# 273 of 300 Ways to Catch a Snake (and other foolishness...)

When you live in the country, you're gonna run across critters.  Critters abound out here and if you don't like critters, then don't live in the country.  Critters are different from your good buddy pets.  Critters eat your garden, dig holes everywhere, come in the house even when they're not supposed to and are a general nuisance. We're always trying to get rid of critters - mice, rats, gophers, armadillos, moles, skunks, hogs, possums, 'coons AND last but certainly not least - SNAKES.

Now I don't cotton to these kinda critters too much myself, but they're not going to keep me from loving my little farm and enjoying every minute I'm here!  You just live with 'em and deal with 'em.

This morning, we had a some excitement here at Sand Flat Farm.  I went out early - 6:45 to feed and water my chickies before work. Fresh water, fill up the feeder, strew a little corn to scratch, clean out the night's poo... you know, the usual. Upon exiting the run, I happened to glance to the side, right by the doorlatch, and lo and behold, I saw THIS ------>

WARNING - Graphic photos - not for the squeamish nor faint of heart!!!

I MUST HAVE JUMPED BACK TEN FEET!

This fellow slithered into the coop probably a couple of days ago. I wondered why the chickens only laid 2 eggs that day when they usually lay 5-6.  I thought it was just too hot outside.  Evidently, the snake had come through the small gauge chicken wire and ate his fill and then couldn't get back through with such a full stomach!  He was a good 4 to 4 1/2 feet long

Rat snake, right?  At least I hope so. We've seen him a couple of times around the yard.  He'd always shoot up under the house when he spotted us looking at him with an evil intent in our eyes.  Can you count the bumps along his stomach?  SIX, there are six bumps! Horrors!

Slowly, I eased out of the coop trying not to disturb him. I started for my hoe, but decided to go get Tony out of bed and have him come out. He dressed quickly and got the hoe ready.  Tony took the snake's tail and carried him twined around the end of the hoe out to the orchard and neatly whacked his head off.

Good job!  Another farm critter bites the dust!  Glad that was all he bit!  Tony got a plastic bag to dispose of this booger and I went to check the coop just in case there was an early egg or an egg from the night before.

GUESS WHAT!  That dumb snake swallowed all six of my golf balls that I'd put in the nests to show the hens where to lay!!!!  I imagine he did eat a couple of the previous day's eggs, and then later decided to eat the rest of them!  JOKE'S ON YOU MR. SNAKE!  I'll bet he had a major case of indigestion!  Now, don't think us bad folks for killing this guy - he would have died anyway trying to pass those golf balls.

Sooooo,  we retrieved my golf balls...

Lookie there ^ - see all six lined up in a neat row!

Kinda gross actually, but at least I got my balls back - to be cleaned and disinfected for sure - reptiles have really nasty mouths - full of germs and bacteria.  Yuck, maybe I just need to get some more...

Now, have any questions?  Well, then you've just seen #273 of 300 ways to catch a snake.  Great way to trap a snake in your chicken coop!  You're very welcome.

Keep yer dress down.

Just around the corner

Not much going on today around here.  Thought I'd post a pic from this morning. Just around the corner from my house there's a little stretch of road where the county put a "Deer Crossing" sign because we have a resident HERD (I kid you not) of deer that stroll our parts.  I don't know if you remember but I posted some pics back in the spring of the herd crossing the road and they had traffic stopped in both directions.  This morning early the deer were laying in a pasture along the road probably just waking up from napping. There were a couple standing around, but most of them were lying on the ground, legs folded under them, looking sleepy and flopping their big ole ears around.  Of course I didn't have my camera. I always have it, but I didn't this morning.  So I whipped my car around, flew back to the house, grabbed it and was back down to the pasture in a flash. Alas and Alack, they'd moved on, but I caught the tail end of the group as they wandered out of sight.  Here they are for your amusement and entertainment:

I hope you can see them. If I tried to make them too big, I lost the clarity. So...  Don't know if this interests you, but it always does me.  I'm a big animal lover, and I'm always excited to see our local deer herd.  Talk to ya'll later - Keep your gown down!

Calling all Pellet Gun Owners!

Would somebody please come down here to my office building and take out these stupid crows on top of my metal roof PLEASE!!!  The sweet gum balls are falling on my roof and it sounds like those mini-buzzards are playing soccer up there.  Jumping up and down, cawing, and trying to stab the sweet gum balls and digging them out of the gutters. It's not pecking - it's hammering!  Sounds like a jackhammer!  They've made my office roof their new playground for the last 2 weeks! I'm surprised I don't have a leak in the roof yet!

Gopher Broke!

Got gophers?  We do. Hate them little suckers, rather diggers.  They are digging up our entire yard at the farm.  They are in the hay pastures and I guess that's alright, but I don't want 'em in the yard.  When you have sandy soil it's perfect for digging and burrowing.  It's a little scary to walk in the yard because you might step in a hole, or at least a soft spot and twist your ankle. Don't need to do that.

I bought me 4 traps. I've caught about 5 gophers in the last week so far and am working on the others.  Yesterday afternoon, it was a battle of wills with this one particular gopher. I knew he was purty big cuz he had huge dirt mounds and large holes in the ground.  I'm gettin' pretty good at finding the main tunnel. I poke around the mound with a long sharp stick and feel for a soft spot, dig straight down in a single motion and lift out the dirt. There you can see the run. There's kind of a talent to finding the main run and I guess I've acquired that talent.  Something extremely valuable I can use in the future.

