My career as a Lineman is full of daily hazards, most of which can be deadly. Dangers of the actual job are one thing, then you add nature into the mix and it takes things to a whole new level. For instance, working in the mountains during a wind storm as the tall pine tree sway back and forth over your head. You are on top of a 45 foot pole making repairs… no where to run or hide if a tree top decides to bust off. Maybe wondering through the woods in the middle of the night trying to find the cause of an outage, then you step in pile of bear shit?!!?
The mountains around here have a few predatory animals: Cougars, wolves, and Bears. If I could pack my 1911 I would!!
Funny story!!
I got busted by a safety inspector about a year ago for having a concealed weapon in my bucket truck. I was packing some serious heat!! A Red Ryder BB gun was behind the seat and he did not like that at all!! Yes, I got a little talking to but how else am I suppose to defend myself against a rabid squirrel??? That’s exactly what I told my boss. He shook his head at me with a smirk on his face and just said, “No more BB guns in the truck”… “Yes Sir.”
Alright now back to what I was talking about… wait… umm… ya, hazards, nature, lions, tigers and bears… Oh My!!
So this transformer sits in the middle of a field and the farmer’s center pivot sprinkler goes right over the top of it. He built a covering for it to protect it and his switch gear. Good idea!!
We have been having some weird outages in the area and I needed to look inside to see if I could find the cause of these outages. Then I noticed something had dug under the concrete pad that the transformer sits on.
I slammed my fist on the door hoping whatever was in there would come out… No Luck!! I then removed the lock and bolt, stood to the side, turned the latch and swung the door open. I used the door as a shield, I don’t want some rabid animal to come flying out of there and latch onto my neck or face. I can see it now… the local news headline…
I peaked around the door to find a nest of sorts along with piles of shit along the inside walls.
This is the 480 volt side of the transformer and I still need to unbolt and open the other side. Whatever critter is in there could have crawled under the divider and to High Voltage side. Again using the door as a shield, I swung it open expecting some sort of animal to come out… nothin’!!! I peaked around the door and found…
Those turds are what a medium sized dog would push out… DAAAANG!!
It didn’t stink to horribly bad, so I’m assuming this critter had moved on. Though he could still be under the concrete pad. There was a nice size tunnel between the cables on the high voltage side that went under the pad.
After shoveling all the poo and nesting material out I filled in the hole with some poo/dirt. Obviously this critter doesn’t mind sleeping next to it’s own turds but maybe it won’t like digging through them.
I didn’t want to fill in the entrance with just dirt. The critter could easily dig its way back in. Looking around there was a chunk of concrete sitting there. Perfect!!
I grabbed my trusty Thor Hammer and busted some chunks off of it to fill in the hole.
Hopefully by stuffing and beating these chunks of concrete in the hole it will deter this critter and others from going inside. We have had snakes get up inside and fry themselves before.
There was another smaller hole in the back that I filled in too
I went from chasing the cause of an outage, the possibility of getting my face eaten off, to shit cleaning duty…
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