A metaphor…
. . . for the value of our beautiful trees to Enbridge.
Transformation
We know we’ve been a little self-involved this week with all the pictures and the videos of our property. Please forgive us. But here’s just one more look. This one shows the transformation of our property from the day we bought it (all surrounded by chain link) to the creation of our large perennial garden to the blighting of it all just this week:
Construction update
We don’t know about others along the pipeline, but we are receiving periodic construction updates from our ROW agent (we’re grateful for these). Here is the latest:
Clearing crews have finished work on land east of US 23 to Taylor Road. Pipe has been dropped off on property for a few miles east of 23. No welding has begun.
Survey crews, ahead of the clearing crews, are making their way east a few miles in advance and will apparently be picking up the pace. Surveyors could be in Groveland Township as early as next week, as they were on Milford Road today. According to best estimates, the clearing crew will be at Milford Road by the end of this week.
We will continue to update everybody on any updates we receive.
As the dozers approach…
Regular readers of this blog know that we don’t very often talk about our own situation. That’s by design, as we never wanted any of this to be about us personally. Plus, we know that there are many homeowners along the path of Line 6B whose situations make ours look lucky by comparison, people whose lives have been and will be disrupted and damaged in ways far worse than ours.
Still, there’s a lot about all of this that stings. And today, as we were digging up and moving plants out of the path of imminent Enbridge destruction– rescuing them, you might say– we were feeling a little bitter about two things:
First, Enbridge won’t be compensating us for the terrible anxiety their construction on our property is going to cause our very cool, very good, but very timid, dog Sam. Nor will they be compensating us for the doggie daycare he’ll have to attend to avoid all the loud, scary sounds that will totally freak him out. (Oh, and yes, every one of those trees you see in the background, and more, will be taken down to make room for that shiny new pipe.)
Secondly, Enbridge also isn’t compensating us for this big, beautiful oak tree. What’s worse, they also won’t be compensating us for the displacement of the wonderful green herons that nest in it (I wonder if anyone at Enbridge cares about green herons?). The herons won’t be compensated either. One of them was up in the tree today calling to us again and again while we were digging up our perennials. I’m not an ornithologist, so I can’t say with any certainty, but I’m pretty sure it was saying, “This sucks!”