Then you tie a string or a piece of wire on the back of the trap so's the gopher won't pull it down in the hole, set the trap and stick it way down in the hole - check.  Then you wanna make it a little dark in there so they won't see the trap. I shove some leaves or some loose grass and dirt down in there - check. Sometimes I put a little peanut butter on the square metal piece on the end for bait - check. (Hey they make poison peanuts to kill them so I figure what the heck)  Now, the trap's in the hole, the hole's covered up, and the other end of the string or wire you stake it in the ground outside the mound - check.  Now sit back and wait.

Sometimes you have to wait just a little bit, sometimes it may take a day or two.  If you haven't caught anything after a couple of days, it's probably a dry run and you need to try another mound.

ANYWAY, yesterday, I was going after this particular gopher, dug out a hole, found the run, set the trap, staked my string, and went to set a trap elsewhere.  Ok, I go back about 10 minutes later, move some of the leaves and dirt away and lo and behold, MY STRING HAS BEEN CHEWED IN HALF and the trap's gone!  I had to dig down and to the side another foot and finally found the trap - still unsprung and just a little piece of string still attached.  So I reset everything, put a new piece of string on the trap and waited.  Come back about 15 minutes later, SAME THING!  This time I had to dig even farther. Found my trap still unsprung.

OK, This is WAR!!!  (cue "Caddy Shack" music here)  I go to the garden shed and git me a piece of thin wire and attach it to the trap. He ain't gettin' away this time!  I'm talking and fussing out loud now - (cue Bill Murray)  Here we go again. I bring a spoonful of peanut butter outside and load up my trap, stake it out with wire and water my roses.

I pull on the wire, it's not wantin' to come out of the hole. It's stuck & I have to git my little shovel under it and bring it out.  There attached by a little piece of stomach skin was MR. GOPHER - nearly big as a rat, and he's jumpin' all around tryin to get loose.  First one I've caught alive. 

Now, I'm a big animal-lover & don't like killing animals no matter what kind - except snakes. But I can't let him loose to keep digging up the yard. I call my sister and ask her opinion. She's a big non-squeamish-do-it-yourselfer-cuz-you-don't-wanna-wait-around-on-your-husband type of girl like me. Wrong choice.  I thought she was going to tell me to take his head off with the shovel. No, she said I should let him go. WHAT?  Of course, it's not her yard and she doesn't have gophers.  So she shamed me into letting him go. BUT I let him go way down in the pasture by the pond. Hopefully he'll never make it back up to my yard.

I feel like a failure somehow. If I'm gonna be a farmgirl I've got to learn to do what has to be done. I wimped out yesterday.  I've always prided myself on being able to take care of business that has to be taken care of. It won't happen again - PROMISE!   ;o)

In the meantime, I've got Mr. Gopher by the tail and he's twistin all around trying to grab me and take a hunk out of my finger with those big ole gnawing teeth of his. Every time I tried to move him with my stick he's chompin on the stick, the trap and my gloved hands. Thank goodness for leather gloves! If he HAD of bitten me I guess I could have carried out my farmerly duties to cause his demise posthaste! So I carry him by the tail out to the pond and set him down in the dirt where he starts scurrying around looking for a place to hide.  I think he'll be alright.  I'll just let Mother Nature take care of him.

So that's what I did all afternoon yesterday.  Kathy B over at  Spot on Cedar Pond has been after moles at her place.  What'd you do fun and entertaining yesterday?

Roadkill (maybe?)

Hi all - thought I'd stop in for a quick check-in. I promised to have a new post up this week, but a few wrenches have been thrown our way and time has been precious. I've checked in on a few of you (I can't stay away) and my thoughts & prayers have been with those I know are having problems.

I ran into this little guy this morning on the way to work (not literally). I stopped to get a sausage biscuit at our local McDonald's (the slowest one in the state of Texas) and this booger was strolling around in the parking lot. Now mind you, this is quite a busy street in our little town, and it was totally out of character for a wild animal to be at this particular location.

I say "strolling"... he was actually wandering around in circles, head down, confused, staggering, falling down, getting back up. RABIES, I imagine. There were several people standing around outside keeping a watchful eye and someone was going to call the Animal Control folks to come get him. I had to go on to work.

Poor little guy. If he DIDN'T have rabies, then there was certainly something else wrong with him. My son Josh was in the car with me, and there were people waiting in line after me. But whoa, a PHOTO OP! Who's gonna pass up a good photo op for blog fodder! I keep my camera in the car alot (now that it's not 103 degrees), so I whooped out my camera like a six-gun and snapped off a couple of photos before gittin my breakfast. (maybe that's why our McDonalds is the slowest one in the state of Texas??? Maybe there are other people who also like to take pictures at McDonalds???) Anyway, I felt sorry for the raccoon - I'm sure he was about to meet his demise either way - if Animal Control didn't get him purty quick, he was sure to get creamed out on the highway and be roadkill for some buzzard's supper!

Which brings to mind a story - my nanny had a couple of pet 'coons when she was a kid. She said they were lots of fun and would come and dig food out of her pockets (or anybody else's) and look for food in her hair and behind her ears - she said it tickled. Until the male reached puberty - then he got mean, and she had to take him to the woods to let him go.

End of story - wasn't that interesting??

'Nuff said - I'll be back later hopefully - we had a great 50th Party for my sis. More to come....

THE END.