Fixing up the home is such a pleasure, I had some interior and exterior decor schooling. I mainly did gardens, lawns, and built up blueprints for inside and outside creative home ideas. I always loved and suggested the stone, simply beautiful and elegant. I was quite busy with my home this year, Hey if you live there, you want it to be comfortable and to your liking, to display the personality of the people who live there. From the photo's i've seen of your figs, Your home also looks lovely the yard and from what I've seen. I'm one of those types of people, if I see a photo, I look at every detail!! Keep up the good work, your decor is just as lovely as your figs. Ciao

I shutter to admit that I am involved the bidding of tree trimming along power lines. I don't think there is a state law governing the width of right-of-ways, they vary base on the size/height/number of lines, and are determined at the time the lines are installed via the purchase (or condemnation) of right of way. For our city, the vast majority of typical service lines (the ones going through most neighborhoods) are 20 foot right of ways. This means the power company/city electric department has a total width of 20 feet, and technically they can cut anything within that 20 feet that they deem as "interfering" or "likely to interfere" with power lines. Understand that this doesn't mean 20 feet out from the power lines...it just means that the power lines must lie within the 20 foot easement. Ideally, and most of the time, the power lines lie near the middle of the easement, meaning a tree or limb would have to be within 10 feet of the line in most cases. If all this sounds a little subjective (ie "likely to interfere" is debatable) that is-unfortunately- by design to some degree. Legally, though, a utility definitely has no right to touch a tree or limb outside the right-of-way or easement. To further complicate things, the lines are not always in the middle, which means you cannot just look at a line and come out 10 feet on either side and be confident your tree is in the safe zone. The power line could be at the outside edge, meaning a tree COULD be 20 foot from line and still within an easement, leaving it up to power company to decide whether it is "likely to interfere" in the future. The only way to know with absolute certainty where the easement/right of way is would be to look at your survey or have one done. To answer the question of how the subontractors get paid-at least around here- they all bid per mile of power line. Because that bid would clearly be different for a mile of woodland than a mile of cow pasture, the subs are responsible for inspecting the entire length of the line(s) up for bid and base their bid accordingly. Finally, I will tell you that people often come to City Hall rather than talking to the contractors and ask us not to cut their trees. 80% of the time, if the trees are even borderline or less, we call or go to the foreman and tell him not to cut a certain tree(s). But we also get requests from people who are just unreasonable about it....people who hate tree topping at all cost and say as long at the tree is not actually touching the line we should leave it alone. That just won't fly since we usually only trim every few years. But if your tree is anywhere near a reasonable distance at all-even if it probably isn't the best thing for the power company- they will usually agree to leave it alone. If the OP is worried about them cutting when he is not home or has no warning, I'd consider putting up a small sign saying "please do not cut this tree without consulting property owner". If they see it they will contact you. Remember, at the end of the day they have to answer to elected officials and/or state and federal utility regulators, and none of those like to hear stories about the big power company taking advantage of the little homeowner! Good luck.

the ONLY thing that could damage these plants.. IS YOU.. step back into the house.. AND LET MA NATURE DO HER THING ... You are in z7 ... you and your plants will not know what cold is ... [its been single digits here in MI most the week...] all the plants are fully suited for the temps ... and snow is the best insulator in winter ... let it pile up ... stuff does happen .. so be it.. but i would prefer to blame ma nature.. rather than later figure out.. i screwed it all up ... ken ps: if after its all done.. some branches are bending down... if you can/want to go out there... very gently knock of snow that is causing the bending ... i would only do it in the worst case scenario ..

"Trees are 15 - 25 feet tall." A blower won't reach that high with enough force to dislodge them. Maybe an air compressor with the right fittings, a long and, and a ladder, but to get force at 25 feet you'd probably blast off every leaf you hit on the way up.