Yesterday, the Ohio County Highway Department tried to get hold of me. When I called them back, the project manager asked if we could get together and talk about what they were doing. So I went over to the cabin last night and met him at 10:00 this morning.
They are improving the junction at the top of the hill. They want to raise up the road bed a bit. They are removing a bunch of huge old trees for better visibility, as well as shaving off the top of the hill across the road from me. They wanted permission to take my fence down and dump a bunch of the fill on my hillside.
In return, they would knock down some huge dead ash trees on my property and clear my hillside of Russian olive and other overgrowth where REMC will eventually put in electric poles, burn all the brush, reshape my hillside to improve drainage, deepen my ditch at the lower road spur to keep my spur from eroding, shape me a bit of a shelf upon which to put a shed or stable if I should see the need, re-seed the hillside, and put the fence back up. For free.
I've been fretting about clearing that hillside for over a year now. And the other things were just pipe dreams. As I drove home, the only thing I could think was, "Truly God is good to the upright." I don't know that I'm as upright as all that, but truly, God is good to me. (As is Ohio County.)