I've blogged before about one of our farms—120 acres of what used to be the 700-acre Philemon Sutherland plantation. Last year, Shentel had wanted to build a 198-foot cellular tower on our property, but we decided an unsightly tower wasn't worth the money they'd pay us. However, a woman who owns the property next door—also part of the original Sutherland plantation—sold out, so we now have a metal monstrosity a few hundred feet from our property line and towering over our place.

I can also see it from my house, about a mile away as the crow flies. In the center of this picture, which I took from my front yard, a white line extends above the trees. That's the tower.

It took them a while to get the tower up, what with all the rain we've had. First they scraped off the site

The tower site is not far from our property line.

Then they brought in sections of the tower.

. . . and some gravel. And big rocks to keep the heavy machinery from sinking.

Before long, a big crane started putting up sections of the tower.

They pretty much made a mess while getting the sections assembled. (Some of our land is visible in the upper right.)

The photos below were taken from one of our fields behind the tower.

As you drive to our land, you can't miss seeing the tower. (Neighbor woman's house is to the right.)

This is our hayfield near the road. We once considered it as a place to build a house if we decided to move to a smaller home and to get away from the gas pipeline that's being built less than a thousand feet from our current residence. The tower has now made this field undesirable for a homesite.