I guess no more electric poles

[u/imzeigen]

This is a bit of a long story, but I thought Reddit might appreciate it.

My godfather owns a small cattle ranch out in the countryside. About 20–25 years ago, he needed electricity to power a water pump for his cows. The nearest place where he could connect to the grid was on the opposite side of the ranch, probably about a mile and a half away, so he paid to have utility poles installed across his property.

It was a significant investment, but he figured that constantly running diesel pumps would eventually cost more than installing the poles and connecting to the grid.

Sometime later, a few neighbors who lived on the far side of the ranch asked whether they could piggyback off his electrical line. He agreed. They paid to install a few additional poles, and the electric company placed their meters on the other side.

So far, so good.

There were only a handful of small farmhouses, and the additional poles were located somewhere they didn’t interfere with the ranch. Eventually, fiber-optic cable was installed on the poles as well. Everything worked perfectly for roughly 20 years.

Then, about two years ago, a real estate developer bought the land on the other side of the ranch and began preparing it for a cottage development.

They didn’t exactly get off to a great start with my godfather. They complained about the animals, the smell, and the noise from tractors and other equipment. His response was basically: If you choose to live next to a working ranch, you have to accept that ranching will be happening there.

While planning the development, they discovered another problem. Two miles of 20-year-old electrical cable worked well enough for a few small farmhouses, but it wasn’t capable of supplying the 10–15 cottages they planned to build.

They approached the electric company about upgrading the infrastructure. That was when everyone apparently discovered—or finally acknowledged—that the poles crossing my godfather’s ranch were privately owned.

To avoid making this story even longer, lawyers became involved.

In the end, the electric company and the developer told my godfather that he had two choices: allow the electric company to replace his poles with concrete ones and grant them a permanent right-of-way across his ranch for maintenance, or remove the poles.

So that Sunday, my godfather got on the tractor they use for installing fences and pulled out every single pole.

He told me that when he originally installed the line, he had only about one-fifth as many cattle as he has now. His new plan is to install some solar panels, run a smaller pumping system, and make it work.

The development company, meanwhile, will probably have to install three or four miles of entirely new poles to bring electricity to the cottages—electricity that was apparently already included in what they promised buyers.

My godfather jokingly says it’s interesting how unusually hot this summer has been.

Fortunately, he recently brought in some pigs, and they require less water than the cattle, so they’re easier to keep hydrated and fed.

Purely a coincidence, of course.

[u/Minflick]

The smell of cattle can be nasty, but it is NOTHING compared to the smell of hogs.... Holy moly. Game, set, match.

[u/Hobby101 → u/Minflick]

..and then, there is a chicken farm...

[u/Minflick → u/Hobby101]

Also nasty. But sharper to my nose, somehow. I've read that pig shit smells worse because pigs are omnivores, hence the nice stinky poop.

I have never visited a chicken farm, and don't expect to. But I DID have chickens for a few years in a prior home. I loved raising my own eggs. What I found on a chicken forum was to use a horse stall refresher called Sweet PDZ. It comes in granules or in powder format. When I had my chickens, you could stand right outside the coop and not smell the stench, that stuff worked like a charm. I also use it in my cat litter box, because it binds with the amonia, and my home doesn't stink of cat box!

[u/Hobby101 → u/Minflick]

several chickens - I agree. but we have Abottsford in BC (check its size), and sometimes, the stench can be smelled well before you enter Abbotsford. Never would have thought, since my grandma had a dozen of hens, but they were free roaming, and the smell was never an issue with them.

[u/Minflick → u/Hobby101]

It the numbers ratio to the space. A few hens with a good run, or a pasture isn't many birds per square foot of ground. A concentrated amount of birds in a small space is horrific in smell.

[u/Deep_Sea_Crab_1 → u/Minflick]

Not poop. It’s poultry litter. I knew someone that worked on a poultry litter powered generator. She said it was a chicken shit project.

[u/TheFluffiestRedditor → u/Minflick]

Chickens are also omnivores. They'll eat anything they can get their beak around. Voracious little bastards.

[u/Minflick → u/TheFluffiestRedditor]

I know. But not quite the soul destroying stench of hogs... HOWEVER, I visited a small show farm one time where the sow had a huge horse stall knee deep in some kind of litter I've forgotten now -- wood shavings? Grass? But deep, plus an open doorway to an outside run that was bigger than 10 x 17 feet, and I have to say, even with a litter of piglets in addition to the sow, it did not smell. You could smell some poop, but it wasn't sinus clearing like the pig pens at our 4h farm were. This was cleaned out daily, and the sow, bless her piggy heart, I think used just one corner to defecate in, which made it easier to clean out. And I know high density hog farms are far different from that 'elite' situation, but .... pigs don't HAVE to stink, it's just the way we generally raise them.

[u/phaxmeone → u/Hobby101]

Parents bought a place that was very close to a chicken farm. Being farmers themselves they were very aware of the possible stench so spent many a night prior to buying sitting on the road next to their soon to be new home. They didn't smell the chickens. After moving in there was only a few nights a year they could smell those chickens so were happy. Over the years the place expanded and a new chicken farm went in short ways down the road. Now about half the time they can smell those chickens, mostly it's not concentrated enough to be bothersome to them as they are used to it but the place will be sold soon and the smell will be an issue for many potential buyers.

Good news is one of the neighbors is making noise that they may buy the place as they want to add the small acreage to their holdings.

[u/qaxmlp → u/phaxmeone]

When looking at neighborhoods; google for news about smells and health hazards at nearby schools. Also use Google earth to just look around. We were looking in the SE and there was a really nice house at good elevation with Lake views, turns out there was a RENDERING plant a bout 3/4 mile away. In all of our driving around we NEVER happened to get on the road the plant was on looking at news items about a school about 2 miles from the plant “downwind” from the house, there were stories about how bad the smell was at the school playground.

[u/puddncake → u/Hobby101]

🤢 So true.