Archives for July 2020

“Papillon,” who has fled “multiple times,” according to the spokesman, was first recaptured on April 28, but escaped again a few hours later from the fenced area.

Once returned to captivity, the animal was castrated in a bid to “calm him down,” according to the spokesman for the local authority.

But the procedure failed to live up to expectations as the bear is now once again missing from the 9,000 square meter enclosure that he shared with a female bear. It is believed his most recent escape took place between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Monday.

That day, Trento’s governor, Maurizio Fugatti, interrupted a council meeting to deliver news of the bear’s latest escapade.

The spokesman said: “The fence was fortified and despite that he was able to break through the very resistant fence that was partially electric, he had a desire to escape stronger than a 6,000 volt fence.”

He added: “The problem is he is too wild and has a strong instinct to return to the forest.”

Last month, Italian animal rights groups called on the authorities in the same region to lift a death sentence on a brown bear that attacked a father and son who were out hiking.

There have been a number of bear attacks in the region in recent years, and local authorities have a database of bear DNA collected from feces, fur and saliva. Surveillance cameras are used to match the DNA to the animals.

In an increasingly connected world, where Coke cans and iPhones are as omnipresent in Malaysia as they are in Manhattan, opening up a Toblerone still manages to feel like an experience you can’t quite replicate at home.

“[Toblerone] represents travel,” says Marianne Klimchuk, chair of the Packaging Design department at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. “The type style is like a vintage luggage label. It has authenticity and European cultural heritage. For something that is so dated in history, it feels very fresh.”

Despite its timeless feel, the candy is a relatively spry 112 years old.

Toblerones were invented in 1908 by Swiss chocolatier Theodor Tobler, who came up with the idea of filling creamy chocolates with crunchy Italian torrone (honey and nut nougat). That was the origin of the name Toblerone — a mashup of Tobler’s name and the filling’s.

Bright yellow and gold wrapping also helps Toblerone stand out in airport shops.

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“It was something I associated with being a child, and that exclusivity of only getting it at the airport,” he explains. “Purchasing a Toblerone was very special for me. My friends’ families would go on vacation and they brought back this chic, European, long triangle-shaped chocolate. I never saw [Toblerones] at a grocery store. I thought you could only get it at the airport or when you were traveling and part of the jet set.”

While many consumers see the picture of an Alpine mountain on the package and assume the triangle shape of the candy is meant to emulate that, a representative from Toblerone says it wasn’t the original intention. “Most people believe the shape is a symbol of the Swiss mountain landscape … but the real story is actually about [how] Mr. Tobler wanted to create something different, going against the norm, a triangle in a world that was square.”

Although the quest to turn a bigger profit means that some food brands have strived to get themselves stocked in every grocery store in the world, Toblerone stands out as the rare product that hasn’t tried to be all things to all people. They don’t have any celebrity spokespeople or a catchy jingle. Despite the fact that you can get an identical Starbucks latte in any major city, a Toblerone chocolate bar still has a sense of insider access.

Klimchuk agrees. “The feeling of luxury and indulgence is where [the brand] hits the mark across cultures. That equates to how a traveler feels when they travel — it’s a treat, and when you travel you are treating yourself.”

And while the packaging has remained the same, there have been some updates over the years. Originally only available in milk chocolate, Toblerone has expanded to include white, dark and other flavors.

“Like many other companies, unfortunately we are experiencing higher costs for many ingredients. We carry these costs for as long as possible, but to ensure Toblerone remains on shelf, is affordable and retains the iconic shape we all know and love, we have had to reduce the weight of this particular bar,” Mondelez, the parent company of the Toblerone brand, said in a statement at the time.

Two years later, the original shape and size returned — albeit at a slightly higher price. It just goes to show what happens when change comes to a product with which so many people have nostalgic relationships.

(CNN) — For 14 years, nothing could stop road warriors Karen Catchpole and Eric Mohl. The New York couple with a bad case of wanderlust had rattled in their trusty Silverado from the top of the Western Hemisphere in Alaska to the bottom of South America and a host of places in between on an epic road trip.

They were in the vast wilderness of Patagonia in western Argentina when the microscopic kibosh came down: Covid-19.

The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus was a pandemic. Argentina quickly closed its borders. There were no flights out. “We were locked down like everyone else here,” says Catchpole.

