Southern Matters--Supplemental Images

To say that finishing up was a good feeling just doesn't quite capture the moment. There was--and is--some unfinished business. There's no drainage from the acre pond, so I made a snap decision to cut the dam between the acre pond and the black water just enought to keep the water from going over the road if we were to get 10" over a few days as we did earlier in the spring. Insurance. Unfortunately, I don't feel very confident about how deep the cable was placed under the broken culvert--it was full of water and couldn't be seen, though the cable was pushed down as well as possible with a piece of conduit. It is at least 28" deep and probably 3-4 feet there. In any case, I'll have to think carefully before digging in that area again.

I need to replace the black water culvert, too, and that should be ok. The concrete culverts were supported by lighter and as long as the backhoe doesn't go deeper than the lighter, no problem. Actually, I think the cable here is probably close to four feet deep, but 14000 volts is nothing to "think" about.

Needless to say, the road by the pond was impassable for about a week, and needs work to restore it to the pre-cable condition.

	Installation of the Underground Power to the Farm This brief documentary will cover only the essentials of getting the power installed up to the homestead. It was an eventful and stressful day, not much of which would improve the world by plowing through it. The highlights are valuable, especially the general location of the underground line (14,000 volts!!!) and its depth--scary: the crew chief noted that he had seen the tires burned off a backhoe. Overall, it was a lengthy process as I tried to plan as well as possible all along. I met with EMC representatives before the tin shed was erected, obtained written information, met with EMC representatives again three times before it was a "done deal." There were some compromises and adversity, but the end result is what I hoped for. It was unquestionably expensive for EMC (and for me).






At this point, the story becomes decidedly more "interesting." The trencher made it under the 1st (west) culvert that drains the black water (a bay that is about 11 acres and varies seasonally in depth, but I've never found a place more than waist deep in it except where Daddy had it dug out right by the road). The second culvert (east) that used to drain the acre pond is also made from concrete sections butted together. (I say "used to" in reference to the fact that this part of the country used to have plenty of water.) Not being sealed, the sections leak, hence the water in the trench, above. Unfortunately, the trencher didn't make it past the 2d culvert without breaking a section, and then it became a real mess.

We had no relief--water flowing into the trench and filling it from both culverts and from both directions. A beaver had decided that the spillways weren't high enough and had done the only thing a beaver knows how to do: build a dam. Fortunately, the beaver's work was pretty close at hand, easy to find. (Ironically <last image>, Alan warned me to take care wandering around in the swamp on account of cottonmouths.) Anyhow, once I broke the dam, the black water started running off well, but given the size of the pond, it took about two days. The road became a mess, and the crew chief called an acquaintance to help out--that acquaintance turned out to be Michael Bailey, my first cousin once removed just up the road. Michael sent an excellent operator over to block the trench, dip out the water, and fill up the mess. Thanks also to Berrien County Road Department, who sent me a load of clay/sand fill.


	To say that finishing up was a good feeling just doesn't quite capture the moment. There was--and is--some unfinished business. There's no drainage from the acre pond, so I made a snap decision to cut the dam between the acre pond and the black water just enought to keep the water from going over the road if we were to get 10" over a few days as we did earlier in the spring. Insurance. Unfortunately, I don't feel very confident about how deep the cable was placed under the broken culvert--it was full of water and couldn't be seen, though the cable was pushed down as well as possible with a piece of conduit. It is at least 28" deep and probably 3-4 feet there. In any case, I'll have to think carefully before digging in that area again. I need to replace the black water culvert, too, and that should be ok. The concrete culverts were supported by lighter and as long as the backhoe doesn't go deeper than the lighter, no problem. Actually, I think the cable here is probably close to four feet deep, but 14000 volts is nothing to "think" about. Needless to say, the road by the pond was impassable for about a week, and needs work to restore it to the pre-cable condition.
There were three notable highlights of the day. The first was tying in the power to the meter base (right). The second (not shown) was tying in the cable to the main (overhead) lines on the road. Sweetest of all (also not shown) was turning on the lights. No more generator noise, fumes, and expense. Yahoo!
In the course of cleaning up for and the construction of the shed up to this point (April 10th, 2008), three rattlesnakes have been confronted. (See Outlaw-192.) I killed this one with a grounding rod as he was approaching the packhouse in the background. Mature timber rattlers generally run 36-60" long. Obviously, this one had been on steroids. It had not long ago swallowed something like a small rodent as I saw and then confirmed by palpation. Close inspection shows a faint brownish red streak running down the middle of the back, identifying this one as a canebrake timber rattler. (For a better look at the streak, click here [this snake was mowed over a little back of the settlement when I was clearing the field for planting longleaf pines in September, 2008].)