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Friday, May 25, 2007

He's a brave one, isn't he?

I do practice what I preach. I head out in the early mornings or early evening to water my plants by hand, ok with a hose in hand. It is one of the nicer solitude moments that I get around here. I may only have 3 boys, but they are just as busy and noisy as 12 of them. Call me exhausted.

Even in this Kansas wind, hair flying about blinding me, I still venture forth to to this simple plant life saving thing. By far the orchard is the easiest to water. Lay hose down, mull around pretending to inspect plants, pick hose up, move to next tree, watch the bird flop around attempting to take my attention away from her eggs.

So I water, we have established that. One evening I was out doing exactly that, diddling around, acting like I was important. It was exceptionally windy out and some where along the line I had this brilliant idea of not tieing my hair back. It might as well have been midnight for all I could see. Suddenly something very hard hit the side of my boot. I looked down, in between whirling hair, and saw nothing. hhhmmm...odd. I picked the hose up and moved to the next thirsty tree. Just as I was about to pick the hose up and move on again, something hard hit the side of my boot, once more. This time I saw what it was, but it took me by surprise, and I howled!

A Gopher snake had followed me from tree to tree, attacking my boot! It was huge, easily 5 feet long. Nope, not exaggerating. Good thing it wasn't a rattler.

And with that, have a great weekend everyone!

17 comments:

ollie1976 said...

Glad it was only a gopher snake-wow!
-Jen

The Unusual Farmchick said...

Any snake would have me hopping into the air all the while running away and screaming like a little girl! Just cant seem to stop the eeby jeebies when I see one slithering on the ground or close by.
You brave woman!

Tim Appleton (Applehead) said...

Nice story,I would have jumped initially. but then I would have stared it down....

Carla said...

I would have howled too! That's one very large snake. Yikes.

Anonymous said...

Yikes....it's a good thing you had your boots on.

The Fool said...

Yes, he is a brave one. Silly gopher, doesn't know what he's messin' with...

Lin said...

Great story! I wouldn't have appreciated such an aggressive snake at all but I did have an interesting snake encounter last Fall which is now buried in my Nov 2006 archives. Touch wood, so far so good this year and hoping that the rest of your summer is free of new encounters as well!

Alexandra said...

I would have jumped out of my skin! The only snakes I see around here are little brown snakes. They are kind of cute, and you chuckle when they coil. That snake looks a lot more scary.

Unknown said...

Thank goodness St. Patrick did for the snakes here!
I screamed & jumped when a green strawberry, next to the red 1 I was picking, leapt up into my face....
just what was a frog doing miles from any water?

From a Victorian gardening manual (Mrs. Beeton's Book of Garden Management): 1 boy is a boy; 2 boys are half a boy; 3 boys are no boys at all ~ she ommitted to continue: soundwise, 1 boy is a boy; 2 boys are 3; 3 boys are 12 ad infinitum.. :)

Unknown said...

PS, how do you get pretty pictures by your comments?

Jana said...

Holy Cow! I really hate snakes. I would have jumped out of those boots!

Rhonda Jean said...

hello phelan. I just wandered over to see your blog as you'd written some nice things in mine. and what do I discover! A pioneering snake woman! It's a lovely blog. I'll definitely be back.

Anonymous said...

Jesus! I would've had a heart attack! I don't think we have gopher snakes around here.

Phelan said...

ollie, same here. We have rattle snakes in this part of the country. That wouldn't have been cool.

Tammi, my mom is the same way. She will go out of her way to kill one.

Tim, then what?

Carla, glad to hear I am not alone.

Alrescate, you said it.

Fool, he doesn't, does he? :D

lin, guess I need to hunt that story down.

alexandra, looks are deciving. Their teeth hurt when they get a hold of you, but other than that, they aren't anything to be afraid of.

Killi, you guys got lucky with St. Patrick! Pretty pics, go to your profile, there should be a link that allows you to download photos.

Jana, keep your boots on! ;)

rhonadajean, welcome!

Laurie, gopher snakes are label with black snakes and one other, I will have to look them up. So you might have a sub-species around. um, I didn't say that ;)

April said...

I'd never water the trees again, or leave the house.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I don't blog here, so don't have profile. I tried to add 1 in gmail, but I think that only works for gmail & I'm registered here via googlemail. Complicated.

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