Christmas Surprise

It was Christmas morning. The stockings were emptied, The cows were milked and fed, the chores were done, the presents were opened, the wrapping paper was cleaned up and all in that order. The Henning children were in the kitchen taking turns preparing their flavored oatmeal and hot chocolate and preparing for a relaxing day of Christmas movies and family fellowship. Or so they thought. 

“Hey guys,” Christa called to her children. “It looks like there's one more present for you guys under the tree.”

A chorus of whats, reallys, and are you sures rang out from the kitchen as the kids grabbed their respective mugs and bowls and made their way into the living room. Dale was sitting in his reclining section of the family couch, sipping his black coffee. Christa was pulling a medium, rectangular box from the back side of the tree. 

“Who's it for?” nine-year-old Luke inquired of his mother.

“It's a family present,” Christa replied, with a gleeful smile on her face. “It's for all five of you.”

She handed it to Caleb, who, at the age of fourteen, was the oldest of the five. He glanced at his brothers and sisters and proceeded to tear the wrapping off of the festive package. He pulled off the lid and reached into the box. He removed a half sheet of paper and read...

Last but not least,

A penny-wise feast.

To get to this fellow,

You look in the jello.

“What?” twelve-year-old Scott asked in confusion. “Jello? What is this?”

Scott's look of confusion was matched by all of his siblings as they looked from the paper to their parents to each other. This cycle was interrupted by their mother who softly interjected with a suggestion.

“Maybe you five should go look in the jello jar.”

The children silently agreed with a collective nod and launched from their places on the floor. They took off towards the kitchen and made a beeline towards the counter on the far side of the refrigerator. A clear glass cookie jar sat on the counter up against the white, textured surface of the refrigerator. The jar had been re-purposed to hold jello because Christa had switched from boxed jello to bulk jello. The lid of the cookie jar sealed and kept the humidity from effecting the contents of the jar. 

Ten-year-old Kelsey was the first to reach he jar. She pulled the lid from it's place and reached inside and pulled a white offering envelope from the jar that contained a strip of paper that read...

This could take a while,

You need energy for this part.

You might walk a mile,

Better pop over and get a tart.

“Pop over for a tart,” she paraphrased to her siblings. “Do you think they mean pop-tart?”

“Yes!” they responded together as they scurried to the trash closet.

The trash closet was where the family kept their trash can, but all of the breakfast cereal and toaster pastries were kept on shelves above the trash can. They crowded around the open closet door as Luke grabbed the first open box of Aldi brand pop tarts he could find. He shuffled through the plastic wrapped pastry pairs until he found it: a white offering envelope from their church containing a piece of paper that read...

The next place you go,

Is out in the snow.

The cold might get your goat,

If you don't take your coat.

“But where are we going?” eight-year-old Kerry puzzled.

“To get our coats, I suppose,” Caleb suggested. “Maybe there's a clue there.”

The children turned on their heels and headed back through the kitchen doorway to the basement door. They opened the door and took turns grabbing their coats from the hooks that lined the basement stairwell. 

“Might as well grab our boots too,” Scott suggested. “It said we're going out in the snow.”

His brothers and sisters followed his lead and grabbed their black, rubber muck boots off of the shelf on the left side of the stairway. They set their boots on the linoleum floor and began shuffling through their pockets. They all stopped when Kerry squealed with delight at finding a white offering envelope in her coat pocket...

I was wondering, if you were the hose,

That carried the milk out when it goes,

From our tank to the truck,

How would you go so you wouldn't get stuck?

“The hose door!” she yelled with too much excitement and the five children scrambled to put their coats on and slip their feet into their barn boots.

“Make sure you zip up your coats!” Christa hollered as the five frantic children scrambled through the back porch door.

The kids gingerly ran down the sidewalk and across the snowy yard. The gravel and the salt on the driveway crunched as they speed-walked across to the milk house. The milk house was an addition on the front side of the old family bank barn. It's white, steel exterior stood in direct contrast to the faded, red barn siding. The door on the east end was sheltered by a continuation of the milk house roof. A Honda, three-wheeled ATV was parked in the gravel next to a cement slab. Directly to the left of the fiberglass man door was an eight inch by eight inch door that hinged on the top. Scott opened the door and reached in to find an envelope just like the others. He opened it up and pulled out a slip of paper and read the contents to his siblings.

Most days we must look here,

But this week, not today or the first.

