8th Annual Hoosier Lighthouse Fall Gathering

HLC Fall Cleaning at Old Michigan City, Indiana

Date: Saturday October 3, 2009

Starting Time: 8:30AM
Breakfast at Dino’s
402 W US Highway 20
Michigan City, IN 46360

We are gathering tomorrow to hopefully change the Christmas lights on the lighthouse to led lights and do our usual Fall cleanup at the lighthouse.

Thanks, Pam I changed the start time at Dino's and forgot to change the date on my copy and paste from last year.. It is all better now..

Paul, I came, I saw you changed your info and I deleted my post in case anyone was wondering ....

I hope you all have great weather for your projects...wish I could be there, but had other obligations.

The day started out cold, windy and rainy. Jeff, in the lift, seemed to be saying, "I'm going up there in this?"


Susan starts cleaning the glass on the display cases from the inside out.


Sue and Kat are helping move and organize a whole lot of historical files. This is a Museum run by the Michigan City Historical Society after all.


Jeff is attaching the new LED lights and pulling down the the old Christmas lights.


Doyne getting the ladder in position to work above the porch with Heather's help..


Gary getting on the edging along the main walk.


Heather and dad, Dave, pairing up the walkie talkies to communicate from the lantern room to the ground better..


Larry is Doyne's safety net by holding his belt, I don't know who was going to catch Larry..

Shellie is of course found working on Shellie's corner, with some pruning and weeding..


Cindy and Carolyn capturing the moment! ....which included blue skies and sunshine as the weather improved greatly, off and on all morning and afternoon.


Jeff is really getting good at operating the lift and is now on the other other side of the porch.


That's Larry and Heather on the porch roof, Doyne on the ladder, Jeff in the bucket on the lift and and Roy is on the other side of the truck, operating the truck when it needs to be moved.


Cindy doing some weeding out by the front gate.


There's Gary with the blower cleaning up the walkway to the Museum..


This is the angle from the little city park that sits in front of the light. They are moving right across the front of the building with their changing of the lights.


Jeff pulling off the old lights from the Northeast corner of the building, just about finished with the first string of LED lights..

Frank and Edith are not only cleaning the glass in the display case but sweeping out some sand that has gathered in the edges. The Lighthouse is built on a sand dune, after all..


Sue and Kat are still organizing the files... I said there were a lot of them..


You can see the first string of lights are working above Doyne's head as he finished putting the connector on and pluging it in..


Dave arriving back from the store with some water for the troops. He and Heather brought the lunch fixings into the lighthouse.


Jeff has moved around to the North side of the lighthouse. That's Roy's arm guiding the strand of lights up to Jeff in the lift.


Carolyn telling Jeff something about what was going on up at the lantern room. She had been taking down the old lights.


Roy and Carolyn watching Jeff attach the new lights from two different perspectives.


Jeff starting to head down from the highest point of the roof attaching the lights..

The Breens fixing their sandwiches for lunch as everybody started lunch and a short break at about 2:30PM in the afternoon.


Jeff finishing up the lights on the North roofline before he breaks for lunch. We then had a short club meeting and gave away some great door prizes including a Old Point Comfort AP. The timing was perfect as while we were inside there was another brief rain shower.

I love to 'attend' these Hoosier Club work days via Paul's posts.

So much camaraderie, and so much work gets done, usually in great weather and with great friends...

...and NO heavy lifting (or 'light' lifting in this case) for me!

As always, great work! Can't wait for the night photo showing the lights in action!

OMC is looking like a new 'queen' soon to be seen with a sparkling tiara.

Looks like a lot of work got done. Would have loved to be there but such is life. Looking forward to seeing the place lit in all its glory.

Greatings to all the gang.

Actually, we did get rain in the afternoon, which added to the challenges. However, the group kept on going. What could be wrong with working on a metal ladder, with electrical stuff in the rain??? This picture will give you a little idea of the rain. This is Roy outside the lantern room helping Jeff, who is laying on a very wet walkway. We ran the new lights at a slightly different location around the lantern room, which made this a little more challenging.



The hatch to get outside the lantern room is not very large . . .



We kept going longer than we sometimes do, trying to get as much done as possible. Two ladders, no waiting . . .



Several of us were able to come back Sunday for a while to finish up the basic design we had for lights. We had to do the NE window on the front as well as the two windows on the north side of the light. It takes a lot of teamwork to make sure that we were able to progress with the speed we did, and to keep things as safe as possible.



Before we left Saturday I added a couple of long strings of whitle LED lights to our wreath (which came pre-lit with colored lights) and we put the wreath into place. Something about Doyne not wanting to be on the porch roof in the cold in December again this year.

Sunday, while it started overcast, was a much nicer day than Saturday was. Early afternoon, Doyne, Gary and I were in the lantern room placing the hooks that we will use for the lantern room trim. With the sun out it got rather warm in the lantern room.

It took us a little while Saturday to get things rolling along smoothly. While we had the general design laid out working with the lights was a new experience for everyone. The new lights are LEDs enclosed in a clear tube which really made things easy once Jeff and Doyne figured out how to place the lights and attach them to the building. The "run" along the front roof line continues around the corner to the peak and down again - all one continuous run. Only takes one electric connection which is really nice. These lights will be brighter, last a lot longer, draw a lot less current than the lights we removed. And, the bulb spacing is nice and even throughout the run.

Once we see how things look in December we may decide to add some more next year - who knows. Now that we know how to perform the task it won't be quite the challenge.

Oh, you wanted a sneak peek at the new lights? Here is what the light looked like several years ago . . .



Many of us went across the channel to Swingbelly's for supper. Without our even asking, they seated us at a table next to a window overlooking the lighthouse. As the sun started to set we were anxious to see how the lights would look after dark. (We left them turned on for the night so we could get a sneak peek ourselves!) From our vantage point at dinner the only lighted part of the light we could see was the lantern room. Even with that limited view we were excited to see how bright the lights were going to be.

After supper we all headed back over to the light to get a look at the front side. Even driving up we were impressed - the lighthouse should rightfully be the star of the Washington Park light display this year! (And up until we got involved in 2001, the lighthouse was 'dark' during the holidays when the park was lit up with many displays.) Anyways, here is a preview of what the light will look like this December:

Cool! Love the new look!

Always enjoy these updates. The team work is outstanding!

Great Job gang! You did a fine job indeed!

I always enjoy seeing the hard work that groups like this do for their Lighthouse. Thank You for sharing.

What a great group of people doing a fantastic job!

Here's to all of you...

Ruthie, you are so right.. That is why I always try and have some great Harbour Lights prizes for those who come to the Lighthouse/Museum and work tirelessly keeping the building and grounds in great shape for all the visitors.

The building literally has been saved for the next 100 years with what has been done in the past 6 years by the club and the board of the Historical Society...

Excellent - love that new photo, Dave. And Paul thanks for the others, too.

What a dramatic change in the lighting! Even the latern room looks brighter.
Keep up the good work. I'm impressed but not surprised at the consitency of the group that year after year improves this beautiful lighthouse. I'm jealous that I don't live closer.

I can feel the love,
Bob

The lantern room is brighter, Bob. Doyne put in much better lighting around the inner walls of the lantern room in the Spring of 2007 which was after Dave's first night time image was shot and they reflect much better into the ceiling of the lantern room. The lights are also recessed in between the wall supports so you can walk around the lantern room without hitting the lights...


New paint on the walls and ceiling, also..


He also installed a brand new floor which reflects a lot more light..

AWESOME!

Looks beautiful...great team work...fantastic effort.
Thanks for sharing both what transpired and the photos to go along with it.