I picked up one concrete square at a time and laid them down and to my surprise, I found a pretty copperhead hiding behind one of the stepping-stones I was using to hold the doors closed. He didn't strike at me and moved inside the shed. Of course I followed it into the shed to see where it went. I then hurried into the house to get my camera and hoping it was still there, returned to take its pictures and it was nice enough to pose for me. This first picture is full size uncropped and I didn't use the zoom. I just put the camera down close to it, snapped the picture and luckily, it didn't strike at me.
I stepped past it and took a picture from the inside of the shed looking out. He still didn't want to move. Lazy guy, isn't he?
Finally, it uncoiled and slithered back into the shed. I looked all over for it and couldn't find it. It must of somehow got out the back underneath the walls or maybe it is hiding in my lawn tractor's seat. Gee, glad I got all the grass cut yesterday and will not have to get the tractor out for awhile. Now don't any of you get snake bit but have a great day, you hear?
Now just WHAT would you have done if it had struck you? Yes. I know you would have died, but honestly DD, think of your wife if not your life. Now you have no idea where it is and when you see one snake, you've only seen ONE of them. What am I going to do with you. tsk tsk
ReplyDeleteI have already heard that sermon from my wife. I have never been afraid of snakes but I do show them respect and a live snake does more good around the place than it does harm. Of course, I suppose, the non poisonous ones would be better. My son told me that the neighbor spotted one of these and a rattle snake last week.
DeleteWe lived near Ft. Worth until a couple of years ago and got the bright idea to retire near the Red River in Oklahoma. My husband killed 5 big velvet tail rattlers in the yard during the Fall season.. One of the locals would come over and get the skin to tan and took the snake home to put into the freezer to eat. Yikes!! It is a whole new world up here. The only good poisonous snake is a dead one.
DeleteI used to live near Ft. Wroth, also, just outside the little town of Justin and next to the Just-In-time airport.
DeleteWe used to live a little north of Springtown on 51. Justin used to have some neat salvage places years ago and also sold seed. I used to picnic sometimes in Bishop Park with a friend.
DeleteScatter moth balls in the shed to keep the snakes and their food outside the shed.
ReplyDeleteIf I do that, then the snakes will move into the house (grin).
Delete20 years or more ago I was bitten by a copperhead... spent 3 or 4 days in the hospital due to my allergic reaction... not fun. Bill had to bring loose fitting sweats for me to wear home... I looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy... so swollen from the neck down to mid-calf.... all fluid. A couple of years later I saw a very nice copperhead roadkill... scooped him up... tanned his skin and somewhere I have him/her as a piece of art in a nice glassed in frame to hang on the wall. Nothing to mess with... even dead their venom can make a person pretty sick if it gets in your system. Beautiful? yes indeed... copperheads are gorgeous... and I'd prefer they not be dead... just not around my living quarters....
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a boy growing up I was taught that was only two reasons to kill wildlife, to eat and to save yourself or someone else from injury or death. At my house, if you killed it, you ate it (of course there were exceptions).
DeleteCooperheads are vicious, and don't play around. My bro was bitten by one, and then was allergic to the anti venom. That's the kind you kill....Rattlesnakes are not aggressive like those, and cottonmouths.
ReplyDeleteWe got all three of those here. My 6 acre swamp that is in the middle of my property, is a great place to find snakes and other wild critters.
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