A few weeks ago the power company showed up to replace a couple of utility poles on our road, one of which was next to our acreage. I had never seen this done so I watched them, off and on, for the couple of hours it took to do the job. There were two trucks with cherry pickers mounted on top on either side of the lines. There was a man in each of the buckets attached to the pickers, parallel with the power lines at the top of the pole. They disconnected the wires from the pole and held them suspended in place while the rest of the work below them went on. A new hole was dug next to the old pole with a large auger mounted on a crane attached to another truck. Then using the same crane they pushed on the old pole until it broke in two, the top crashing to the ground. The men in the cherry pickers continued to hold the lines in place. The rest of the pole was pulled out of the ground by a big hydraulic claw, which then grabbed the new pole and put it in the new hole. The base was filled in, the men above holding the lines attached them to the new pole, and they were done. All without us loosing power, and them working during during a windy day in below freezing temperatures.

Our first robins of the year were spotted here March 4^th, hopping around looking for food on the still frozen ground. Just a few days before that we were enjoying a small fire outside and heard the first flock of geese flying overhead. Spring approaches.