We get cards with Christmas cheer,

But watch the road or expect the worst.

“Pretty sure we're supposed to go to the mail box next,” Scott correctly surmised. “That's a pretty long walk. I think mom and dad just wanted to get some time alone for once.”

“You might have something there,” Caleb agreed with a chuckle. “Oh well, you could use the exercise.”

Scott might have taken offense to that comment were it not for the general sense of joviality in the group. He just smiled as he patted his roundish midsection and the five children began their pilgrimage down the long driveway. They walked in two lines in the tire treads of the vehicles that had passed up and down the driveway in previous days. Their dad usually kept the drive pretty clear of snow, but he had let the snow get ahead of him. The middle of the drive had a four to five inch snow covering while the tire tread path on either side provided a hard packed surface on which to walk... and slide. The children took turns getting a running start and sliding as far as their balances would allow. This entertainment made the trip to the end of the driveway go fairly quick. The Henning clan made their way up the hill at the end of the drive and looked both ways before crossing State Route 172 to the family's mailbox. 

Caleb pulled open the plastic door of the mailbox and pulled a lone envelope from the plastic receptacle. He broke the seal and read from the slip of paper inside.

I was just thinking of a wedge,

And where it goes when hit by sledge.

We don't do it this way now,

but why not check there anyhow.

“What do you think, guys?” Caleb asked, not wanting to sound bossy.

“Probably around the firewood chute, maybe?” Kelsey suggested.

“Yeah, we split wood there whenever we don't split it at the woods,” Scott agreed. “You don't think they'd sent us all the way to the woods, do you?”

“No way!” Luke exclaimed. “Let's check by the house.”

“Yeah,” Kerry agreed. “If it's not there, we can go to the woods next.”

With that, the Henning entourage crossed the road and slid down the hill to begin the trip back towards the house. The trip back was somewhat slower than the trip to the mailbox. This was due partially to the decreased energy of the scavenger hunters, but the general uphill slope of the driveway might have also been a factor. The field to the left stood vacant with remnants of the previous season's corn crop poking up through the crisp snow. The tan cornstalk stubs broke the surface of the white covering like the five o'clock shadow on their father's face. 

The children came to a place on the driveway where they could branch off to the left and walk up to the back side of the house. The downside to this option was that the path had been unused up to that point and was covered with seven or eight inches of snow. The children contemplated their options for a moment and took the road less traveled. Caleb motioned to his youngest sister to climb onto his back before he led the way. The rest of the Kids fell in line in the order of age and in this manner, four out of five kids trekked through the snow to the woodpile. Upon their arrival, Kerry slid to the ground and all five scoured the pile of un-split wood for the tell-tail envelope. Luke found it underneath the heavy head of the splitting ax on top of the splitting block.

“Here it is,” he stated as he opened the envelope to read it's contents.

When you get back, you can bet,

Your little ordeal is not done yet.

Walk farther north yet if you could,

To the place where we keep the 8-foot wood.

“I think he is sending us to the lumber barn,” Caleb volunteered. “That's where we keep all the lumber.”

His brothers and sisters agreed. Luke pocketed the clue as they took to the top drive and made their way towards the lumber barn. The lumber barn was built as a heifer barn, but hadn't been used for that purpose for most of the youngsters' lifetimes. It's primary purpose was to house the family's supply of home sawn lumber.

The snow began to fall gently as the children walked, lingering on their heads and shoulders before melting or being whisked away by a brisk winter breeze. The children watched as a large section of snow slid off the steep roof of the red bank barn and crashed violently on the pavement of the barnyard below. The top doors of the barn and the shop were closed against the winter weather. As the group passed the sugar camp, they looked over the bank into the pasture below. The clean surface was deceptive. The children knew that just beneath the cover of snow and ice was marshy, muddy ground that threatened to keep their their boots should they venture from the relative safety of the snow covered, gravel drive. They made their way past the pile of slab wood that lay against the side of the single story structure to the open doorway in the center of the building. The children walked in and turned to the pile directly to the right, inside the building. Sure enough, slipped in between the sticked layers of wood, a white envelope was patiently awaiting them

.

Caleb pulled it cleanly from it's resting place and gave it to Kerry to read the note aloud...

Well, you finally made it, I hope you laughed,

At things I said 'cause all that's left,

is go back to the barn and look in the loft,

At the blue thing you find there-just lift.

“The bank barn!” all five exclaimed in unison

.