As veteran travelers, they were used to roadblocks and things not going as planned, but this was not the normal detour. With travel shut down for who knows how long, should they pack it up and go home?

They decided to hunker down in a good place to be in a pandemic, the wine district of Mendoza in western Argentina in the foothills of the Andes, where they had a longstanding invite to house- and pet-sit for a friend.

Eric Mohl and Karen Catchpole have paused their 14-year, trans-Americas road trip.

Eric Mohl

“From the beginning, we felt safe here,” says Catchpole. “Argentina’s reaction to the pandemic was one of the most serious quarantines in the world. Social distancing was enforced in supermarkets and pharmacies, where only a few customers were allowed in at a time, and no children were allowed at all. Soon shopping for food or medicine was restricted to specific days of the week based on your ID number. Masks were mandatory.”

Argentina has fared better than its neighbors Chile and Brazil in managing the virus, although cases recently have been spiking. Argentina had about 167,000 cases (376 per 100,000 people) and 3,000 deaths (7 per 100,000 people) by the end of July.

In Brazil, there were about 2.4 million infections (1,166 per 100,000 people) by the end of July and about 88,000 deaths (42 per 100,000 people). Chile had nearly 350,000 cases (1,868 per 100,000 people) by the end of July and more than 9,000 deaths (49 per 100,000 people).

Still living their dream

Their travels are their job as well, as they file freelance pieces on their discoveries along the expedition. They are working on stories from places they have already visited, as they wait for the a safer time to get back on the road.

Catchpole, a former editor and writer for Condé Nast, and Mohl, an attorney who wanted to be a photographer, support their adventures by filing stories for publications and websites around the world. “We are living our dream, but we spend 60% of our time working,” says Catchpole.

The couple’s travels have included scenic alpaca encounters in the Andes of Peru.

Eric Mohl

As the pandemic hit, the couple was returning from one of their most expansive “field offices,” Patagonia, the massive realm of wilderness, mountains, middle-of-nowhere ranches and ice that sprawls 402,000 square miles across the lower half of Chile and Argentina.

“Patagonia was so stunning — just amazing mountains, glaciers. We saw four different pumas!” says Mohl.

“That never happens,” chimes in Catchpole. “Most people who live in Patagonia have never seen a puma.”

It was one of those moments Catchpole and Mohl live and travel for, one of the stumble-upon happenings that leaves you in thrall to the wonder in your world. The vistas of glacial ice-calving, towering peaks and the natural world in Patagonia so overwhelmed the senses they could hardly take it all in.

“By the time we left, we could not absorb any more of the amazing intensity,” recalls Mohl.

An ambitious itinerary, exponentially extended

They got hooked on long-haul travel when they backpacked around Southeast Asia for four years in the late 1990s, trekking in Borneo and the Himalayas. It was the dawning of the Internet café age.

As an editor and journalist, Catchpole had helped create Sassy and Jane magazines for Condé Nast. What if she could write about their travels and Eric could photograph them, and they could post from the road? They sold a few stories to travel magazines, and the seed was planted.

They went back home to work, saved money, and eventually developed a plan for a three-year trip through the Americas. “From Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, we’re all Americans,” says Mohl. The mission of their Trans-Americas Journey was to understand their own backyard and neighbors better. They set out in 2006.

Since then, they have racked up 220,000 miles, 17 nations and 14 flat tires. They have driven the equivalent of nine times around the world in their mud-specked Silverado. The three-year journey turned into 14 and counting.

Mount Fitzroy in Argentina’s Patagonia region is another stunning landscape along their meandering route.

Eric Mohl

They have bumped down potholed roads in Guatemala, crunched across salt flats in Bolivia and slalomed through jungle terrain in Ecuador and Brazil. On a long jaunt to the border of Peru and Bolivia, two tires split apart.

“We were headed to the border because our visas were about to expire along with the Temporary Importation Permit for our truck,” recalls Catchpole. “And Peru is very serious about not overstaying. The country actually has the right to confiscate your vehicle if you overstay. We had two tires delaminate (break apart from their casing), so we couldn’t get to the border in time.”

Border agents didn’t buy their story about mechanical issues even though they had a date/time stamped photo of a local policeman helping them with the tire. With visions of being stranded without wheels, they found an ally, a local Chevy dealer, who stepped in and resolved the issue with the police.

