It was fifty feet wide and over 200 feet in length. It was something to behold and I must admit I was rather proud of it. It was the only garden in miles. It had tomatoes, cantaloupe, melons, peas, green beans, and corn. I was the dumb preacher that planted my seed on top of the plow furroughs instead of at the bottom of the furroughs like the local farmers. When they heard how I planted my garden they sure teased me about it. Folks laughed about my garden as far as twenty miles away.
But we received some very heavy rains and it destroyed all the gardens except one, and it was mine, the dumb preacher that planted my seed on top of the plow furroughs. Each Sunday after church I would load people up with all types of vegetables from the dumb preachers garden. Some of them I would tell, “Now this is from the garden that would never grow.” I would smile real big. One of the deacons,
The same deacon lived near my garden. He asked if he could run his sheep next to it, and to do so meant he would have to put up an electric fence. I told him it was not problem because the grass was getting tall. He put up his electric fence and turned his sheep loose. The sheep did a good job of keeping the grass down, but I had to be careful of his fence because it sent out an electric shock about every three to four seconds.
One night I watered the garden all night. This meant that I that the next day it was mostly mud. I did need to pick some cantaloupes, so wearing a t-shirt and short pants I put on some old tennis shoes and went out in the garden. Everywhere I stepped oozed with mud covering my shoes. Just pulling my shoe up each time to take another step, I could hear the ground make a sucking noise.
Once in the area where I had planted cantaloupes I picked several ripe cantaloupes. Also, I realized that the cantaloupe vines had grown, running much further than I had expected. Not realizing that I was close to the electric fence, I backed up as I followed one of these off-shoots. I had already found one ripe cantaloupe that was attached to an off-shoot. As I backed up, I felt something touch the back of my leg right near the bend of the knee and immediately knew what it was. It was the wire on the electric fence. Yes, the one that sent out a high voltage, electric pulse every three to four seconds.
I reacted the only reasonable way that I could. I lunged forward doing a belly flop into the freshly watered garden. It was that, or get a pop of high voltage which I had experienced before from electric fences, so I did the belly flop.
I was covered from head to toe as I pushed myself out of the mud. But to make matters worse, the deacon,
In a subdued tone, he asked me if I was I ok. I said that I was, despite being covered with mud. I had to wipe the reddish-brown muck from my eye sockets so I could see. When I looked up at
I then began to explain how I was backing up, felt the wire on the back of my leg and had to make the choice of getting shocked or taking a dive into the mud. He still had that subdued look on his face. I couldn’t help, but had to ask why. “Why do you have that funny look on your face,” I asked him.
“Well,” he said sheepishly looking down at the ground placing his hands in his pockets which reminded me of some child’s reaction that had just been questioned for stealing cookies from the cookie jar. “I don’t know how to tell you this.” “What are you talking about
We both started laughing.
since we know who you are, we can picture it without the picture, you put a smile on our face. thanks brother
p.s. hhhmm i think there is a deeper message there about seed and higher ground hmmm
That would have been a sight to behold. Ha Ha Ha
If that fence would have been on you would have landed in the mud without any effort on your part.
Sometimes the best relationship starts from situations like this. Thanks for sending.
Knowing a wee bit about electricity, If the fence was in Water, he would be shocked anyway, since water is a very good conductor of electricity.
By your count, how many folks know this phenomena anyway?
A good story anyway.
May the Lord forever Bless you in your endeavor at Bisbee Baptist Church.
Tory
nice break from the regular stories….
good story Tex.
I remember when I had to plow my wife’s grandfather’s farm. He thought it would it would make me appreciate farming. But rather than letting me use his tractor. I had to use the tiller and plowed half of the GA clay field and the other side sand. I now have no fondness for either. I wish he would have let me plant his field your way. I learned never to disagree with one of my wife’s relatives especially one who farmed all his life and could throw a plow at me if he wanted to.
@Tory – the fence was turned off so nobody would have been shocked!
@Tex – I remember this well…