. I have a Japanese maple that I noticed earlier this year was possibly touching the power line going to my house. It's not huge, maybe 20 to 25 feet high? It's growing directly underneath it. I spoke to the utility company and they said don't try to take it down with live power lines above, we can schedule a date with you where a crew will come and "drop the line" so I (or my tree guy) can cut the tree down.
It's just starting to leaf out now... Now if the tree were growing within 10 feet or so of the road, they would take the tree down for me, but this tree is not fronting the road.
We scheduled it for mid-May, but the utility guy mentioned he was planning on coming here today to take a look at it, so I met him to discuss the tree. Normally you tell them when you want them to come back after they drop the line, and I told him I was sure all I needed was an hour (or less). I was a little worried they would not return right away and meanwhile I'd have no power.
He called me later today and said they could come tomorrow instead of mid-May, so I said ok. I had told my tree guy about the original date to see if he could take it down but he didn't really commit to it (small job), but I figured if he didn't show up, I think I could handle it myself with my mini chain saw. Still, if the utility company offered, I would gladly have them do it. Either way, I'll still have some work ahead of me to cut it up and drag the limbs into the woods.
In my state, the utility company is very unpopular due to their slow response to restore power during a number of heavy-hitting storms that caused widespread extended outages. So it is nice to have them be so accommodating.
I have plans to take my father out to lunch tomorrow but hopefully I can drag limbs out of the way so I can drive away if I don't finish everything up by mid-day.
I devoted most of the day to pulling garlic mustard. It is bagged and ready to be taken to the invasive plant bin at the transfer station.
Our selectmen voted this week to pass a rodenticide ban which the conservation commission put forward. Rodenticides are used in bait boxes around buildings to kill rodents. (I noticed a box at my local Whole Foods, and they have also been used around the many long-vacant buildings of a former state mental health hospital that is slowly being repurposed.)
The problem is that the poison doesn't kill them immediately, but takes days, and what happens is they crawl aroun and then raptors, owls, foxes, even house cats will kill and eat them, and then they die. Rodenticides are now the leading cause of death for raptors. We are the first town in my state to pass such a ban and we are now intent on spreading the word so that other towns will do the same.
A friend and I had lunch last week at a great Italian place in town. They have a price fixe menu featuring a 3-course lunch for $22. Large portions, too.
April 22nd, 2026 at 03:40 pm 1776872458
Japanese Maples look pretty. Too bad that it has to come down, considering how it’s near the power line.