And now, from the "Hazards of Gardening" files and The McKinney Courier Gazette

Sudiegirl sez: Mucho props to Jewel (http://jewelsrule.tblog.com) for sending me the link to this oh-so-inspirational tale of a man and his garden. To see the article in its entirety without snotty, obtuse comments from yours truly, simply click on the link above. Also, I have included the e-mail of the reporter in question so he can get the proper recognition...I don't think I could have written this news story without laughing my sizable ass off. So anyway, enough of my yackin'! As Rob Reiner says in "This is Spinal Tap", "Let's Boogie!"

Man falls on electric fence around marijuana, dies

By DANNY GALLAGHER McKinney Courier-Gazette


Officials confirmed Friday that a Fairview man died after falling on a high-powered electric fence that surrounded a large marijuana garden he had been cultivating. (Well, it's not exactly "whizzing on the electric fence", like Ren and Stimpy's favorite board game warned us about...)

Fairview Police Chief Granver Tolliver and Collin County Medical Examiner Dr. William Rohr said Paul Tanner III, 23, died at his home in the 1300 block of Red Oak Trail sometime Monday morning.

His body was discovered by his wife, whose name was not released by Fairview police. (I agree with this process...why draw her into it if she didn't know anything about it?)

Tanner had gone outside while his wife was still in the house. When he failed to return after a couple of hours, she went looking for him and found him about 200 feet from the house, sitting motionless against the electric fence, Tolliver said. (OK, let me say it now and get it out of the way..."Shocking.")

The electric fence surrounding the garden was connected to a 20 AMP breaker, Tolliver said."This wasn't a normal electric fence - like a low-impeding type fence that reduces the amount of electricity that goes through it - like a farmer would use," Tolliver said. "He had run electricity straight from the house into the fence." (This is my question, and my significant Doug asked it as well...wouldn't there have been a significant drop in the house electricity when our itinerant farmer fell against the fence and proceeded to be sauteed? I mean, towns with a Death-Row prison have a sudden drop in electrical power when someone gets the chair...wouldn't she have noticed anything? Then again, maybe not if she didn't really know the garden existed...I suppose that's feasible.)

Tolliver said they are not exactly sure how Tanner fell on the fence."We don't know if he lost his balance or fell asleep, but it appears he fell backwards into the fence and could not get off the fence," Tolliver said. "It was like his weight was resting inverted on the back of the fence." (Oh boy...I don't think I wanna know the rest. But wouldn't he have looked different? Wouldn't his hair have been sticking up all over the place like Einstein's, or Carrot Top's?)

Tanner's wife called her father-in-law and told him her husband was not breathing and she couldn't get him to wake up. Her father-in-law called 911 and reported the incident to Fairview police, Tolliver said. (God, I can almost see the reaction on the dad's face once he found out the garden's contents and the precise security system the boy rigged up to protect his stash. Probably a combination of shock, pride, admiration, disgust and sadness. I mean, if the guy could rig up a security system like this, what's he doing wasting his life on growing weed?)


Tanner's wife attempted to pull him away from the fence and received a small shock, but was not seriously injured. She attempted to give Tanner CPR before Fairview public safety officials arrived. The paramedics found Tanner had no pulse and concluded he had died 30 minutes or more before they arrived, Tolliver said. (Oh man...what a way to go. I really feel sorry for his wife that she had to find him like this. That's gonna take years of therapy to work through...)

Rohr said the autopsy showed that Tanner died at 7:38 a.m. Monday from electrocution. He said test results will show whether he had narcotics in his system at the time of his death.

Tolliver said it is thought that Tanner had methadone in his system since he had gone to a clinic earlier that morning. Tolliver said the clinic gave him two methadone pills, but police found only one tablet in the house. (So we have cross-addictions going on here...pot, gardening, electrical alarm systems and heroin/methadone.)

Police found 55 marijuana plants ranging from three to six feet in height inside the electric fence in Tanner's backyard. The plants were in potting buckets.

Tolliver said Tanner was on probation. (Not anymore!)

The plants were seized by the Collin County Sheriff's Office's Narcotics Unit. (OK, if anyone in the know is reading this, here's a question...what is done with marijuana and other drugs once they are seized. You could burn them and make the whole town happy for a bit, but I'm sure that's not feasible. What is done with illegal drugs once they are seized, "theoretically"? As in "In a perfect world where those with law enforcement status actually have integrity and morals"? Fulfill my curiosity and wanting to learn status!)

Tanner's wife was not arrested. Tolliver said investigators think the plants belonged to, and were grown by, her husband. (Again, kudos to the police for not dragging his wife into it...there's no sense messing up two lives if you don't have to.)

Tolliver said the marijuana crop found in Tanner's backyard was "a fairly substantial number of plants. Usually, a home grower will only grow five to 10 plants in a closet. You don't normally find a garden with that many plants in it." (Honestly, I'd have to agree...there was definitely intent there! Sigh...what a world.)

Contact Danny Gallagher at businessnews@courier-gazette.com.

Sudiegirl's final word?

Marijuana truly kills. Just ask Mrs. Tanner.