A Bird Snake In Hand...

What About TWO Snakes In One Day???


Yesterday was our first official "Yard Day" here at the new homestead in the "Knoxtown" section of Eastern Tennessee.

Being the obstinate SOB that I am, I was intent on standing up all day and sweating my ass off in whatever heat Mother Nature threw at me, but just to be sure I got started by 8 AM and I hired a crew of guys to handle the real heavy lifting.

As I doddered around in the back yard working on my picket fence project surrounding Missy the Turbo Pup's new Country Compound and Resort Hound Spa (hereafter referred to as the CCRHS), I had major chainsaw work going on in the front yard removing a Forest of overgrown shrubbery and two medium evergreen trees that had outlived their positions in the landscape.

About an hour into the morning's ceremony yard guy #2 (also known as "Mr. Leaf Blower Man") reported that we had (A) a Mockingbird's nest full of baby birds in the aforementioned overgrown shrubbery and (B) a large rat snake chasing said birds in same.

After a little program plan adjustment and screwing around, the Baby Mockingbird's nest was salvaged and Mr. Rat Snake--a four foot long specimen--shown here, was captured and relocated to the back yard (is that Mr. Leafblower Man or some just some Construction Hippy that showed up in my yard?):



As the sun rose in the sky and the heat index climbed past 100 degrees F, I switched into my middle aged yard wimp mode and came inside to shower and make a trip to the grocery store in anticipation of our weekly upcoming Pizza night extravaganza.

By Three PM my hired yard crew had cut and hauled away two thirty foot trees and a bunch of overgrown shrubbery and departed the scene, and while preparing for the late afternoon phase of the day's work I found yet another smaller Rat Snake moseying across the back lawn toward the house:



As you can see, I captured the little booger and returned him/her to the tree line behind the house. What blew my mind was that not thirty minutes later I had to capture the Son of Gun AGAIN within ten feet of his first known position.

I don't mind snakes of the non-poisonous variety, but I also hope that we've seen most if not all of our scaly slithering friends already this weekend and that I don't spend my time chasing snakes through the balance of the summer.