Eager to see this adventure to it's end, the five children jogged all the way back to the red bank barn. Scott picked up the push-pull that stood propped against the barn door as Caleb pushed the door open. (The push-pull was a six foot length of three inch steel pipe with hitch ends on both ends so that it could be used to push a wagon into the barn backwards while being steered by hand from the other end.) Kelsey, Luke, and Kerry stepped over the straw bales that were used to fill the foot and a half of space between the bottom of the door and the barn floor. Caleb and Scott followed closely behind. 

The five children walked into the barn and glanced around. It wasn't immediately obvious which mow they were to check. The south mow was used mostly for equipment storage. The square baler was parked there. The kids turned towards the north mow which was stocked with square bales. About one third of the bales had been used so far, which left part of the barn floor exposed, with the exception of some loose hay and a blue tarp.

“Hey,” Kelsey wondered out loud. “Where did that tarp come from?”

The five kids looked at each other and approached the mystery tarp with some hesitation.

“That's it, kids,” their father stated from the doorway. “Go ahead. Move the tarp.”

The kids took a moment to recover from the surprise of having Dale sneak up on them and grabbed the tarp. They removed the tarp to reveal a number of items laid out on the barn floor. The children looked towards their father who had since been joined by Christa.

“Well,” their mother prodded. “Their all labeled. Find the one with your names.”

The kids started examining the items on the floor. One by one they found their names and exclaimed with glee.

“A new computer desk!” Caleb exclaimed as he examined the box with his name in it.

“Check it out,” Scott said with his voice thick with excitement. “It's a sander!”

“I got a huge tub of Legos!” Luke exclaimed ecstatically. 

“We both got brand new baby dolls!” Kelsey spoke for her and her sister as she held up a doll that peered through the plastic window of her card board box. “Porcelain!” She clarified.

The kids took turns hugging their parents before grabbing their gifts and marching towards the farm house.

“I hope we can do this every year,” Kelsey stated with enthusiasm. “It'll be our new tradition.”

“I hope they don't get their hopes too high,” Dale remarked to his wife. “That was a lot of work for me.”

“Yeah,” Christa replied, smiling. “But I think it was worth it.”

Dale nodded as they watched their clan of five trot joyously into the house.

Ill Fated Sledding Endeavor

The five Henning children trudged up the steep pasture hill just west of the sugar camp. They struggled against the steepness of the hill as well as the ten inches of snow. Twelve-year-old Caleb led the family as he pulled their orange, plastic sled up the hill. Scott and Luke walked on either side of their older brother as Kelsey and Kerry trailed slightly behind. They weren't making very good time, but they hoped the ride down the huge hill would be worth all the trouble. 

Sledding was the favorite winter activity of the Henning clan, followed closely by building snow forts and having snowball fights. However, the children had grown tired of the hill in front of the house. After some debate and discussion, the children had decided to look for a bigger and better hill. They hadn't been satisfied to settle for anything lees than the biggest hill on the farm. So, they found themselves trudging through ten inches of snow to the top of the biggest pasture hill on the entire farm. 

“Man,” Luke gasped. “This is taking a lot longer than I thought it would.”

“I know what you mean,” Scott agreed. "It usually takes a lot less time to get to the top of this hill.”

“Well, we usually don't have a reason to climb this hill in the winter,” Caleb reminded his younger brothers. “We don't put the cows out to pasture when there's snow on the ground.”

“Hey,” Lizzy interrupted. “Can we take a little break?”

“Yeah,” Kelsey seconded. “I think we could all use a break.”

“Um, okay,” Caleb nodded as he turned around and sat in the snow.

The other children followed suit and caught their breath as they took in the view beneath them. They had nearly made it to the top of the hill, so the view was quite spectacular. They looked across the valley at the snow covered fields on the opposite side. The gray branches of a large oak tree stood out against the blue horizon as the trunk stood in contrast to the white field behind it. The fence posts of the adjacent pasture stood like sentries around the few wandering, Holstein cows who moseyed around the trees and the clumps of wild rose that spotted the pasture. The crick zig-zagged through the middle of the snowy ground, creating a blackish brown line dividing the pasture roughly in half. Their grandpa's gray barn stood in direct contrast to the blue sky behind it. 