It was just one of many times complete strangers would go out of their way to help them in a crunch.

‘Having time to let it all happen is key’

Getting beyond the surface of tourism and making a connection with local people is their goal, and their strategy to do that is slow travel. Lingering is the builder of conversations and friendships and director of serendipities that are missed when we rush through a place.

Catchpole recommends talking to your restaurant server and other locals about the town you’re in. “If you go through a place quickly, it will wind up like your preconceived notion of it. Having time to let it all happen is key.”

Their travels have taught them to stay open, and when someone invites them to a place in a direction they are not going, they say yes.

The pair attended the annual Chacu festival in Peru during which wild vicuna are rounded up to be sheared.

Eric Mohl

Using the common sense we use to avoid trouble in a big American city, they say they have never been mugged or felt afraid. They had a stove and cooler pinched at a campground in Guatemala, but locals got everything back before breakfast.

Their in-depth approach has led them to a trove of immersive experiences. In Peru, they visited the annual Chacu festival, which features the traditional vicuna roundup. Vicunas are part of the llama and alpaca family except sleeker — “the super-model version,” says Catchpole.

She and Mohl were invited by locals to see this ancient ritual.

“Dozens of people fan out into the vicuna’s range, all holding on to a very, very long rope with small flags and bits of fabric,” Catchpole explains. “They stretch the rope and walk slowly behind groups of vicuna to herd them in the direction of a temporary holding pen.”

There the locals perform a traditional Incan ceremony and then shear each animal, whose coats are used for expensive clothing and blankets. “The day was full of fascinating moments, including the chance to see the vicuna up close and see a not-for-tourists Incan ritual,” she notes.

Experiencing the kindness of strangers

They’ve roved many places — from the looming staircase temples of the Mayan city of Copan, Honduras, to culinary finds, such as Restaurante El Chato in Bogota, Colombia. They’ve found the relatively undiscovered tropical beach haven of Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica and ridden the old Patagonian Express train in Argentina. One of the highlights was the city of Zacatecas, in the highlands of Mexico — “like Europe in our backyard, 12 hours from Texas.”

The time the couple spends getting to know their surroundings allows them to uncover destinations not on the usual tourist map, such as Bonito, a town on the edge of the Pantanal wetlands in southwestern Brazil, with crystal-clear spring waters and waterfalls. It’s like swimming in an aquarium.

While in Bonito, Catchpole started to have pain in her abdomen. The owner of the small hotel they were staying at, Maria Pires, of the Pousada Galeria Artes, went with them to a local clinic, since they didn’t speak Portuguese, the language of Brazil, only Spanish (present tense only).

Car trouble comes in inconvenient locations such as a salt flat in Argentina.

Eric Mohl

The doctor didn’t think it was appendicitis, but Maria didn’t buy it.

“She contacted a professor of surgery four hours away who told us to go there immediately,” says Catchpole. “Maria left her hotel and came with us. We found out it was appendicitis, and she stayed with us through the surgery in the operating room.”

“Stuff like this happens all the time. We have been very lucky to meet people who go way out of their way to help us,” says Catchpole.

What does the future hold for Catchpole and Mohl? They have taken a financial hit along with the whole travel industry. Ad dollars that support publications have dried up and resulted in slashed budgets for travel stories.

They think they might go to Paraguay or Uruguay next, where the virus has not rampaged. They have more questions than answers about what pandemic travel might look like.

Their style of travel will have to adapt to a new tourism, which includes things such as wearing masks.

“For us, as non-native Spanish speakers, masks are making it harder to converse well in Spanish. The masks muffle the voice and conceal facial expressions. It’s hard to make a connection as a stranger with a mask on,” says Catchpole.

“We really miss seeing people’s smiling faces, since that’s an element of travel that adds so much to every interaction.”

It’s a long, strange trip ahead for us all.

The Galapagos draws visitors with its amazing diversity of wildlife — including the blue-footed boobie.

Eric Mohl

Top finds on the Trans-Americas Journey

• Instead of the Inca Trail in Peru, try the Ausangate trek — more beauty, more mountains and fewer people.

• In Argentina, the northern wine region of Cafayate and the provincial capital, Salta, has wineries, gauchos, culture and great food in some of the most gorgeous natural beauty in the country.

