My father had a "weekend farm" on which we raised cattle and vegetables. All totaled there was about a hundred acres, fenced and cross-fenced. There was a mobile home on the property, with a telephone. When a good thunderstorm would come along, that old telephone would make noises like some one snapping handfuls of pencils, with a "DING" from the bell now and then.
But what was really cool is there was a man-gate into the pastures neat the trailer. Sometimes after the storm we noticed the latch on the man-gate had been welded shut! You had to rare back and give it a good kick to get the latch open. We never found a place where lightning had hit the fence, but I figure enough current was induced into the fence to make a little spot weld there at that latch.
Taught me to respect lightning!
|