It seems like a long time ago that I rented the trencher and spent a weekend wrestling that beast through 130 feet of roots and rocks.  Of course at that point I still had to raise stud walls on one whole side of the barn and put up siding so that the electric service box could be mounted inside a rough-finished surface.   Six weeks later now all that initial work is done.  To my surprise the electrician took a look, said, “It’s fine, let’s drop in the pipe, pull the wire and mount the box.”   And that’s what happened.

Of course it wasn’t quite that simple.  I spent a few hours doing a final clean-out of the trench line down to it’s proper depth and extending the trench, very carefully, right up to the current service post on the edge of the driveway.

In order to avoid as much of the leach field lines as possible, the trench line snakes through the trees and doubles back toward the barn.  This added several turns in the pipe and it was quite a task pulling the copper lines from the service post all the way up into the barn through the buried pipe.  Once again I momentarily wished I had another 50 lbs on me.   I was pulling on one end while the electrician was pushing on the other.    Actually, it was more like trying to pull a watermelon or a canon ball  through a very long straw.  But, it finally came through and now I have electric service to the barn.   And, more importantly, I am humbly grateful for the fact that I don’t have to dig trenches or fish electric wire for a living.  “Not one of the more glamorous aspects of the job,” said the electrician.  Right.

The installation will be inspected next week and afterwards I’ll be able to start the rest of the stud walls, wire the outlets, lights, telephone and network cables,  insulate everything, sheet rock everything , install a wood stove, flooring, windows, doors and on and on and on.   Throughout the project, I keep reminding myself that the REAL project, the REAL goal is to move through each step with awareness and peacefulness and to accept and deal with what goes well  and not so well with the same equinimity.    Most days, when I’m finished with the day’s work,  I sit in the doorway above and look out towards the creek.  It’s quiet.  It’s just sitting.  It’s more than enough.