(Humor maybe, but it's also
true)
I once got into a lot of trouble with electric company
helicopters and Canada geese. The post office was kind of
down on me at the same time. Also, the Sheriff had some
questions that I couldn't really answer. Here's how that all
happened.
It all had to do with two memorable experiences with low
level flights.
At the time I speak of, we had approximately 550 head of
heifers and milking age cows in 8 lots. The cows were
divided in groups with electric wires. The heifers were in a
gated free stall barn. The buildings were set up so that
when all the gates and wires were in proper position, it was
a straight shot for scraping manure of about 500 feet from
the far end to the manure storage area. The alleys ran
parallel to the road and about 100 feet back from the road.
The setup is like a 500 foot long canyon lined with
buildings on both sides.
Electric company helicopters:
There are two sets of electric lines along our road on
the same set of poles. The lower lines are the normal
electic power feed for the homes and farms along the road.
The upper wires are much higher and feed the towns to the
south.
The electric company inspects the insulators on the upper
line from a helicopter about every 60 days. They fly
sideways along the power line about 100 feet from the power
line. A guy looks at the insulators with binoculars.
You can imagine the results of this helicopter thundering
down over the cows. The cows broke down pipe gates, broke
down electric dividing wires, and went through 14 foot doors
20 cows abreast. This happened many times. The electric
company said that they couldn't change their inspection
method. I believe that each time I complained the pilot hung
over our cows a little bit longer.
At that time my throwing arm was still pretty good, so I
developed the strategy of throwing rocks at the helicopter.
I doubt if the guys in the helicopter saw me the first few
times but eventually I did hit them with a rock. Not long
after, the police came out to talk to me about the rock
throwing. The police also must have talked to the pilot
and/or the electric company. The resolution was that the
helicopter now makes a 1/2 mile circle around our farm. Even
now, over 10 years later, they still make the circle.
Canada geese:
Early one morning, not long after sunup, we had all the
cows and heifers on their feet getting ready to scrape the
manure. A flight of Canada geese lifted off our farm pond,
suddendly came around the end of a big machinery shed and
came honking down over the entire herd at a altitude of
about 15 feet. They flew the full 500 foot length of the
lots. There was no warning. The noise was incredible (more
than the helicopter) because they were lower and the honking
echoed from the building on both sides.
The cows and heifers went crazy. They broke down every
gate and electric wire dividing the groups. The entire 550
head, minus about 100 in the holding area, got together in
one group. They ran north breaking down everything in their
way. The continued north for half a mile on State Route 301,
crossed US Route 224, and milled around (over 400 head) in
the post office parking lot.
-end-