Power lines

This fluorescent beauty appeared in our backyard this week, and with it came a non-budgeted expense.

This is a temporary power pole that will be used to run electricity to The Project while the house is currently a pile of sticks and rubble. Right now, electricity comes into our house on the left side of the property (which is why the circled wall section below is still standing; once the temporary pole is connected, this section can be demolished).

At this point, you might be asking “Hey, don’t you have a big ass redwood tree on the left side of your property?” We do indeed! And you know where the power line currently runs? Right through the goddamn tree. Here’s a picture of it taken right after a storm in March, weighed down by a broken bough:

Now you might be thinking “Hey, didn’t PG&E recently have to shell out a fuck ton of money in settlement fees because it consistently prioritized profit over safety and maybe it’s not a great idea to have a power line resting on actual kindling in highly flammable California?” Also, yes.

Anyhow, the situation above is evidently totally cool cool cool unless you want to upgrade your service and then it is not. New regulations (wisely) stipulate that power lines cannot be located within 3 feet of a tree trunk or branch. Since the rear corners of our yard are dominated by not one but two big ass trees, PG&E requires us to shell out for a support cable that will be placed mid-yard between the power poles. The deposit for this service was $2,500.

Our next step is to see if some judicious trimming of the oak tree on the right side of the property might allow us to run the power line through a safe (but less obtrusive) space rather than smack down the middle of the yard.