Electrifying

At 9:00 am heard a very loud strange sound from upstairs & thought heavy furniture was being rearranged on the wooden floor.

Angie was upstairs & thought there had been an earthquake as the floor lifted but said nothing as she went out to feed the horses & only then saw the electricity line down on the field.

Unbelievably we still had electricity as only 1 phase had been knocked out.

Phoned the electricity company LVN and they were simply superb on the phone.  The first scout arrived within an hour to access the situation, then turned off the electricity at the main switch in the village & called for reinforcements.

Later a large truck with lift & two vans arrived & set to work. They couldn't establish any direct damage to the house apart from the very bent pole on the roof which had lifted tiles. They wouldn't be able to replace the pole for now nor the three wooden poles on our property but would do the necessary temporary work to get us up & running.

The weather was miserable: cold wind & drizzling, just short of turning to snow. The fields were too wet to drive on without causing a real mess so the agreed they would climb the poles with ropes.

First of all the tree still lying on all four power lines had to be cut away with a chainsaw - quite entertaining to watch as the lines were under full tension. Then the one pole where all the fittings had been ripped out and was rotten at the top one-third had to have a temporary cross beam screwed on & taking care to remove our bird nesting box!
Other two poles straightened & finally the four lines from the house pole to the first wooden post were replaced by a modern single wrapped insulated bunch of four cables. Only when they attempted to cut the old wires did they realise why the lines had not snapped under the weight - the lines are so old that they are made of proper heavy steel and required special cutting gear!

By 16:00 we were back on power. Sometime in the coming months, they will be back to replace all the poles, both wooden & metal. Not sure if they will also have to replace the other 6 or so poles not on our property but which are used exclusively to supply us.

No cost us to us - not only was the tree not on our property but belonged to the State forestry but I think even had it been, the electricity company are still responsible & send around a company usually every autumn to check out for such dangers & remove any possible dangers, again at their expense. Until about three years ago this was done by a superb garden maintenance company from Ottobeuren but districts were reorganised. The new business did check us out once but only took a half-hearted look & didn't bother to walk to the bottom of the field where the offending tree was. #

Big thanks to the great team from the electricity company, even though we have opted for the last 10 years or more to use a different company to actually supply the electricity.