• The Amazon basin in Ecuador around Cuyabeno wins for animal sightings, fewer people and much lower prices than the most accessible Amazon regions.

• The Pantanal region of Brazil is where you have the greatest chance of seeing a jaguar in the wild, plus macaws, anteaters, capybaras and many more.

I was wrong.

A seemingly unexceptional cheap street food found throughout the city, these snacks are crispy on the outside, while each “bubble” is fluffy on the inside. Called “gai daan jai” in Cantonese, their texture can be described as a cookie and sponge cake hybrid.

I kicked off my quest with a visit to Shanghai Street in Kowloon. Filled with kitchenware shops, it’s a popular destination for those buying bubble waffle irons.

“We all import our waffle irons from China these days,” said one shopkeeper. “Choy Tung Shing may be your best chance.”

It was a reasonable suggestion. Choy Tung Shing is one the oldest remaining blacksmiths in Hong Kong — most famous for its handmade ovens used for Cantonese roasted pork and goose.

But there, too, the owner struggled with my request.

“I’ve looked everywhere but couldn’t find anything about Hong Kong bubble waffle irons in my father’s old sketches and notes,” says Leung Wing Cheung, the third-generation owner of the century-old kitchenware store/factory.

“Are you sure you want to write about bubble waffles? Why not char siu (barbecue roasted pork) or something more remarkable?”

What’s so special about Hong Kong egg waffles?

The new, evolved gai daan jai. The waffle is curled into a cone and filled with ice cream or whipped cream.

Maggie Wong

I used to hold similar views, until 2016, when I quit my full-time job and moved to London where, one cold winter, I opened a street market stall selling Hong Kong bubble waffles under an undersized tarp that barely kept out the relentless rainwater.

It was a response to a bad gai daan jai experience a year earlier, when I tried a reinvented egg waffle in another London street food market.

The “new” bubble waffle was rolled up into a cone, which was stuffed with colorful ice cream and toppings. I took a bite and instantly felt cheated. It was a soft pancake disguised as a bubble waffle.

From that moment, I decided I’d introduce my own version of gai daan jai to London.

Back in Hong Kong, I took a crash course from a retired waffle street vendor. Nine months later, I opened for business in London.

The first customer came.

“Hong Kong bubble waffle?” the Korean traveler asked.

“Yes, like a bubble wrap,” I nodded.

My iron failed to heat up in the chilly London winter. The waffle wouldn’t come off the iron in one piece. It took me 30 minutes and many apologetic smiles until I was able to complete my first order.

The forgiving customer took a bite and was happy.

I was elated.

At the time, I thought the experience was purely personal, but I later came to realize that I was part of the global rise of our humble city waffle.

Bubble waffle shops have been popping up around Europe in the last few years, drawing crowds and getting plenty of Instagram likes.

They’ve traveled to the United States, too. In 2018, a bubble waffle shop was invited to set up shop at the Super Bowl.

Unlike many Cantonese dishes like char siu or dim sum, which with a few exceptions remain largely unevolved, Hong Kong egg waffles have transformed and are now gaining fans far beyond the streets of the world’s Chinatowns.

How was the first bubble waffle invented?

A few years after my one-year stint as a bubble waffle vendor, I was back in Hong Kong and ready to learn more about the history and stories of the Hong Kong snack to which we’ve grown so accustomed.

I was surprised by how the humble waffle has subtly weaved its way into becoming a strong part of our city’s history and culture since its invention in the 1950s.

“In the last decade, there has been a rise in the need to understand our local identity in Hong Kong,” says Siu Yan Ho, a lecturer in food literature and cultural studies at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University.

“More people talk about food, not merely as a food review, but about the relationship between the community and our food. Studying the history of food is closely related to the history of a city. Egg waffles embody the lifestyle of Hong Kong in the 1950s and exemplify the city’s transformation throughout the years.”

But still, I could find no concrete documentation about the backstory of egg waffles.

Traditional egg waffles are often served without toppings or special fillings.

Maggie Wong

“One of the reasons is that it’s too common a food. One that doesn’t connote certain messages or status,” says Siu.

The most likely origin story, according to Siu’s research, is that the food was born out of necessity during trying times.

“Hong Kong bubble waffles were invented after the war, when the economy was bleak,” he says.

