Some of you may remember that I have been at odds with the PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) company over PG&E's "vegetative management" program.  My Ranch is full of thick stands of young blue oak trees who are competing to outgrow their neighbors.  PG&E has no less than three power lines that cross my property. Two lines are high voltage transmission lines (one comes out of "The Geysers" hydrothermal power plant about 30 miles south of here).  In general the people working on those transmission lines are: actual PG&E employees or reputable companies.  The third line on my property is a distribution line that services houses, including mine.  Apparently some idiot in management decided to sign an exclusive contract with a slimy, unprofessional vegetative management contractor that is 100% all about trimming trees for the maximum profit possible.  This is NOT a good overall strategy for actually keeping the power lines clear.  For years I have demanded that any tree in need of a trim be cut down entirely, and for many years that company ignored both my Ranch policies and their own guidelines, trimming trees so that they would grow back quickly and need a new trim within a year or two.  I finally said they were not welcome on my Ranch, and I have really good reasons to deny them entrance; such as last time they were here they left the main gait to the highway open and unattended.  We were lucky that no cows or horses got out on the road.  Under California law it doesn't matter who leaves the gate open, I am liable for any damages caused by a car hitting an animal.  
The folks at PG&E and I have gone back and forth about this, they claim I am denying them access to do "vital" work, I say I'm not denying access at all, I'm ONLY denying one contractor access.  Any other contractor is acceptable.   A week ago  I was sent a letter saying they were going to come do the tree work and I couldn't stop them.  Which you shouldn't say to me.
Now, two of the trees in question were already cut down and on the ground.  That left four trees still standing.  All four trees were, in fact, leaning toward the wires and big enough to hit them.  All four had been "trimmed" in the past.  One of them had been trimmed for decades and was a grotesque 1/2 a tree about 40 feet tall.  Jose and Mark O came to help me. We all eyeballed the trees and discussed where the weight of the tree was,  which way was it leaning, and how do we pull it so it doesn't get near the wires as it falls? Jose did most of the cutting,  Mark wrangled the tractor.  I climbed trees with the help of an extension ladder for the first little way, and then shinnied up and tied my rope to a limb very high up.    Then the tractor would get into position with the other end of the rope attached to the bucket. The tractor backed up till there was no slack, Jose would start to cut the tree, making a good notch on the side we wanted it to fall toward.  When he was finished with the notch the tractor would back some more so there was tension on the rope.  I directed the tractor to back up further as the tree began to fall.  Nothing even got close to the wires.  We were lucky today, all the trees were oaks. Oak tells you when they are starting to fall.  You can see the tree start to tremble and sway, and you usually have a couple of seconds to act.  Two seconds is a long time.  Madrone isn't so nice.  One moment it is standing, the next it is falling. 
The last tree was the big one almost 3 feet in diameter.  It was crawling with red ants.  I climbed anyway.  Before cutting the whole tree down Jose and I dropped some minor branches to get them out of the way.  Once I was up the tree and had the rope tied  to an upper limb, I cut it and then tied to a second limb.  One limb was almost a foot in diameter, the other a little smaller.  The larger limb was actually leaning out over the wires.   Thank goodness for the tractor!   Even though that tree was pretty mutilated, it has been part of the landscape of around the house for decades. I'm sad to have cut it, but the tree wasn't healthy, limbs had started dying,  and that is the beginning of the end. 
We got all four trees down, now comes the hard work of cleaning up. Cutting the trunk and limbs up, and disposing of the brush.  It will be winter again before I'm done, I can't burn brush until at least November.  I'm very thankful that there were three of us, and that we could do this job safely.
Since PG&E, despite all their public posturing, doesn't want to actually communicate about issues, they have not actually provided a viable mailing address only a phone number that goes to voicemail;  I have a letter ready to go to the Public Utilities Commission.  The Commission needs to hear from people like me.