In Honor of His Birthday.....

.. I present.... "THE TOWER OF DOOM."

A year or so ago, The Boy bought this radio tower from the estate of one our neighbors who had passed away and the family was selling the house. It's about 40 feet tall and aluminum, and I thought, "OMG, why do I want that thing in my yard?" I don't.. but he does.. and he's very agreeable to things I want.. so I didn't grumble. (too much, I admit.. I grumbled some). I must admit however, that now that it's up and in the back yard, I don't much notice it unless I'm out in the yard looking at it. The Boy has agreed that once it comes down one last time and gets retrofitted with things and cables etc and we bury the cement and put dirt around it.. I can plant vine type things up the aluminum frame. He also joked about putting Christmas lights up it in the winter, but that's just too redneckish and I told him under no uncertain circumstances would there ever be lights on that tower.


At the time he bought it however, we didn't have room in the back yard for it. Our property is .24 acres and our house/barn are HUGE and take up a good chunk of real estate. Part of our agreement in having the pine trees removed last fall, was that the tower could go up after we put in a new fence. Well... the fence came down, the back-hoe arrived to remove some rotting stumps and granite posts, and we dug the hole for the tower box. I saw we, because I drove the back-hoe and helped dig the hole! The previous owner of our house helped build our fence, and it was his back hoe.. and he and The Boy built this plywood box to house the cement.

 
It was rather big, and comical and we joked about all the bodies we could hide in this huge box, and then after the hole was dug there was a big production to get the box to fit in the hole and after much time and maybe some cursing they got it all set. They buried it into the ground, and one day while I was at work and they were working on the fence, the cement dudes came and I arrived home to the first 10 feet of tower sticking out the the ground. What I didn't get a photo of, but I think it cool.. is that while the cement was still wet, he carved his and Mr. Man's call signs in along with the year.

After enough time for the cement to set had gone by, next was the raising of the next 30 feet of tower. The next section didn't go on nearly as nice as the first, and involved more swearing and lots of banging and my neighbor came over and there was more swearing and well... I decided it was better to not be part of this. Eventually however they figured it out and got the next two sections on and up in the air. The boy commented that one of the wives of the dudes in his HAM group, who works at the H.S. told him she doesn't even notice the tower in their yard anymore. I mentioned that it was because their tower was on the side of the house, not in the back yard. Anyhow.. the next weekend the antenna went up. My friend C came over with her mom who was visiting, and who also happens to be a HAM radio operator.. and we had a lovely afternoon together. It was discovered that the antenna part couldn't go up without hitting the house so it was balanced on a few horses and ladders and The Boy climbed up another ladder and C's mom got all involved while C and I just sat back and watched and I might have prayed some and held my breath.. and at the end of the day it was up. He is very happy, and that makes me happy. As my friend L says, "At least he's at home..". It has to come down one more time, and I won't be here that day... but the joy it has brought him was well worth all the trouble.

So today, on his birthday.. I give you the story of the tower that was erected in my back yard. It doesn't need a permit unless it's over 200 feet,and he'll need a new wife to get a tower that big.. so this will have to do. Happy Birthday hunny.. I love you.