One Down One Up

The title of this story could be ‘The Ups and Downs of an Old Power Pole’.

Electric power in this neck of the woods did not exist until the 1960’s when enough juice was sent through the new lines to illuminate a light bulb or two, it was a miraculous thing not to have to carry lanterns after the sun went down for the day. Today we do not think twice about all the do-dads, thing-a-ma-jigs, what-nots, gizmos and all kinds of paraphernalia are plugged into outlets to suck up electricity even when we are not in the need of a little illumination.

The person who had this farm before us had set a power pole up on the other side of the road to service a very modest house for his hired hand. That pole was made from a cedar tree that had been grown right on the place, it had not been treated or sealed in any way, most of the knots had been cut off but some still stuck out and inch or two from the log. Once the hole had been dug, the log jockeyed into an upright position, the dirt was tamped in around the base the wires were strung.

The untreated pole lasted about thirty years until, during a wild storm, broke at the ground level and landed on the small house. We owned the farm by then and took to fixing the problem, but we did not have a new pole at our disposal. We went the quick fix way by cutting off the rotten part of the pole below ground and filled in the hole the rest of the way with river rock. A new hole was dug a little farther away from the damaged house so no more damage would be incurred, and the remaining pole was re-set. That lasted another thirty years before falling over when the herd sire began using the pole as his favorite scratching post. The house that used the pole for power has long since been torn down but the pole is still needed to run the irrigation line that pumps water to the stock tanks for the cattle.

By now, we had acquired a solid pole, one that had been left from the power company many years ago. It had been treated and is sound all the way through. We dug out the rotted end of the old pole and sunk the newer, treated pole about six feet into the dirt and slowly began to fill and pack earth and rock in around it. That took one day, the time between morning chores and evening chores. A second day will get the rest of the hole surrounding the pole filled in and one lucky contestant who will shimmy up the pole to first drill pilot holes then screw in heavy insulators before attaching  the electric lines.

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