Being surprized and getting burned

I got a phone call from the electric company a couple of weeks ago.  They were about to set our new power pole and install our power drop.  Since they were adding a new pole for our place, they wanted to eliminate the next pole down the line.  They asked if I had any objections as they would have to cut a little brush to get access to remove it.  "No problem", I said.  So when we arrived Friday, May 25, for our next bit of work at Moss Hollow, we were shocked to say the least.  We did not recognize the place.  The power company had totally cleared at least 20 feet of brush and trees under the wires and back from the road the entire length of our frontage.  What we had left as a nice buffer and screen was gone!

BEFORE

AFTER

Of course, my first reactions ranged from shock to extreme anger.  But what can we do?  It actually gives us some other options for developing a plan for the face of the place.  We will need to create a new buffer/screen, but now we can do it with more ornamental plantings.  We have talked for a long time about having a grove of sumac trees.  We now have a nice place for that.  I see dogwood, redbud, forsythia in the future.  We now look at this as an opportunity.  The big lesson learned is: "Don't take anyone's word for what they will do.  And be there when they do it!"

That day, we also met Rick Ward (our pole building contractor) at the site.  I had thought that we could get our brush piles burned, cleaned up, the building site finalized, and the building pad prepared all in this 3 day trip.  Rick was ready to start the building in about three weeks and I said to put us on his calendar.  (A week later, after not getting much of this done, and considering the power company mess, I called him up and re-scheduled for August.)

Saturday morning Jason met us to torch the brush piles, now dried down and ready.  He also put a great effort into cleaning up the mess that the power company left (piles of trees and brush shoved into the woods).  Jan and I kept busy weed-wacking, trimming, cutting giant grape and creeper vines and picking up  deadfall and trash.  It was over 90 degrees and near a very large fire, but the humidity was un-typically low and a nice breeze helped.

That's really about all we accomplished on this trip.  The piles needed at least a few days to burn down.  Jason came back out Monday after we left and sorted out the burn piles; pulling out dirt and re-piling burnables.  We'll be back in a few weeks for the next steps.  Then we'll make a final determination on the exact placement of the shop building.  Then Jason can do more earthwork leveling a pad for it.  We also hope to locate the water line and maybe run some pipe and set a hydrant.  I'll also add a breaker box and receptacles to the power pole.  And then we'll locate the cottage and house sites and the drive down to them.  Jason can clear them in his spare time (he has soooo much of that!).  And, of course, weed-wacking and clean-up is never ending.