Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Snakes in the grass

8/22/07 Wednesday
And we are off to a start. The puppies pushed open their door this morning and came running in, full of their morning excitement. OK, I’ll get up. Let the little buggers out and got the coffee started. I walked around to the back of the house to check on the bees, to see if the Great Stuff foam I sprayed sealed up their access in and out of the house. No, they had a way around it so I sprayed some more to cover that. While kneeling down to watch for any other egresses I saw a foot long snake a hands reach away. It was too young to have rattles but the markings told me it is a diamond back rattler. Easing up I went to the garage to get something to kill it with. Returning with the hoe it was gone. I ran the hoe through the grass hoping to find it but had no luck. Not happy.

After looking around some more I gave up and headed in to grab the cup of coffee sitting on the table outside in the veranda. There was another snake. This one was about ten inches long and also a rattle snake. I had just set the hoe against the garage wall ten feet away so rushed to get it after noting what direction the snake was going. Getting back I moved the Q-grill it had gone behind just in time to see it disappearing through a small hole where the siding meets the concrete foundation. I was able to get maybe an inch of it’s tail with the edge of the hoe, hoping to pull it out of our wall. No such luck, just cut it off.

That’s two snakes just this morning. Snakes, bees, what’s next. We will have to keep an eye out for the puppies. Cherie is going to fix breakfast when the eggs thaw out. The fridge is getting worse. It’s been set on it’s warmest setting for a while now and stopped freezing as bad when I took the thermostat apart but that didn’t last long. It could be worse. I’d much rather it be too cold than not cold enough.

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing today. There is lots to do but I just have to make a plan. I’ll have to work to be positive today. Hope that snake can’t get into the house through the wall.

Couldn’t get this posted. At first it said there was an error and now I can’t access any of the blogger blogs. Evidently blogger is down all over.

Been out chopping weeds. It seems that I have slowed down the bees as there are not as many flying around. I must start pulling the staples out of the fencing Jay gave us as that pile is a perfect haven for snakes. That’s gonna take a while, perhaps all day, perhaps not. I never know and seem to be a poor judge of such things.

Blogger seems to be back online. Amy sent an E mail telling us her fathers memorial will be Friday. The accident was on the news in a couple of places. I wish we could go but this time of the month and the phone bill issue means we can’t even afford the gas.

2 comments:

Eric Siegmund said...

It's really rare to see even a small rattler without rattles. If it had a pointed tail, it might have been a bull snake. It's markings are strikingly similar to a diamondback's.

Bob Westbrook said...

That would be good. The first one I wasn't able to get a look at the tail just the one I cut the tail off of.