The Power Line

Late yesterday afternoon the power went off in the cabin for the 2nd time in 3 days. (It was just fixed on Monday) We determined that a tree had fallen on just our line. Our line is 5 poles up a steep hill to connect with the BC Hydro Electric line going across the top of the island. We reported it and assumed that it would be fixed in the morning. Well, after our cozy candellit dinner (we had left over soup to warm up!) we heard a boat at about 8:30 and could not believe that here came 4 BC Hydro guys to work! IN THE DARK. Of course they had lights, but it’s still confusing on a steep hill in the dark. No moon, no stars then, about 5 feet into the forest it was a total blackout for me -(made me realize how much I depend on my eyes for balance.) Fortunately H could show them where the tree was and how to get there. Chain sawing and lots of yelling ("Bob, do you have the end yet? it's caught on something!")and stomping about (I think they are boys at heart who love an adventure!) and they finally put the line together and restored the power a bit after 10PM. H, who is a nice guy, put 4 bottles of wine in their kuboda.(which was a big hit!) but I was too tired to deal with the computer...

Maybe you can get a sense of the terrain from this taken today -on the edge of the 30 ft swath for the power poles about half way up the hill, H is looking at maybe 25 more feet to the root ball of this not so big but very tall fir which fell and broke the electric line you can just see on the top and was hung up on the ground line on the bottom which now has a big sag in it. And all those little firs in the sunlight will have to go :-(. as the lines get caught, and they will only get bigger! In fact, we just might have to open up the original trail we had up here which is now totally grown over as we have better trails to walk and even the deer don’t use this one.
I do have to admit I like having electricity. Yes, it would have been great to have them underground, but much much too expensive. And it would deprive these guys of some fun work.
here's a view of the power line from the bottom of the hill

Back blip yesterday