Breaking New Ground

I recently started a new job to complement my private tree health care work and my online business. It is with a small construction company that specializes in accessing tight spaces. (www.cuttingedgeconstruction.org). Most impressive to me is the care taken not to disrupt surrounding wildlife, avoid damage to trees and the use of ground covers to reduce compaction on grassy areas. With this comes a down-to-earth attitude from all their employees. I definitely fit in.

Anyway, I digress. This is what transpired this morning and will continue for a few more days: as a groundman, shovellor, implement changer and looker-on, I'm here supporting an excavator operator contracted to dig 6 1/2 foot holes to accommodate power poles. The problem is that the ground is solid slate and maybe granite too. Yesterday, the first hole took all day with an hydraulic breaker and bucket. Today, as I watch hole number 2 being attempted I am suddenly snapped back to reality by Ram Jam's Black Betty playing on the radio through the safety muffs I am wearing. Since I started writing this blog, the line-up has been stellar: Big Bang Baby, Crazy Train, Fat Bottom Girls, Closer to the Heart, Jump...

Whoa! There's a cloud obscuring the sun - sudden coolness reminding me that the summer is waning in these parts and Fall is fast approaching (which is obvious as the Maple leaves are reddening already.) It's good to be outdoors even though the breaker is incessantly shattering the silence. I guess this can be called progression in some circles. For all of us who own dwellings, travel roads, utilize fuel and power, we accept and often forget about the march onward with new construction.

I consider working with this company as an opportunity to instill in this industry even a small amount of care and education about our environment. The consequence of disregard for our small world is rearing its' ugly head more than regularly and although I am not a tree-hugger, I care for the being of plants and the co-existence of man, machine and that which can rapidly be erased or depleted.

TNT by ACDC is pounding away in my ears. How appropriate.