November Hill farm journal, 218

Channeling this peaceful day with dogs this week:

I hope everyone has made it through Debby, or is soon to be viewing Debby in the past tense! We have had, and are still having, much rain and a little wind. The farm is soggy and the skies are gray, but we have been lucky compared to those who have had tornados, power outages, and big trees down. 

Just before Debby came through we had “contracted by our electric co-op tree trimming crews” on the lane, and they destroyed our mailbox and dumped huge oak branches all the way down the front of our fence line, damaging the native shrubs I planted. That was bad enough, but the supervisor’s rude, verbally abusive behavior went way over the line, and I ended up on the phone with our electric co-op and the corporate headquarters of the contracted company, whose name I’ll share here in case you ever have to deal with them. Xylem Tree “Experts” is based in Virginia and send crews out to many states on behalf of the electric companies who hire them. 

Just remember, you have rights as a property owner and you can generally contact your state’s Utilities Commission to stop whatever it is they’re doing wrong. In the case of these contracted tree trimming crews, they themselves have no rights regarding your property. They don’t hold the rights of way, they have no claim to be on your property. If there is anything to be discussed, it’s between you and the power company itself, and your state’s Utilities Commission has the power to pause everything until something mutual can be worked out. 

The tree trimming crews that are contracted almost never live in the communities they’re working in, and they seem to generally be arrogant and rude when confronted. If this is upsetting, call 911. No worker has a right to intimidate you on your private property. 

The day they destroyed our mailbox and damaged shrugs, our co-op instructed them to leave and not to come back. We are scheduled to meet with our co-op person on Tuesday and he has assured me he will personally supervise the remaining work that needs to be done, with me or my husband also present. Note that the crew supervisor told me the day of the damage that he WOULD come back and that they WOULD finish the job. Um, no, you will not, and get out of my space.

I’m in contact with corporate offices to get reimbursed for their damage and have filed a complaint against this supervisor. 

In more pleasant news, we have a little birthday girl in the family this week. My granddaughter is now one year old! We’re excited to celebrate her and also her big brother, who told me yesterday that he wants to ride Little Man when he gets older. Little Man had chiro this week and had nothing other than a normal maintenance adjustment, which his vet said was pretty remarkable considering the kind of surgery he had. We are happy that he (and Cody too) are doing well. Next visit the donka boys get their turns. 

Here’s to summer sliding quietly into fall. 

And I must say it: I’m so very happy to have Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on the Democratic ticket for November. What an amazing voting experience this will be!