and then it was an early night to bed.

Early the next morning on the property to pack things up and the CWD trailer back in its place, and then the long ride back home.

Good progress on this trip, so glad we could go so I could get some things done that needed to be done.