So, yeah ... snakes.

I've been out working on the turkey pen all day and clearing the area where I'm putting the horse* barn**.

I went in to check my email and popped back out to put up the gate on the cage before Evil Genius Husband had to go get the comics. As I'm passing by the pigeon pen guess what i saw?

Snake #2! A bit bigger, a bit longer, and definitely not happy about being caught.

He also had a big wide head. Handsome fellow!

No problem. Two days. Two snakes. It happens.

So I dropped him in a pillowcase (after showing him to the babies - who loved it) and toted him back up to the shed to await relocation. I stepped into my shop, part of which is the interior of the pigeon pen (where they roost and nest), and I damned near stepped on another snake!

I kid you not.

This bloke was at least a foot or so longer than #2 and v. v. unhappy about being nabbed. I had the bagged snake in one hand (hadn't tied the pillowcase yet!) and the big honker by the tail with the other. I tried dropping #3 into an empty 33 gallon trashcan. He just reached right up and slithered out.

Finally I tried holding #2's bag closed with my knee and grabbing #3 behind the head. He was bloody quick to disagree with my proposal:

Finally I just walked back down to the house and in the back door holding #3 by the tail (with my arm all the way over my head - he was that long) and yelling for another pillowcase.

Here's EGH, professional snake bagger:

So how was your day?

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* It's a maddening wee pony.

** It's a wee shed for a maddening wee pony.

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snakes, farming, snakebite, rat snakes, chicken snakes, black rat snakes

Speaking of snakes ...

I found this wee lady (?) coiled up in a nest box in my hen house:




Isn't she lovely? Alas, we were forced to relocate her (we take them to a huge, uninhabited tract of land down the road) since she was clearly small enough to get in through chicken wire.

I had noticed my eggs going missing for a few days but wasn't thinking about it when I reached in to check the nest. I touched her right on the top of her head and she flinched and startled the crap outta me, LOL.

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In other news, I spoke with my fence bloke about coming up and getting the side fence done. This one will go below the pasture and will complete the 'total surround' that I'm looking for. When it's done, all the animal pens will be within a perimetre fence. (Ohh, that sounds like a real isolationist compound, eh? I'm not a Libertarian fer nuthin', ROTFL! Now to go stock up on bottled water and ammo ...)

Anyway, I'll need 2 rolls of field fencing, and I think 3 gates, which will run me about $400. (Not counting what I have to pay the bloke to actually put up the fence!)

Argh.

Ahh, well, I can take it off my taxes.


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Speaking of money, my latest obsession is aquiring a trailer. I've finally figured out what I'm going to do!


I originally wanted a 12-16 foot flatbed to haul hay and junk on. Every time I come across something like lumber or tin or really big rabbit cages, I'm dead in the water because I can't haul them (usually). Ditto for hay.


When my hay guy ran out this year, I was forced to buy locally and go get one bale at a time (These are the big 4x5 foot round bales. They weigh about 1200lbs.) on the back of the truck. If I had a heavy duty trailer, I could get two. If I had a long heavy duty trailer I could get three.


With petrol as high as it is now, this one-bale-at-a-time crap is for the birds!


So, I got to thinking: I need a tractor. I've been working very hard in my stores to that end. I'm hoping to be able to get one by the holidays.




If I get a tractor, I'll need a trailer to haul it on.


*Lightbulb goes on*


IF I play my cards right and get the right trailer, I'll be able to haul my tractor, a car, junk, OR hay!


So that's my latest obsession. Find. Perfect. Trailer!

Storm clouds, snakes, and eggs

I think we might finally get some rain today!

Tropical storm Barry is sprinkling on Florida as we speak so maybe we'll get some of that up here. I hope so, I need hay!

My garden would sure appreciate it as well:




And here's a little souvenir we found in the rafters of the shed:


Just for comparison purposes, Boy is 42 inches tall. I have actually seen the fine fellow whose discarded attire this is (a Chicken Snake, properly called a Black Rat Snake). A VERY interesting story. I'll tell it to you sometime soon.

Apologies to any of you herpephobes (is that the correct term?), or old-timey country folks, but I don't kill snakes. I freakin' hate rats and mice. Loathe 'em. Anything that eats them is my bestest buddy! Since this bloke is too big to get in my pens and eat my biddies, then he gets to be a permanent fixture.

Speaking of dibs, my eggs in the incubator hatched! I was convinced that they had been damaged by that temp spike, but a few made it through. I got over half hatched and in the brooder. I'll get you pics later.

Chicks are so cute. I seriously need to make some shirts for us poultry lovers. I have a whole section devoted to rural living but most of it is goat stuff (with some pro dumpster diving items as well, natch!) If you're a chicken fancier, what would YOU wear on a T-shirt?

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chickens, poultry, eggs, snakes, farming, rural living, t-shirts, goats, dumpster diving