Day 124 December 11, 2001

Today I wrestled a 145 foot long snake for hours and hours. This is the electrical service entrance cable.

It is totally inflexible and this coil weighs about 200 pounds. I fed it through the 2" conduit I had buried back when the septic system was put in. First I used my air compressor to blow a sting tied to a piece of foam through the conduit, then tied a rope to the string and pulled the rope through. Then I taped the rope to the cable, lubed the cable with a special cable pulling lube and pulled on the rope. Nothing happened. So I pushed the cable up the pipe. Laying in the mud and snow, I pushed with all my might and the cable would go a few feet. After I got about 3/4 of the way, It would only go a few inches. Then I couldn't even budge it. I attached a come-a-long to the rope and put tension on the rope and went to the other end and pushed with all my strength. Inch by inch I got it through. I fed the pieces of conduit onto the cable and glued them in place. I staggered back to the camper and slept.

12 hours, cold and wet.