Sunday, December 22, 2024
HomeNotes From KathyElectric fences make hilarious stories

Electric fences make hilarious stories

fence cartoonGood fences make good neighbors, but electric fences make hilarious stories.

Rachel:

Years ago, I heard this one, from a really neat guy named Bill Stout. This story was from when he was a kid.

He and his cousins were messing around at their grandparents’ farm, and his cousin convinced him to pee on the fence. It won’t hurt, she promised him. Since Bill was a good guy, and up for a challenge, he did it. It hurt. A lot, as you might guess.  But, Bill was also a really smart guy. So he wasn’t going to let it go, and he managed to convince his cousin that it really hadn’t hurt, and that she should try it.

So she did.

Which goes to show, he who pees first, laughs last.

(We’ve heard there are videos of folks peeing on electric fencing up on the internet, but we’re sure that is something you can fact check for yourself, if you are eager to get the visual.)

Kathy:

Mine is about one of my adventures in electric fencing from the days I was working with goats.  One of my colleagues set up the fence, and my job was to haul our 50 goats the 2 hours down to the site and put them in their new pastures.  When we got there, the goats walked right through the 5 polywire fence without flinching once. My co-worker had forgotten to charge the battery for that particular solar charger.  So he ran to get a charged battery, while I rounded up the goats and tried to hold them in place.

I was a little peeved, (actually a LOT peeved) and got more so as I watched goats and people touch the nowThis week, we  supposedly charged fence without any consequences.  I was sitting next to the fence with my legs dangling off a 12 foot drop that ended at the dirt road where the truck and trailer were sitting.  “There it works!” said my friend as I watched another goat press his nose against the fence.

“No it doesn’t!” I yelled as I grabbed onto the metal t-post and a strand of the fence. Which is when the fence pulsed, about 7000 volts, which caused me to fly off the embankment with a HUGE scream, and land, laughing in the road.  And of course everyone else laughed too.

Which goes to show that fence testers are good to have, and that getting pissed is always bad news.

What’s your story?  Share it in the comments below to add to the laughter and the safety of everyone working with electric fence.

 

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Kathy Voth
Kathy Vothhttps://onpasture.com
I am the founder, editor and publisher of On Pasture, now retired. My career spanned 40 years of finding creative solutions to problems, and sharing ideas with people that encouraged them to work together and try new things. From figuring out how to teach livestock to eat weeds, to teaching range management to high schoolers, outdoor ed graduation camping trips with fifty 6th graders at a time, building firebreaks with a 130-goat herd, developing the signs and interpretation for the Storm King Fourteen Memorial trail, receiving the Conservation Service Award for my work building the 150-mile mountain bike trail from Grand Junction, Colorado to Moab, Utah...well, the list is long so I'll stop with, I've had a great time and I'm very grateful.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Its funny but upsetting incident about him, that’s sure that it can happen with anyone but considering security it is very important to have electric fence.

  2. My story on electric fences.

    WHAT THE HELL?

    Whenever wild westies get to flowing, it seems that quite a few cowboys have a story to relate about a horse and an electric fence. Usually with explosive consequences! Sometimes the cause of the violent maneuvers are known. Other times it is not apparent at the time of eruption. That was my situation. Totally unaware. Some might even say I was born that way! Oh, well.

    Anyway, it all started with a bull whose amourous intentions were always ahead of the calendar. He didn’t care about a certain turnout time. When he was ready, he was ready. A set date was just something man had in his mind and had nothing to do with several thousand years of natural mating.

    So, the only way I could convince this bull that I had the upper hand in this battle of DNA dispersion was to not only pen him, but since his high jump was of near record height, I also had to put a hot wire a foot above the top board.

    This pen was kinda’ out of the way and was seldom used. A couple of months after bull turn out one spring I rode up to this pen from the pasture side. My wife, Judy, was in the yard and as I nudged my horse up to the gate to open it, she walked over to ask me something. This wasn’t one of those horseman gates with a lever on top like you see in all the advertisements. And to make it more difficult, the latch was on the opposite side. As we were visiting, I held the reins in my right hand, leaned over the gate almost out of the saddle and reached down to grab the latch with my left hand. All of a sudden……………
    …………………………………………

    My horse was running backwards about as fast as he could run forwards, and he was a runner! He spun me out of the saddle and I hit the ground mostly on my feet, but at a speed a little above my limited abilities. I staggered along barely in control of my equilibrium, taking huge steps. I looked like one of those Olympic triple jumpers that take those giant steps before takeoff and all the while hollering whoa, you (*^$#%&*(), whoa!

    But, that backwards run away was too much for my horse and his back legs went out from under him and he flipped upside down. That last jerk on the reins was just too much. I couldn’t stop. I ran into him and sprawled on his belly. Right amongst four thrashing legs! It didn’t take long to figure out that wasn’t any place I wanted to be! I slithered over the side between a front and back leg. When my shoulder hit the ground I rolled over and jumped to my feet, looking at my horse and wondering, what in the hell had gone wrong? I looked at Judy and she was standing there with her mouth open, probably wondering the same thing.

    I looked back at my horse for a clue. Now, this is deep sand country and when he went over he planted the horn as solid as any corner post you ever set. There he was, upside down and still a runnin. Dunno which way, but he was still runnin.

    As my blood pressure got down below 400 over 200 my brain started to function a little. I looked over to the spot where it all started and the light went on. The fence was still hot! As that set in, my thoughts were, “Boy, ole dummy, someday your lack-o-memory is gonna get you in trouble!

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