Who has the power

We have overhead power lines. Every few years, the power company contracts out clearing of the trees and brush under the lines. Usually, this is a good thing. Homeowners out here don't want a tree cutting off their power anymore than the power company does.

One year, though, whoever did the clearing for the power company did an awful job. I never saw them or their equipment, but it was some kind of gigantic brush cutter. It cleared everything under the wires, but it left a terrible mess. Chewed up stumps of small & medium-sized trees and left gnarly brush everywhere. It was ugly.

This year, the outfit doing the clearing seems to be doing a great job. First they went through and marked every tree that needed trimming with a big blue dot & the trees to be cut with a blue X. They cut & trim the trees with a chainsaw and chip the stuff & haul it away. Very clean and thorough. They have big green trucks.

A big green truck showed up at our place Friday afternoon. One of the trucks has a bucket on a long arm that a guy stands in and trims the high branches. He is a very long way up in the air. Kinda made we wanna pee my pants just watching him...

Because I got home early on Friday, I arrived when they were still right at the front of our power line. From there, they would follow the line that runs about a half mile through the woods. They had their big truck at the beginning of one of our trails, so I drove my car around the pond and up the back way on that trail.

I did this because I wanted to see what they had marked and talk to them. One of our big oaks that sits near our small pond had received a big blue dot. Kev had painted over it in black because we don't want them to touch that old oak. That oak has been there forever, and there is no way it would ever interfere with the power line. We were amazed it had received a blue dot.

So I drove up and parked and went over to talk to the guys. There were 3 of them, and they were super nice. They agreed the oak didn't need a trim and said they wouldn't touch it.

Since Kev has been working on that trail, hauling sand in on it to build it up, the trail was really soft. I had completely forgot that, and my car was stuck in the soft sand. I felt like a dunce. And my car was blocking the trail. And Kev was (hopefully) sleeping, since he's on midnights, so I didn't want to wake him up. I asked the guys how soon they were planning to move their truck forward. They said in about 20 minutes. I said, um, well, here's the thing... my car is in the way and it's stuck in the sand.

Yep, they laughed. I could just hear them all thinking "woman driver." But I had to act all pretty and shit and ask them sweetly to please push me out. They were good guys, and so they did. Whew.

Kev had just been going to bed when the truck arrived shortly after noon. The bedroom windows were open, so he heard the trucks come in. The guys parked and the looked the situation over. Kev could hear them talking. They were saying stuff like, "man, look at this place" and "hey, look there, he's got one of those wood burners" and "look at the size of his pond" and "look at all the wood he's got stacked up out here" and "he's got a big pole barn". Really looked the place over good. Then they started talking about where to start their work and planning it out. Kev told me about it later, and he seemed pretty pleased with himself. As he should, yes... but what's all this "he" & "his" stuff??? that's what I want to know. Last I knew, my name's on the deed, too. Men.