Except for chainsaws, all the work is done by hand: clearing, getting the poles on site, installing the poles and running wire....
Various crews from various localities do various jobs. The first job was to hack open space for installing electric poles. To do this along the coast near False Bluff, nearly thirty men with machetes came south from Kukra Hill by boat through Smokey Lane Lagoon and up our canal every morning. Using our place as a staging area got them close to where a big chunk of their work had to be done. The men in the crew carried water and food in addition to their machetes and their machete sharpening equipment; and a few men brought chain saws to cut what the machetes wouldn't, which wasn't much.
And bit by bit the miles of 'bush' got chopped away, leaving an opening about eighty-feet wide like a ribbon through the jungle.
This picture doesn't give a good perspective of the boat that ferried men and equipment to False Bluff. The boat's between thirty and forty feet long.
Once again, here's the crew for the day heading from their boat/taxi across our front yard on their way to work.
A bit difficult to envision a negative, but this newly opened space disappearing into a curve to the north is where electricity will travel.. and it's a very small part of the twenty-six miles that's being cleared. The stick at the foreground is where an electric pole will be planted.
Chain saws at rest at the house.
