I’ve been down that road before.

Same way you check to see if the lawnmower has spark... "Here lil' bro, hold this" (then pull the rope as hard as you can) LOL:) OL J R :)

Best thing you can get is one of them "flasher" units... Gallagher makes one (among others) that you just clip on the hot wire and then push the ground probe down into the soil. It uses the fence power to energize a coil inside it and flashes a big LED button/lens every time the fencer pops... put it on the wire where you can see it from the house and you can check the fence by looking out the window any time day or night and know if it's hot... If it's flashing, IT'S HOT! We put two on our perimeter fence; one by my driveway so I can see it anytime I come or go from the house, and the other over at my brother's place so he can see it from his back porch or kitchen window... sure saves a lot of guesswork and they're not that high... Since I connected all the barb wires together to the ground rod and connected that to my Parmak mains charger, I just clip the flasher unit onto the hot wire, then wedged the "ground probe" between the steel fence post and wire real tight... works great and don't have to worry about the little ground wire getting pulled out or the little metal soil probe corroding... I've had the same flasher unit on the fence about 10 years or so now still works like a champ! OL J R :)

I agree

Good joke but usually the crazy ones like that end up as "dark cutters" and the meat isn't worth eating. Neighbor of mine had one like that wily old b!tch when they were selling out soon as they'd try to bring them up to the pen she'd raise her tail perk her ears and head for the creek bottom/back 40... Tried several times never could get her last load they took (over a few weeks/months time) she ran for the hills and so she was the last one left. His old man took the 30-30 down there and shot her "fixed that problem" then they strung her up behind the house and bled her out and butchered her... Wrapped all the meat and put it in the freezer and figured they were set for beef for awhile. Started pulling some out of the freezer to cook and it was just terrible-- meat was dark and strong bitter flavor. That's a dark cutter... every piece of meat they tried over several batches was the same way, so they ended up hauling it all down to the woods and dumping it for coyote/buzzard bait. I read an article in Stockman Grass Farmer magazine about that years ago. Basically 'nervous" cattle (crazy ones) get SUCH an adrenaline rush that they just go berserk. The adrenaline instantly burns off the most readily available stored energy (marbling in the meat) and the adrenaline remains until it's burned off metabolically in the body; if the animal is slaughtered before the adrenaline rush is burned off the meat is dark and gamey or stinks, and it remains when it's cooked making it basically non-edible. The article was about how you had to make sure you had cattle with good temperaments, not nervous or crazy, to avoid the problem as much as possible, and that grassfed abattoirs (slaughterhouses) needed to have a very quiet, peaceful, open handling system free of stress on the cattle, so they didn't get "worked up" or become nervous, which would cause an adrenaline rush, because unlike corn or grain fed beef which the animals have tons of fat and marbling in the meat, grassfed is much leaner and you have to protect the marbling that IS in the meat because if they have an adrenaline rush it will burn that marbling up very quickly. Makes sense. Later! OL J R :)

Agreed. If we have a particularly troublesome beast we just put it in the freezer. Its so good to have a calm herd and one animal can fuck it up.

For sure! Lots of steaks n great time for extra burger for chili!!!

I wouldn’t want to eat her. I remember we had a cow that we could not keep in. So we tired a yoke on her neck. That slowed her down for a day. My dad said let’s put her in the freezer. Little did I know that we had to put a chain around the freezer because she kept getting out of that. Now I had a cow that was more wild than that one. I told my dad that we needed her in the freezer. I got her in on my horse but I could not get her up the chute into my bob tail truck. She just kept charging. So I told my wife that I would let let her chase me up the chute and I would jump over the front and out. My wife said no. I said you drop that gate. So I got her attention and here she came. I ran up the loading chute with her breathing down my shorts. I jump but was helped by her and cleared the front and landed on the top of the cab. She tried to follow but didn’t make it. I drove her to the butcher. And two weeks later we were eating some of the toughest meat I have ever eaten. She was a four year old as well. She lasted a long time.

