Friday, April 11, 2008

Don't Whiz on the Electric Fence

Okay, there was no whizzing involved, but it's such a great title (and board game).

As Little Dude approached the barbed wire separating the cows from us outside the petting farm, I told him not to touch it. Ever since burning his hand on the curling iron a couple weeks ago, he's come to associate the concept dangerous with the word "hot" (and its accompanying sign), so I told him the wire was hot. I didn't realize how accurate this was until he grabbed the wire and I simultaneously grabbed him to pull him away, and a shock jolted through my arm and down my leg. We later found a sign that had fallen into the grass, warning us that the wire fence was electric.

I don't remember enough from my high school physics class of how electricity works; is it because I grabbed Little Dude that he didn't seem to be bothered by the shock? Because the current only had to travel through his short arm and then through my body instead of all the way through his? He did say "Mooooo" very sadly as I carried him away from the electric fence, but I think that was regret that he couldn't get closer to the cows, not physical pain. Or, you know, maybe he did feel the shock but just didn't care. He's macho like that.

7 comments:

  1. I found myself with a group of boys on a hillside in Switzerland once, following the sound of cowbells through the dense fog. We found Bessie (Swiss cows are adorable, by the way), and then the boys proceeded to shock each other . . . and me . . . and we definitely learned that the person on the end gets the worse shock. Good times.

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  2. I'm glad to know the person on the end gets the worst shock. It makes me feel heroic, like I took a bullet for my son.

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  3. Very interesting. It seems that a petting farm (which I would assume was for kids) would think of another method to keep the cows inside instead of an electric fence that could be harmful to kids?

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  4. .

    Or maybe now his brain is fried and the most you can hope is that he will learn to speak cow.

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  5. Angie--I'm assuming the voltage is low enough that it's not technically dangerous, but it's certainly not pleasant.

    Th.--I'll settle for cow, so long as he learns to speak some language.

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  6. Electric fences at a petting zoo? Who's idea of a sick joke is that???

    And my cousin did pee on an electric fence. SO funny to watch. =)

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