A large, white house stood directly south of the barn. The red, steel roof was partially concealed with a white layer of snow. Every so often, a portion of the snow would slide off the roof, plummeting to the ground creating a plume of fluffy snowflakes that rose up from the ground. The children's grandparents lived in the house trailer right next door to the house, partially concealed by the bare branches of the trees in front. 

“Well,” Caleb ventured after a few moments. “My bottom is getting cold, so I think we should get to the top of this hill, and do this thing!”

A chorus of Yeahs and yes's sounded out as the children pushed themselves up from their frozen hillside thrones. It only took them a few minutes to reach the top of the hill. Caleb turned the sled towards the bottom of the hill and took his place on the front. His feet hung off the sides of the sled and prevented it from beginning it's downward journey prematurely. Scott sat directly behind his older brother. The other three kids followed suit, sitting down on the sled in order of age. Each child wrapped his or her arms around the midsection of the person in front as Caleb tightly gripped the nylon rope which was fastened to the front of the sled.

“Okie dokie,” Caleb announced with some apprehension. “Everybody ready?”

“Yup,” Scott responded as he felt his sister's grip on his chest tighten. “I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be.” 

“Well,” Kerry interrupted. “I'm not sure I'm ready. My bottom is half off.”

“Well,” Caleb replied with a smile. “I guess that means your on sale. Just hold on real tight and you'll be fine.” (Caleb couldn't take credit for this joke. His father had used it just a few days earlier at the dinner table.)

With that, Caleb picked up his feet and the sled slowly began to slide across the frozen tundra. The children quickly picked up speed as their orange rocket flew down the hill. The lightly falling snow brushed across their faces as snow from the ground flew across the front of the sled. The bumps under the snow jarred the children as their sled flew across the ground. Kerry let out a loud squeal about halfway down the hill as she lost her grip on her older brother and slipped off the back of the sled. 

“We lost Kerry!” Kelsey yelled across Scott.

“We'll go back for her when we're done!” Caleb replied. “I can't stop now! We're going too fast!”

The Children were in fact going too fast and they realized it just in time to notice a large pile of snow-covered, locust logs at the bottom of the hill.

“We're going to crash!” Scott yelled over the rushing wind. “We gotta try to steer this thing!”

Caleb and Scott shoved their left hands into the snow attempting to steer the sled, but found that the speed of the craft was too great for their efforts to have the desired effect. Realizing their trouble, they tried the other side to no avail. They each frantically shoved both gloved hands into the snow as they tried to slow their descent. They let their legs slide off the sides of the sled and dug their heels into the snow. This helped a little but then the sled began to twist to the left. The children were relieved until they realized that their trajectory was unchanged. They were going so fast that the reorientation of the sled didn't actually change their direction of travel. The orange death trap was simply sliding towards the log pile sideways.

Realizing that it was too late to stop the inevitable, the four remaining passengers leaned towards the high side of the hill and braced for impact. The sled slammed into the logs with considerable force. The collision threw their bodies against the snow-covered obstruction as they jostled against each other. The four children groaned as their youngest sister slid into them on her slippery snow pants. Everyone, including Kerry, who had experienced only a relatively soft impact against her older siblings, laid groaning in the soft snow. Snow fell softly from the sky, melting on their warm faces as the wind gently teased the strands of hair that had managed to escape from their warm, winter hats.

Eventually, the youngest rolled over on her hands and knees and pushed herself up to her feet.

“Maybe this hill was a bad idea,” she stated as she surveyed the erratic markings left in the snow by the sled. “Are you guys okay?” she finished as she turned to her older siblings.

Nobody answered right away. Luke, having found himself more or less on the top of the sibling heap, rolled off of his brothers and sister and gingerly rose to his feet.

“I guess I'm okay,” he confirmed with uncertainty. “I mostly just hit you guys.”

The remaining children started untangling themselves from each other. One by one, they apprehensively rose to their feet and checked themselves for injuries, each fully expecting to find any number of broken bones. None of them did. Other than what would develop into a few bruises, the children had made it through their ordeal unharmed. They stood at the bottom of the gigantic hill, dumbfounded at the favorability of their situation.

“So,” Caleb began as he took stock of the situation. “Nobody is hurt?”

“I guess not,” Scott replied as everyone in the improvised circle shrugged their shoulders. “Guess we got off pretty lucky this time.”

“I guess so,” Kelsey concurred. “Maybe we should just not try that again.”