@@leighcowley9869 Yeah them crazy ones are usually what the packers call "dark cutters". I read an article about it years ago in "Stockman Grass Farmer" magazine (which is for niche producers raising grassfed beef, which I was curious about at the time). Basically the crazy ones are crazy because they very easily have an adrenaline rush. The adrenaline rush gives them extra speed and strength, which is a normal physiological reaction to stress or fear, but it's bad news in a meat animal. Not only are they hard/impossible to handle, make the rest stressed and skittish because of the "herd mentality" and "fight or flight" syndrome, but it ruins the meat of the animal itself. What happens is, the adrenaline rush burns up the first/easiest energy supply it comes to, which is the fat stored in the muscle (meat) otherwise known as "marbling". The marbling exists in the meat as a quick/easy source of readily available energy if the animal DOES have to run away or fight, like in response to a predator or whatever (in the wild). Once the marbling is burned up (very quickly) it takes a LONG time to get it back. Plus, unless the animal has several hours to a day to "burn up the adrenaline" and get it out of its system, the adrenaline remains in the body and contaminates the meat. Studies they've done have shown that meat from easily excitable or "crazy" animals is tough, dry, stringy, and, if the animal is slaughtered while still in an adrenaline rush, will have a bitter, gamey, or stinky taste/smell to it, even after cooking. The raw meat will appear "dark" or a darker color than meat from a "normal" animal. The bus mechanic at the school where I used to drive school bus was a buddy of mine, and he told me about one they had... crazy cow that soon as you started rounding them up to move them to the pen, she'd perk her ears up and raise her tail and take off like a deer for the back 40 or the woods or whatever... Well, they only had a few head and decided to sell out because their fences were 50 years old and falling apart and didn't really want to mess with cows anymore and over a few months time they'd periodically round up a few head and take them to the sale. Every time this crazy cow would turn tail and head for the woods. Last load they rounded them up she dashed for the woods so they loaded up what they had and hauled them to the sale barn. Got back home his Dad grabbed the 30-30 and rode down to the woods and shot her in the head, then they got the tractor and front end loader and strung her up in the tree and butchered her, like they had a number of cattle over the years since they put their own meat in the freezer, so they knew what they were doing. Cut her up wrapped all the meat and loaded up the freezer figured they were set for beef for awhile. Well, every time the old man pulled out some steaks or a roast or whatever and cooked it, it always was tough as shoe leather, gamey, and tasted like bitter sh!t... They'd end up throwing it out. After several tries with it ALL turning out like that they finally just loaded it all in the back of the truck and hauled it down to the woods and dumped it for coyote/buzzard bait... the meat stunk and tasted SO bad and was tough and dry and just worthless. Wasn't an old cow or in bad shape either, she was a nice healthy cow, just crazy and hard to deal with. SO yeah he said after that if they ever had any cattle again and had one like that they'd just shoot the d@mn thing and leave it for buzzard bait; not worth the trouble of messing with them. Later! OL J R : )

I always preferred to have my brother around to test fences. Grab the brother by the arm and then grab the fence.

So there is some reality to the book, "How Angel Peterson got his name."

Lol I did that as a kid

My dad had a bull that used to play with our case scoop tractor. Once he started picking the front end up he went down the road!!!

Depends how you do it. Technically speaking you're supposed to put in like 3 ground rods about 5-6 feet long (deep enough to be in perpetually moist soil) about 3-5 feet apart, and wire them together to the ground system of the charger. Of course this is relying on the "earth" to complete the circuit and shock the cattle, which on dry ground means they might not get much of a shock at all. I managed to get one ground rod in our hard clay after drilling a post hole as deep as I could and driving it through the bottom of that and backfilling, but I decided since my fence was mostly steel posts and steel corners to make the entire fence the ground... I ran the hot wire inside all the way around the farm and then hooked the ground wire of the charger directly to the barb wire itself AND to the ground rod... That way, if the animal touches just the hot wire, they get zapped through their feet into the ground, so long as there's enough ground moisture to carry the electricity. If it's REALLY dry and the cow isn't getting much of a shock through her feet to ground, if she's touching the wire and gets close to the fence behind it, it will zap her REAL good when she contacts both wires, as the barb wire or steel posts will conduct the electricity directly back to the charger ground terminal, instead of relying on the "earth" to complete the circuit... even if she just touches the hot wire, the current path would be through her feet to ground, up the closest steel post, and down the barb wire back to the ground terminal on the charger. Path of least resistance. It's worked great for over a decade like that, and they don't even THINK about touching the fence... I run a Parmak mains charger, don't remember the joule rating on it, but it's for 100 miles of fence and we've got 2.5 miles, so it pretty much stays at 10,000 volts all the time. Lowest I've seen it is 4,000 volts in really wet, foggy weather with a lot of grass grown up under the fence, so a lot of voltage leaks... soon as it dries out it comes right back up! Later! OL J R :)

I've had a U.S. Pellet Stove for the last 17 yrs or so and aside from a few fan changes and normal maintenance, seems to work pretty good. It does make the first floor feel like a furnace blast chamber though !! A good quality pellet can make all the difference in performance, try a few different ones. I use Hamers Hot Ones.

Small hole did that with one of his Bulls who is worth about $30,000 he was laying down my uncle went to check on him he jumped up and started charging and Kicking my uncle. My uncle laid still on the ground until the pool moved off when he did more uncle went to the car and got his gun out and shot him and yes my uncle is rich lots of steak that day maybe $150 a pound worth of it haha