“Businesses would find ways to reinvent and utilize their meager supplies. It was likely that a grocery shop owner invented it to utilize unsold eggs. With flour and sugar — ingredients easily found in shops — egg waffles were born.”

And what about the shape? Siu has a theory for that, too.

“Its unique form was intended to make it look more nutritious,” he says. “Being economical and nutritious were two emphases in Hong Kong at that time.”

Leung Wing Cheung, the third-generation owner of the Choy Tung Shing kitchenware factory.

Maggie Wong

The waffle iron wasn’t molded to look like bubble wrap but, most likely, to mimic dozens of mini eggs. In those days, a bubble waffle was broken into 30 separate pieces, with each bubble sold on its own, instead of one big waffle as it’s served now.

“People couldn’t afford an entire egg waffle,” says waffle iron maker Leung, who was born in the 1950s.

“In the ’70s, there were more street hawkers and demands for bubble waffle irons increased. The hawkers usually bought a few irons at once as the irons got confiscated all the time.”

Street hawkers and the economy

It’s said that the rise and fall of Hong Kong’s hawkers reflects the state of the city’s economy.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the city was experiencing another economic crisis, alongside an influx of new immigrants from mainland China. Many unemployed people turned to hawking to make a living.

These include Lee Sui Yuen, who just happens to be my bubble waffle teacher.

Lee Sui Yuen, a retired egg waffle hawker, holds one of his decades-old waffle irons.

Maggie Wong

Lee came to Hong Kong in the 1970s from mainland China and soon turned to bubble waffles.

“The competition was fierce but my gai daan jai were so good even I liked eating them,” he says.

“In the last few years before I retired, I only opened for business occasionally. Word would spread quickly and people would drive to buy gai daan jai from me.”

He made his bubble waffles the traditional way — grilled over a charcoal fire instead of with an electronic pan, which is what most shops do nowadays.

But, it was a hard way to earn a living given the legalities of selling on the street. To improve hygiene and tidiness, the government stopped issuing new hawker licenses in the 1970s, making new vendors illegal. The city began phasing out old licenses more vigorously in the 1990s.

“Being a street hawker had taken a toll on my heart. I was fearful of being caught by the hawker control team all the time,” he says as he shows me the scar where a pacemaker was placed inside his chest.

Now retired, Lee’s face lights up when talking about bubble waffles. He can still list all of the ingredients and processes without hesitating.

“To make a good waffle, you need to have good ingredients, good technique, as well as good weather. Gai daan jai made in the winter in Hong Kong are especially crispy and delicious because of the low humidity,” he says.

“But if you don’t heat up the iron well enough in winter, your waffle will stick onto your pan and it won’t come off easily. That’s why you always have to have your palm over the stove to check the heat.”

I tell him I wish we’d covered that chapter during our earlier egg waffle lessons.

“You have to experience it to understand the theory behind it. Now, you understand what I mean,” he nods with a mischievous smile.

I show him photos of the new types of bubble waffles, served with extra toppings and fillings, that inspired me to write this story.

“It’s such a great idea. If you don’t evolve with time and be flexible, then you’re out. It’s the same logic for doing other things in life,” says Lee.

From Hong Kong to the Ukraine

Indeed, bubble waffles have gone through several major changes in the last two decades.

“Foods follow the diaspora of a culture and make it international,” says Sidney Cheung, professor and program director of cultural management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“In the previous waves of migration, we see dim sum and char siu representing Hong Kong foods overseas. Now, it is cha chaan teng (the Cantonese version of a greasy spoon) and bubble waffles.”

Yet arguably the most influential person to bring forth this new wave of bubble waffle desserts isn’t a Hong Kong migrant but a Ukrainian entrepreneur: Oleg Sabsai.

Oleg Sabsai claims to be the first person to transform the traditional egg waffle into an ice cream dessert.

Oleg Sabsai

“I’m the real founder of Bubble Waffle Network,” Sabsai confirms.

After establishing a business selling bubble tea in 2009, the Ukrainian says he began searching for the next business idea that “could be import-independent, made with natural ingredients, cooked in an open kitchen and was appealing to the customers.”

He stumbled upon Hong Kong egg waffles and opened the first Bubble Waffle Network shop in Ukraine. (Not to be confused with the imposter bubble waffle I tried in London).

