Day 67 brings some excitement to the ranch

 There was an explosion and a fire on a power pole in the middle of the night on the ranch, down near the ditch.  It made the power go out to Jim's house as well as the pumps for the hill ranch and the relays up on the peak of the mountain.  Nothing else caught on fire, and the apple trees nearby were not harmed. 

Noah and I took some pictures when the power company came to fix the damage.  The big bucket trucks were pretty exciting. 

No pole anymore, just a smoldering stump.

You can see that the ground around didn't provide any burnable materials at this time of year.

Because the pole was so near the ditch, the power company men decided to work from across the water, where their trucks could drive fairly close without ruining any of the orchard.  Martin put down this walking bridge, which Noah had a fun time crossing.

Martin (pronounced Mar teen') who works on the ranch is in charge here of assisting the power company workers today.  Too bad the angle isn't good to see his ponytail.  He likes to use a lot of "product" to keep it shiny.  He could be on Zorro if he rode a horse instead of a 4-wheeler.  You should see him zoom around the ranch!

Noah has been checking out the smoking pole, which he says smells like hobo breakfast.  Now he is shinnying down the bank to the walking bridge.

Here come the trucks.  It turns out that the man in blue used to be our farrier.  Now he works for pacific power.

Check out that beard!

Safety instructions right on the drivers' door.

Here our horseshoe-er Bill takes himself, with chainsaw in hand, over to the downed lines, to cut the cross pieces apart.

They had to transfer the new pole to this small truck to bring in, because the big truck couldn't make it around the tight curves of the ditchbank.

Hooking it up to the boom. Cigar remained in place throughout the process...

Easing the new pole across the ditch.

Noah saw lots of water skippers and even a frog in the ditch.  We watched dandelions floating downstream, too.  We couldn't stay long enough to see the new pole go in, because the power company had to bring in a mini excavator to help dig out the old pole, and it was coming from many miles away.  They couldn't risk the big machinery ruining the surrounding trees, and couldn't get enough torque from so far away.

What a day!  I'll tell about the food later, after I teach yet another class tonight!