Finding Underground Wiring or Water Witching

04 Aug 2015

Ok, so here is how our yesterday went:

The guys came to start putting up the new building.  In the middle of June Verendyre had buried the power lines to our yard.  Guys figured the mark where they were buried wouldn’t go away in the short time before these guys came to start building. WRONG!! It was nowhere to be found.  Guys couldn’t dig holes without knowing for sure. 

We called ND 1 Call.  Slim started explaining & got frustrated, handed the phone to me.  I kept answering the VERY rude lady’s questions as best I could.  She was not 1 bit satisfied with my answers.  Seems she felt in her words “person is not sure where they live”. 

Lady, tell me where you live I will direct you to our farm without a bit of problem.  After all we have lived here 40+ years & never once got lost getting home.

Finally she got all the info she seemed to think she needed, read it back to me including the part about my not knowing where we lived.  Then she said the earliest they could be here was Wednesday unless it was an emergency.  I informed her they were digging right now and asked if that would be considered an emergency. 

That was not her call, it was mine but she didn’t seem to think so.  I finally said forget it & hung up on her.

Next option, Google, how to find power lines.  One suggestion was that ‘well-witchers’ can sometimes find them.  We know one of those guys. 

Called Delvin Stemen, he had to deliver Meals on Wheels but would be out as soon as he could.  He hadn’t done it for a long time and you know the old saying ‘use it or lose it?’ 

Well he showed up about 1pm with his rods, which he thought were still around there someplace.  Like Blake said, bet he knows exactly where they are.

In less than ½ half hour he had the line found.  Along with that he said 4 out of 10 people can do this. 

Five other guys were standing there. So Blake figured someone else should have to power.   Slim tried, he couldn’t.  Another young guy tried, he couldn’t. 

Next guy tried, he didn’t believe this was even something that happened.  He took the rods, started walking & they crossed in exactly the right spot.  Blake took him to another spot to try it.  The rods did it again.  Blake told him to look under his foot.  There was an orange mark where other lines had been marked at the time they dug in the power line.  Now we know those witching rods are for real.

Thank you Delvin.  You saved the day.  But he had to get back to Burlington to save the city, seems they have a water leak they can’t find.  Storage take fast going empty.