Rapaire says they have towers disguised as pine trees in his area. Many in our area look more like Douglas firs - and very few Doug firs grow here naturally. The predominant tree is the Ponderosa Pine. But the towers don't really look half bad, and it's fun to try to find them.

I do volunteer work at the maintenance man at a women's center in a hundred-year-old firehouse in Sacramento. We have four poles, four engine bays, and a five-story hose drying tower. We rent the tower out to Sprint telecommunications for a cell phone tower for a thousand bucks a month. That pays our mortgage, but we sometimes wonder if it's worth all the hassle. Sprint has not been a wonderful tenant - not horrible, but not a real asset to have, either.

-Joe-