It was one of those days when there seemed to be nothing important for myself to do. I had an excellent cup of coffee in hand, yes I made it for myself in an old worn-out Keurig coffee maker, and I also had 4 cookies provided by my present spouse. I was sitting in the old worn-out rocking chair near the garage door, in the warm sun light! It was only 55 degrees but the wind was just barely blowing.
I almost always dunk the cookies into the outstanding coffee. This action allows the cookies to be soft and easy for this old senior citizen to chew. Dunking also flavors the coffee somewhat making it even more exciting to my taste bud. Notice, I used the singular when referring to the taste bud, as over the years this senior person has lost all but one of the taste buds. L
After ingesting the cookies and coffee I looked around and thought, there should be something that I could due to past time.
Suddenly it occurred to me, I could fly my drone! I should say that the camera will not produce video or still shots. I emailed the company that makes the drone and they did respond, but they did not provide me with a way to make the defective unit work. (It was a Christmas gift for this old person and the receipt was tossed out, so I can’t return it.)
The drone is fun to fly. I would like to get out in the open and see what the range is. It flies for more than five minutes on one battery charge. Also the control begins to beep when it is about to run out of power. It is a fun toy for a senior!
After putting the drone away, it occurred to me that I could replace the rope on the Ford Homestead’s flag pole. That seemed like a simple process and I could be done in a few minutes.
It amazes me how many things must happen in order for this old master worker to complete one seemingly small task. The 20 foot pole is made of aluminum and is fairly easy to get out of its base and lay it down on the ground. Originally the pole would collapse down into itself, but as with many things, that feature was short lived. After a while the pole became rigid and basically one piece.
Pole removed, I secured the new rope which I had in the garage. I then searched for a new pulley. Pulley found, I then determined I needed an additional clip for securing a flag to the rope. There must be four clips to secure the two flags to the rope. Clip found, I then needed to determine if the new rope was long enough. It was longer than I needed so I cut a portion off.
I then had to find some matches so I could burn the ends of the rope. This is done in an effort to keep the rope from fraying.
The old rope removed from the pulley, I also removed the clips from the old rope to be re-used on the new rope.
I applied some grease to the new pulley to help it work better and longer. Old pulley removed, new pulley installed I was ready to insert the new rope into the pulley.
I them measured the flags to see how far apart the holes were, and marked the rope for placement of the clips. The first clip is easy to install but the second one must be placed correctly or the flag will not be properly attached to the rope. There was some trial and error in this process.
Each clip is first tied in place and then secured with a wire tie.
The rope now install and attached I reset the pole into the base. I activated the rope and the pulley all worked as expected.
The American flag installed and raised. It looked good.
The American flag lowered I attached the Texas Flag and raised it. Nope, it was not right I brought the flags down and re-connected the Texas flag, it took about four tries to get everything looking right.
I stepped back and admired my work. I then had to put all the tools away, and store the old rope.
It took more than an hour to do 10 minutes of work. I guess it is because we get slower when we get older, or we may be more picky, the older we get. One friend suggested, I might have been trying to work and chew gum at the same time. That will always cause a problems!
Respect the flags!
Don Ford
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