A Utility Challenge

I did not order these.

By the time I got down there to find out what the noise and commotion was about no one was there and two telephone poles were parked in the roadside vegetable garden.

Something's up.














It's a utility easement. That means they have certain rights. Big rights. Gardening in the rural, forest habitat utility easement obviously has unique challenges.

When I arrived early this summer I spent a good amount of time with chainsaw in hand clearing up the trees that had been chopped and dropped last winter. Now there are two supine telephone poles looming over the gardens.

Something's up.














No one called me so I called them. A mini wild goose chase ensued and it seems they are replacing all the old poles on this line "to ensure that I will have power." That would certainly be nice. The power went out twice this week. When I called them about that there was no mention of old pole replacement. They sent someone out to scout for the problem.

Apparently my poles are old.














Now this pole, this pole in the middle of the roadside vegetable garden is command central for the last three properties, literally at the end of the line.

In the wild goose chase I didn't quite catch Eddie, the man in the know about poles, just a message on the machine saying to call. I assume by the near proximity, they intend to tear down this old pole and screw in a new one.


















It all looks kind of barren now. A utility pole standing crew must see this and think, piece of cake, compared to the rest of the line climbing the flanks of a heavily forested mountain not necessarily close to the road. I know what is in here though, not much, but still I don't want it mushed. This morning my mini stack o' rocks, a harbinger of bigger things to come had been toppled and a coffee cup tossed out as trash.

I think I would like to help out and do some coordination with the raising of the pole dudes. Already the right fence wing coming into the drive has been removed to allow a big pole auger to get to the base of the pole. If I can just point out the baby plants nearby and give them plenty of room to work, the old pole refreshment should go smoothly.














They look like a pair of giant chopsticks. Maybe there is some magic to be found here. It will take a sling and hydraulic truck to maneuver the new poles into place. Maybe the new pole dudes can be coaxed into rustling a few other things into place.


















These boulders on the other side of the wall that I put into place today were rolled slowly and gently into place. They were entirely too heavy to lift.

















I have much bigger boulders. Boulders too big even to roll. I think I will scout out some locations.














And chase the wild goose a bit more.