Flags......

If you don't live in our neighborhood, you might not know that Gary is the "flagmaster" in our neighborhood. Years ago, a Scout did an eagle project and raise money and got flags for our area. Shortly after that, our wards split and Gary who was Scoutmaster then (I think that was his calling) became the guardian of the flags. It has served as a fund raiser for the Scouts and then for all of the YW and YM and then back to the Scouts over the last 10 or so years. Six holidays a year, early in the morning youth and their parents will come to pick up the flags and post them throughout the neighborhood and then in the evening they return to gather them. Gary is taken care of the flags and is involved in almost every flag posting and picking up. In the evenings of those holidays, 110 flags will be left leaning against our garage so that Gary can check them and make sure they are rolled up well. He makes sure they are cleaned, in good repair, and replaces them when they are not. Every spring he and Jena will head around the neighborhood and clean out the small pipes that hold the flags in place.

Here is Jena in her first official flag posting as a Beehive although she had helped in the past as she had gone with Gary when they needed extra helpers.


Now at the beginning of all of this, I was known to grumble from time to time about us storing the flags. Afterall, we have a two car garage while many people in our area have three car garages so certainly they might have more room. However over time, I have come to love it as I watch the care and concern Gary has over the flags and making sure that they are posted correctly. We have had people just drop checks off to us who missed the Scouts and say, "I know Gary is the flag guy so can you make sure they get this check?" I am glad he is the "flag guy" and I hope that our children and grandchildren will know that, too.

Other than saying how great Gary is (and he is), this is a long introduction to the purpose of this post which is to announce that Gary (and the rest of us) now has his very own flag pole and flag. Jena took lots of pictures of the building process so we want to document this event with her pictures and some I took. I hope that we will have some family memories on July 4th and other times as we raise and lower this symbol of our sweet country.

Gary and I bought the flag pole as our gift for our 33rd anniversary on March 3, 2011 (clever right, 33rd on 3-3-11!). The weather has been too wet and cold to install the flag until the last week. Gary did most of the work. So here are the steps to install a flag pole:

Gary dug a hole (no pictures from that day). Then on a dry day, Gary put the "sleeve" in the ground and mixed the cement.

Jena couldn't believe it when Gary stepped on the cement and started mushing it down with his bare feet. She thought it was so funny. I guess it works good to get the air bubbles out of the cement.

We let the cement set for a week and yesterday on a beautiful day we raised our flag pole. I am certainly glad to be married to a man who can tie knots and installed a flag pole. The instructions which came with the flag were missing some of the important elements. Here's the pictures from yesterday.

Putting the pole into the sleeve........

We put sand around the pole in the sleeve to both hold the pole but also to let it shift a bit in the wind to prevent it from breaking in high winds.

Jena took a picture of the "cap" which ends up at the base of the flag so that you can seal the cap to the cement and prevent water from going into the sleeve. No one will ever see it, but at the underside of the cap, I wrote our anniversary, our names, the names of our kids, and Gary and I both signed it. Corny, I know, but sweet, too.....(right?).

Gary measured and measured again to make sure the pole was straight....

I didn't realize Jena was taking pictures of us both as we checked the view of the pole from across the street. We wanted to make it sure it looked okay although at this point it was too late to do much about it. The cement, sand, and pole were in place.

We did the first flag raising together.

I had wanted a flag for a long time and had always imagined it by the rock on the east side of our driveway. Gary talked about wanting to hear the flag flying and so we stared trying to decide where and how we would put it. It was a long process, but I finally decided where I wanted it and how, and it turned out perfect.

Hope you like pictures of flags flying....

That's our flag--cloth with sewn stars, just what I wanted....

Come join us for a flag raising...anytime the weather is good. Despite the problems of our country, I am glad to be an American. There is something special about seeing an American flag flying in the wind. Now I can see it in my own yard. Thanks Gary for all of your work.