All five daredevils nodded their heads in agreement as Scott bent down and grabbed the sled rope. The children silently made their way to the driveway and began the long trek back to the house. Eventually the stunned silence was broken by hopeful daydreams of hot chocolate and maybe a Christmas movie.

“So,” Caleb said, interrupting the beverage discussion. “What are we gonna tell Mom and Dad about what we did this afternoon?”

From Radio Cabinet to Dresser

“Grandpa,” fourteen-year-old Scott approached his aged companion. “I need a dresser for my room.” 

“Is that so?” Richard responded thoughtfully. “Lets head to the barn and see if we can find something we can work with.”

The pair walked out of the small workshop door and took an immediate right. They trudged slowly up the grassy hill to the gravel driveway and turned left, towards the barn. 

The big bank barn stood silhouetted against the cloudy sky. The walls of the barn had originally been painted gray. They were still gray, but it was hard to tell if it was colored from the paint or from years of exposure to the various Ohio weather patterns. The bright, corrugated aluminum roof shone in the intermittent sunshine as a number of black and white heifers milled about in the barnyard. A green pickup truck sat on the slope of the east bank, rust slowly creeping across it's surface. The primary feature of the barns north side was it's oversized sliding doors. 

Richard walked up to an unmarked man door and pulled a string. The string was attached to a hook on the inside. Once the hook was disengaged, the door was able to swing open towards the outside. The younger Henning hung back until his grandfather unlatched the hooks that secured the larger sliding door. Richard pushed it open to his right, allowing the daylight to flood into the upper floor of the barn. Scott stood in the doorway for a minute taking in the sight. His grandpa's flat bed wagon sat in the middle, in front of an old corn picker that hadn't been used in years. A forage wagon and a bale wagon sat in the west bay. The west haymow was stacked with hay bales. The east mow was used primarily for storage. That was the mow of interest on this particular day. 

They walked down an unintentional isle through a large variety of odd and somewhat obscure items. There was an old lawn tractor to the right, an old fashioned traveling trunk to the left. A stack of fifty-five gallon drums stood against the east wall while picnic tables stood on end against the south wall. They sorted through the elder Henning's stockpile of obscurities until Richard came upon and item that caused him pause.

“What do you think of this?” Richard asked as he gestured to a slightly odd looking piece of furniture.

Scott looked it over carefully before answering. The piece was made out of wood. It stood about three feet tall and four feet wide. The face of the piece had four panels with a handle in the middle of each one. The teenager reached forward and tugged on the handle of the top left panel expecting it to pull out like a drawer. Instead, the panel pivoted at the bottom and revealed a strange control panel of sorts.

“What is this thing, Grandpa?” Scott inquired with confusion thick in his voice.

“This is an old radio cabinet,” Richard explained. “Radios used to take up a lot more space so they made them into furniture. This door here is the radio. The one right next to it used to be a record player. This door on the bottom used to be the speaker and the other one was used to store records.”

“Wow,” Scott marveled. “That's pretty sweet. It kinda reminds me of the old wooden TV's but cooler.”

“So, what do you think?” Richard pressed.

“I think it's pretty cool,” Scott responded with excitement. “Are you sure you want to change this into a dresser?”

“Well,” Richard responded in his trademark deliberation. “I don't suppose it's doing anyone any good just sitting here in the barn, now is it?” 

The next few weeks were fairly busy for the cross-generational team. They loaded the radio cabinet into Richard's garden cart and rolled to the small, back room workshop. The radio cabinet took up a large percentage of the workshops floor space, but nobody seemed to mind. They removed the radio components from the one compartment and removed both front panels. They built boxes that were attached to the face panels which created drawers. The back of the cabinet had sustained some water damage and had to be replaced with a new panel. Richard insisted on staining and varnishing the new back panel even though Scott insisted that the back of the piece would be against the wall and nobody would ever know it wasn't finished.

“Ahh, but you'll know now won't you? And someday that'll bother you.” Richard had responded.

There was a small spot on the top of the piece that had been damaged by water. Richard stirred together a mixture of sawdust and wood glue, referring to the mixture as plastic wood. Using a putty knife, he worked the mixture into the cracks and crevices of the damaged portion until he was satisfied with the results. After it dried, he instructed his young assistant to sand it smooth. Applying just the right amount of stain, the elder man was able to blend the imperfection into the rest of the top panel to both of their satisfaction.

