Dirty Good

When Life Hands You Dirt, Make Mud Pies

As soon as we got to DRF, we requested an upgrade to our existing electrical service with Consumers Energy.  The farm ran on the ol’ knob and tube system.

Because no one had lived here on a full-time basis for so many years, there had never been a need to upgrade. I imagine the old service worked fine for the house and the barns with the 100 amps that were wired in, back in the day.

It’s easy to take modern day conveniences for granted.  Like blow drying your hair while the refrigerator is plugged in. Or having enough outlets to power your computer and your printer in the same room.  True story.

After 12 weeks of waiting for Consumers Energy, the wait is finally over. Three big ass trucks rolled up our dirt road like they owned the place, or at least, owned all the easements.  It was pretty impressive.   Our view to the east, shows ‘traffic’ coming over a half mile out — so we can see who and what is rolling up the road — with quite a bit of warning.  When I saw the first BAT coming up the hill, I knew it could be promising. Even though Consumers’ customer service center was rather “challenging” to deal with, the people in the field were all awesome.  They wasted no time sinking the new pole.  

Then, because 100 amps isn’t much by today’s standards, we needed a new transformer across the road.

The new transformer allows us go from 100 amps to 400 amps.  (Insert a caveman-like grunt here.) Me have power. Thump thump on the chest.

Amps are kind of like the water in your pipes.  And we went from a trickling stream to a fast flowing river.

Oh Well

For those of you who know the farm, you know we have a big dirt pile sitting out our north windows while we wait for our new septic to go in, and that we have fresh dirt/clay/muck ground surrounding us on the south and west sides of the new addition.  Because the addition is off the west side of the house, our view to the east gave us some semblance of normalcy even in the midst of construction.

Sigh.  Our view to the east was the shortest route for the cable to be buried.

The mantra pounding in my head while this trenching happened:  I will not be sad.  I will be glad for more power. 

I will not be sad. 

I will be glad for more power.  

I mean, what’s a little more dirt?

The joke is on me… we are Dirt Road Farm after all.

At least we are now a Dirt Road Farm with amperage!

Life is dirty good.

xoxo