“You will be surprised, but I never tasted these waffles — I found a video on YouTube with an authentic street vendor baking gai daan jai on charcoal heat. In 2013, there wasn’t much content about it online,” says Sabsai.

With an investment of $300, used to buy two electric waffle makers online — “one of the machines was broken,” adds Sabsai — and experimenting with many recipes at home, he started selling bubble waffles in a shopping mall.

“At the end of the first sales day in the most crowded location, we had zero sales and our spirit was shattered,” he tells me.

“Customers were not interested in our product as a native Hong Kong business model. But there was no way back. Our first franchisee partners already ordered furniture and equipment in Russia and Kazakhstan. Finally, the inspiration came: I turned a bubble waffle into a cone, put fillings inside the bubbles and ice cream/whipped cream in the cone.”

That was a golden, game-changing idea, he recalls.

“The photos of the new product made a huge boom in the history of bubble waffles. Suddenly this new look became one of the most attractive foods in the world,” says Sabsai.

The evolved bubble waffle, served as an ice cream cone, has helped the Hong Kong creation gain popularity in Europe. This version was found in Warsaw, Poland.

Maggie Wong

But with demand on the rise, he faced more challenges from franchisees complaining about the imported equipment.

“These Chinese waffle makers couldn’t work sustainably with such high customer traffic so we have lost the franchise network,” says Sabsai.

In response, the Ukrainian businessman has been spending the last three years developing his own Teflon-free, durable electronic waffle irons.

“It is my dream to come to Hong Kong and finally taste the egg waffle from the authentic street vendors,” he says.

“I am sure there is a reason why it’s so beloved by the people. I am grateful to them for coming up with the idea of this food in the ’50s.”

Sabsai’s reinvented bubble waffles appear to have caught on, with imitators now popping up all around the world.

My failed Hong Kong egg waffle business

I didn’t make a profit selling egg waffles but they helped me connect with people from around the world, deepening my affection for my own city.

Maggie Wong

My version of bubble waffles was a lot simpler. I offered three flavored bubble waffle bases — plain, chocolate and matcha. Waffles were topped with whipped cream, fresh fruits and chocolate.

I didn’t make a profit selling them but, unexpectedly, they helped me connect with people from around the world, deepening my affection for my own city along the way.

I — along with my toes — am forever grateful to the Turkish couple who ran the stall next to me at London’s Brick Lane Market and made me sit in front of their heater on chilly days and appreciated my bubble waffles.

And then there was a kid, the son of fellow vendors, who would sneak into my booth and signal to me to smuggle him a chocolate waffle.

I will also always remember the skeptical fellow Hong Kongers living in London — “Is this the real thing?” they would ask — who later came back as trusting customers looking to enjoy a piece of home.

There were also customers who asked me about Hong Kong, or came to share their fond memories of visiting my city.

Before I left London and returned to Hong Kong in 2017, I was invited to a local Chinese association’s community center.

“Today, we will buy gai daan jai from Maggie so she has money to fly back to Hong Kong,” a volunteer announced half-jokingly to other members.

The Hong Kong aunties and uncles, who had moved to the UK decades ago, enthusiastically bought my egg waffles during breaks between their table tennis sessions, asking me what was new in Hong Kong these days.

Professor Cheung, I feel, sums up both my experiences and the global rise of gai daan jai best.

“The new styles of bubble waffles may have detached from their original form but have kept their original meaning and symbol, which is the flavor of Hong Kong.”

“To protect staff and myself and my customers you have to put in the meter [distancing] rule,” he said.

McFadden said he wanted “to put some rope, or chain” to make sure customers kept back from staff at the bar but couldn’t find suitable equipment.

“I thought, this is not going to keep them [the customers] back,” he said. So instead, he opted for the fence to see “what that does.”

The fence is not usually turned on, but the sight of it has managed to deter some customers from crowding near staff.

“It’s not on but it’s got the desired effect that everybody thinks it’s on and they keep well away from it. It’s the fear factor. It’s working very well,” McFadden said.

At least three pubs in England have had to close their doors again, after customers tested positive for coronavirus.

Asked how customers reacted to the innovation, McFadden said: “It was quite comical. We’re in a rural area so everybody knows what an electric fence is. I got a little sign too on it – ‘electric, danger.”