The Mad Fencer.
I'm a fencer. That's a little known fact about me. I know you're thinking "What? He's a swashbuckling swordsman who uses those thin little foils in an intricate dance? And he doesn't hurt himself?" Well it's not that kind of fencing.It's building fence. Fence that keeps things in. My area of expertise lies in the building of barbed wire fence. Again, I know what you're thinking, "There is no way Rusty can mess with barbed wire without cutting himself." Actually I can.
Yesterday, I received a facebook post from my mom's horse friend's husband who said that the fence had been washed down, from the flood, in the pasture where the horses reside. He asked me if I've ever built fence, which I have done in the past. I went out to see how the fence looked while also turning the horses out so they weren't stir crazy. The fence indeed was washed down, including with a lot of trash and debris on the fence in the creek. I sighed because i knew that I would be getting wet as I would be in the creek later.
Lamar called me and we hit upon a plan of building "fuses" in the creek to give way in the event of lots of running water. As Lamar and Wendell set new posts, I plunged into the creek to cut the wires so the trash could flow on downstream. However the trash didn't move. I was standing in about mid-thigh deep water.
On an oversight on my part, I forgot gloves. This part hurt me because there were thorny branches in the trash pile as I was trying to free the pile. Yes, I cut myself on the back of the hand. Nothing major, just a deep scrape that bled a little. That wasn't what hurt the most. I had been using a stick to rake some of the trash away. After I was finished, I jammed the stick in the bank of the creek. Lamar had made me a loop in the barbed wire and I was about to step back into the creek to join the two ends.
The bank was slippery from being under water. I slipped crashing down onto the very stick I jammed into the bank. I hit it square on and broke about 6 inches off the end as it tried to impale me. I have a great bruise on my ribcage where I collided with the end of the stick. It hurt and I just sighed at my luck.
Honestly, how am I still alive?
posted by Rusty @ 8:41 AM
Comments: 3