Finally, the job was done. Christa, Scott's mother, drove the family van up to her father-in-law's house trailer and stood by expressing concern for his welfare as the grandfather and grandson team loaded the bulky piece of furniture into the back of the van. Christa insisted that her oldest son would help Scott carry the newly converted dresser up to its destination, and left Richard to his own devices.

Caleb and Scott unloaded dresser and carried it into the house. As they passed their father, who was reading in his easy chair, they paused to show off the piece of furniture. Dale looked it over and smiled ever so slightly.

“Leave it to Dad,” he chuckled. “Leave it to Dad to give up the antique value of an old radio cabinet so that one of his grandkids could have a dresser.”

Baseball and Barbed Wire

Joe was on the mound and Kelsey was at the plate. Joe wound up dramatically and then tossed her an easy under hand pitch. Kelsey swung the bat directly into the path of the incoming ball. The ash wood bat connected cleanly with the white baseball. The ball flew into left field and landed cleanly in Luke's glove. 

“Okay,” Caleb shouted from third base. “Guess that's the inning.”

Scott, Luke and Joe made their way towards the improvised home plate. It wasn't just home plate that was improvised. All the bases were. First base was a piece of fire wood, second was a large stone, third base was a small board, and home plate was an actual tin camping plate that the kids had found buried in the dirt. They had set up the field in a three sided section of the yard below the house. In an attempt to keep all the windows of the two and a half story farmhouse intact, the children had placed home plate closest to the house.

The five kids had pressured Joe, who was the oldest of the group at the age of eighteen, to join them in a game of baseball. It was a rare occasion when the Henning clan had an even number of people to play with. Usually, there was at least one 'ghost man' on base at all times to facilitate a continual game.

Scott was the first one up to bat. After two strikes, he finally managed to hit the ball. The ball flew past left field, across the driveway, and landed in the lower pasture.

“Well,” Caleb commented with some dejection. “We usually just call that a home run. Come on. We gotta find it. It's not our ball.”

The group trekked towards the pasture. The Hennings rolled under the single strand of barbed wire that designated the boundary of the pasture. Joe followed suit. They fanned out and started combing through the tall grass in search of the baseball. 

“How hard did you hit that thing, Scott?” Kelsey inquired of her brother after a few minutes with no success.

“As hard as I could,” Scott responded. “Maybe I don't know my own strength. Maybe it's further out.”

“Maybe you are overestimating your strength,” Caleb countered. “Maybe it's closer to the field...or diamond. You know what I mean.”

“It's not a big deal, guys,” Joe interjected. “It's just a baseball. I probably have a half a dozen more rolling around somewhere at home.”

The group looked for a few more minutes before they finally gave up.

“Well,” Kelsey observed. “I guess the game's over.”

“Who won?” Kerry inquired of the rest of the group.

Everyone exchanged glances of confusion, each hoping the others would come up with the right answer. In a situation such as the one they found themselves in, the temptation was often to declare one's own team the winner and their opponents the loosers. However, everyone new that no one would accept this so they just declared it a tie.

“I guess we all lost,” Scott observed. “We lost the ball, anyway.”

Everyone responded with laughter and eye rolls as they turned towards the house. They made their way back to the edge of the pasture and paused at the fence.

“Here,” Caleb began as he reached for the barbed wire. “It's not electric. I'll just hold it up so you guys can duck underneath.” 

He grabbed the wire between his thumb and forefinger and motioned for Joe to walk under. Joe bent forward and ducked under the fence. Just as he started under the wire, Caleb let out a slight cry and dropped the wire. The wire smacked Joe right on the noggin. Joe dropped to his knees immediately and clutched the back of his head with one and as he crawled under the wire. He stood up and turned towards Caleb who was still on the other side of the fence with a look of surprise and confusion on his face.

“What was that, Caleb?” Joe asked of the eldest Henning as he rubbed the back of his head. “That wire poked me in the head!”

“I'm really sorry, man,” Caleb hastily responded. “It shocked me!”

“I thought this fence wasn't electric.” Luke interjected.

“It's not supposed to be,” Scott confirmed. “We haven't had cows down here for a month. That's why the grass is so high.”

“Well,” Joe smiled. “I guess it happens. Hopefully not more than once though.”

“Right,” Caleb responded. “Okay, everyone can crawl under the wire on their own.”

Everyone agreed that this was the best method of crossing the fence line. They crawled through in turn and made their way to the house. They were empty handed, but Joe did end up with a souvenir of sorts.