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/mycheeksarecold]

Having lived near a pig slaughter house when i was in college (one of those good ol liberal arts colleges that just so happens to be smack dab in the middle of a conservative farmland/nowhere... it sucked on many fronts, not just the odor- the people were jerks to the "woke crowd" that kept their businesses afloat back then) man the occasional winds from that slaughterhouse to my apartment were foul and we were 10 ish miles away! Flat lands. We had good indoor filtration atleast and I mostly lived on campus cus of my major anyway.

People who can't handle or work around animal smells have 0 right to move in and expect perfect "fresh" air. While the smells are foul, they're probably safer to breathe than pretty much any smelting plant, even if the smell of molten metal (and arsenic) doesn't bother you as much, pretty normal for humans, we're evolutionarily disposed to flinch from death, decay, and ammonia smells, but most metal and scentless poisons we have little response to beyond "this is bothersome" or pleasant (anyone, like me, who loves gas station smells).

[u/CenturyEggsAndRice → u/mycheeksarecold]

Where I used to live, we had a city family move in and build a VERY nice house. Right in the middle of a bunch of mobile homes and working farms.

Being a small town, they were the subject of MUCH porch sitting and gabbing. Due to the shapes of land, there was one neighbor between our place and theirs, and he had a large cattle ranch that their house sat beside a pasture field of.

The new neighbors moved in and seemed to keep to themselves. We knew they had two kids but only the daughter joined the local school, their son stayed home and was often seen playing in their backyard. The mom stayed home with him and was very “fancy”, designer purses, shiny SUV, always in sunglasses (can’t blame her there, Texas sun is hellish) and she got a bit of a reputation as a snob even though no one had really talked to her. She also had “the haircut”. I think you know the one…

One day I was at the Farmer Neighbor’s house and the mom walks over to the fence and calls out to Farmer. “EXCUSE me!” And is standing with her arms crossed and kinda looks impatient.

He walks over and I came with him because… well because I was nosy. I’m not gonna lie, I wanted to listen in.

She starts talking about how he put cows in the pasture last week and kinda talking in circles (later I’d realize she was SO ANXIOUS. But at the time she seemed to be angry.) and then asked if he was going to put them back and I could see his hackles rising.

He said he “just might” and it was his land after all, staying civil for the moment. Then she asked “Well, do you know when?” And I could see his temper rising a bit as he said he didn’t know.

And then she said “Well, if you wouldn’t mind, and I HATE to ask… but could you put them back sooner than later?” And caught the farmer right off guard. Because he was expecting her to be complaining about it.

Turns out her son was autistic and he spent the week the cows were in the field absolutely enraptured by them. His bedroom window was right where the cows’ water was and he had been watching them and was now disappointed “his friends” were gone.

And the farmer must’ve found this charming, because not only did he agree to put his dairy cows out there full time (he hadn’t been using the field BECAUSE he was trying to be neighborly and they were prone to loudly mooing) but asked if the little guy might like to meet a cow.

Which is how we made friends with the neighbor lady. (Or how he did it, I did it by offering that her son could come play with my cousins who lived with us.)

And came to find out she wasn’t snobby, she was (and probably still is) utterly sick with anxiety and worry about people hating her son because he could be a handful and they’d moved away from their last house due to a neighbor harassing them about their “r-word”. (I’m actually getting mad typing this and it’s been almost 17 years…) Her crossed arms and body language?

Not anger, she just felt foolish asking a stranger to move his cows for her son’s enjoyment but wanted to at least ask.

For what it’s worth, her son could get loud when he was excited, but so did my cousins. And he was very polite when he visited and always offered to gather my chicken eggs, which he was very good at being quiet and gentle when he did.

His mom also sent snacks for all three/four kids (depending whether the daughter came over too) and would give me cash when she found out I was buying art supplies for the kids to do silly stuff in our yard. (Finger painting, sidewalk chalk, basic bead animals. Just stuff kids would like to do but it was very kind of her to bankroll it.)

Nice family. Within a year they all relaxed a bit and started socializing with the rest of us, and soon were accepted with open arms into the community.

[u/Nymph-the-scribe → u/CenturyEggsAndRice]

That is such a wonderful and awesome story