Over the last couple of days, we’ve been watching a battle between nature and electricity. Nature loses. Electricity wins.
Battle Causes
Plants want to grow. Trees grow tall anywhere they find a place with enough soil, light and water. Electric lines are not a problem to them.
Storms make the trees sway. Branches hit the lines. Treetops snap off and fall on the lines. Whole trees get uprooted and fall taking the lines down with them.
Electricity Demands
When we lived up north in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, we had no electricity. We used gas lights in the evening. It was cold enough to not need a refrigerator. We brought jugs of water from town.
The wood cook stove had a tank for melting snow which was plentiful for six to seven months. It kept the room warm along with a wood heating stove. The radio ran on batteries.
After moving to Missouri, we got electricity. Running water in the house is so convenient. Lights coming on at the flip of a switch are luxury. Electric appliances are nice too. Add being able to watch movies in the evening.
Most people also have cell phones, internet, freezers. Some have electric cars, fans, heat and ranges. Electricity is the underpinning of our lives.
The Choice
When the electric company came by wanting to clear the trees out of the right of way, we agreed. It isn’t that we don’t value the trees, some of them old and beautiful. We do. It’s that we value electricity more.
If our electricity goes off, we do survive. We remember the old ways and adapt. But it is not something we enjoy doing.
Nature loses. Electricity wins.
Watching the large equipment was amazing. The long boom with a saw at the end sheared off branches fifty and sixty feet up. Chain saws were not needed.
Then there was the mulching machine. It ate its way through six inch trunks turning them into wood shreds. Smaller branches were pulverized.
The big boom carried a man up to trim a tall tree with a chainsaw.
With equipment like these machines, nature hasn’t a chance. Electricity wins every time.