We did our dry run with our tower April 26th 2009!

Here I am raising the gin pole. We came up with a nifty idea and had the gin pole bolted on with only one bolt, allowing the pole to pivot on its own.

The above image is looking up at the rigged gin pole.

After the gin pole was upright, we began to make cables and connect up the tower to the anchor

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Up, up, up

Kevin was the counterweight holding a rope we attached to the top.

We decided to use the little Blazer to lift the tower

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We used a 3" by 8" U-bolt for the pass through connection on our gin pole. Since the gin pole is hinged and the turnbuckles are above it the cables can be tightened without affecting the angle between it and the tower. I love the look on my dog in this shot. He wonders if all this foolin around in the yard is going to delay dinner much longer.

Once the tower was vertical we began to get the cables taught using the turnbuckles

Kevin and Nell roll a celebratory cigarette while chubby dog is still concerned about the tardy dinner bowl.

Ahhhh, looking up at our tower, nothing like this feeling, sweet!

There is nothing like the feeling of looking up the newly raised tower. Quite the feeling of accomplishment.

Another shot of the tower from over closer to my parents’ house.There’s my tractor, where it has rested since before Winter when the hydraulics gave out.

Getting sleepy now