PNW update

[ultrarunner]

I was thinking it was a trade off between cost and reliability... didn't realize reliability was also an issue.

Maybe the overriding factor where my Grandparents had their farm was lightning strikes...

 

[Pilot]

Burying isn't necessarily more expensive.

Back in the 1970's when I was a new forester on the Flathead NF I was assigned a project to do an environmental analysis for a powerline to serve a little community on private land in the middle of the national forest. Probably about 8 miles though the forest, mostly lodgepole pine which is always looking for an excuse to fall over.

I talked to the power company about poles vs. underground and their plan was to go on poles. I asked about the cost difference for going underground. Cost per foot was about equal, but it would cost a couple hundred dollars to take it from the pole on the highway down to underground. A couple hundred dollars! They would burn that cost just fixing the down line once or twice, which would likely happen every year. We insisted on burying.

At our own place, 1,200 ft. from the road, the phone company had a plow and buried both lines for about $1,000 less than the total cost of going on poles.

Check around. The plow was fast, buried the line in less than 4 hours start to finish.

 

[Johndeere3720]

We had over 20" of snow on Wednesday. It started to slowly melt Thursday. Friday we went up to Sumner and picked up my new used Deere 317 skid steer. Now i am more prepared for the snow, now that it's almost gone. i have to say, I-5 was kinda a mess on Friday, I cant tell you how many trees were down, between each mile post there was anywhere from 5-30 down. No lanes were blocked though. Freezing rain once you got through Olympia but luckily the roads were just wet.

 

[ultrarunner]

Thought I had made it through unscathed this time as compared the lion of a storm a few years ago that drop trees everywhere after a month of rain.

The snow broke records going back 30 or 40 years... even being it was no more than 12 to 14 inches near sea level.

The problem is just about every single tree suffered damage... the weight of the wet snow snapped branches with such force that it sounded like gun fire.

A single smallish branch on a VERY tall fir took out the glass skylight at around 3 am... not sure what that will cost trying to get it repaired from 800 miles away...

My renter says they are moving back to Tacoma to be in a big city where it is safe... just navigating the more rural roads was close to impossible because of the carpet of tree branches...

My tree guy has a different take... he says the snow did a good job thinning out the weaker limbs... if anything... the surviving limbs have been tested and should present less of a danger...