Little project: landscape lighting

 I was finally able to deal with this pile of parts to my solar landscape lights.  I had taken them apart and cleaned with some sudsy Simple Green cleaner, then let them air dry on a towel in the garage.  Then I ordered batteries so each one would have the same bright light.  Then they sat in here for a couple of weeks!

When I pulled them up from the landscaping, my little voice said "don't forget the stakes", but I got lazy.  You need needle nose pliers to get those suckers out of the dirt.  This week, I was happy to find all of them, and even a couple from a previous set - still embedded in the landscaping.

I cleaned those up a bit, too, just so I didn't make a mess in my garage.

I gathered everything together to get each one assembled and ready.  I bought some black Gorilla tape for reinforcement, as well.

 A few of the posts have split over the last three years or so.  Probably from me moving them so much, trying to get the spacing right.  Also the Texas heat!

Split or not, I wrapped both ends of all of the posts.  I used the edge of the tape to act as a sort of gauge for the height of each light when I was putting them back outside.  Worked great.

Its hard to see them during the day, but at night, they are lovely.  And all of them have nice bright lights now that the batteries have been replaced and the clear plastic cups cleaned.

The next day I mowed and edged, and the yard doesn't look as sad as it did in the winter.  I still have more weeds than grass, but everything is green.  I also sprayed deer spray on all of the shrubs.  I'm not running a deer buffet over here.

The lights in the backyard work the same way, they are just heavier.  I only have two of them at either end of the deck, and getting them cleaned up was super easy.  They are so pretty at night.  Now all that's left to do is power wash the concrete slab and clean and reseal the deck, and those are on my bucket list for summer.  Once the weather gets too hot, I plan on relaxing out here more than working on projects!

Gina