Power Lines

Do you have power lines running through your fields? I have two fields with them and they are a pain to work around. They take up valuable land and weeds grow around them.

This wider machinery makes you want to just drive straight but there aren't many straight fields around here.

When electricity came to this area, they used the old rule of shortest distance between two points. Future expansion and farming was not at the top of the list. Low cost and convenience was.

I called the power company when we bought this farm and they wanted $11,000 to put them where I wanted them. I guess we just have to live with them.

This is one advantage you folks in the newer settled country has over us. Your lines were laid out straight or even better, buried underground. That is even more expensive to do correctly.

There is one picture sent around the Internet of a combine tangled up with a tower that is pretty scary. I don't know how the guy got into it like yesterday's picture but it happens so quickly. Ground potential is important too, there is so much voltage passing through the lines at all times.

We don't want to live without electricity but we sure could live without the poles.

Ed