Ole Glory

There is a guy in town who deals in metal. He has scrap metal that we often need on the farm, but he also usually has lots of surplus metal stuff. You never know what he'll have, but it is always interesting to peruse his lot to see if there is something we "need". Back in 2022, he had some surplus streetlamp poles. They were really nice, heavy, and about 30 feet long, even still wrapped in the factory shipping foam. I felt like we needed a flagpole at our farm on Live Oak, so I bought one. Unfortunately, like many of my projects, I had a good idea that just couldn't make it to the top of the priority list. I tried to give myself a couple of self-imposed deadlines, but that never worked. I was born in the bicentennial year of 1976. Hence, I have a fondness for the big round number birthdays of this great nation. The 250th birthday of the USA seemed like a natural deadline for the flagpole that had been languishing in my shop for a few years. So a few weeks ago, we pulled the streetlamp pole out to the very front of the shop and started its conversion into a flagpole. A little welding here and there, some hardware, and a nice gold ball on top completed its transition. Standing this sucker up with only the assistance of a farm tractor was a challenge, but like America herself, we persevered and overcame. Even though I had a new flag sitting in a box, the pole stood empty for 2 days as I waited for my light to arrive on an Amazon truck. As soon as I got the notification that the light was out for delivery, Atticus and I hoisted Ole Glory to the top of this pole. As far as I'm concerned, she'll fly here as long as my name is on the deed.