Oh, Dawn, you are so much braver than I am! If I thought there were snakes anywhere near my garden I would never set a foot outside. I actually paid the neighbor kids to rake my leaves one year because someone said they had seen a snake next door. I was more willing for little kids to get bit than for me to see one! (they had caught a baby rattler in a bucket till their mom identified it. They have now fear!)

That said, my last encounter in years with a snake was last year when I went into the kitchen & glanced into the darkened laundry room & saw something slithery looking. I called DS who lives in the neighborhood but was already in bed & made him come over to get it. Meantime, I hid. When he got here he braved the laundry, shovel in hand, then really yelled at me for the first time in his life. "MOM, it's a PIPE CLEANER!" Well, it was a really big pipe cleaner! He hasn't let me live it down.

Oh Dawn, Please be careful.

I have never seen a snake here, but that doesn't mean there aren't any, since I live near the water. Mother nature is a little hard to deal with during some season, isn't it?

I am enjoying the cool weather. I just picked a gallon container of peppers and a few cherry tomatoes. I figure the days are numbered for those plants although a few are still blooming.

Mother Nature is just noisy here right now. I have spent the week working in our bunkhouse which sits under two black walnut trees. Every few minutes a walnut falls and hits that metal roof and it sounds like I am in a war zone.

Patty,

I really don't think I am brave at all. I am a huge chicken and venomous snakes simply terrify me. I just do what I can to survive. I knew, realistically speaking, that we'd have venomous snakes when we moved to a rural area. Knowing it would happen, though, is not the same thing as having it happen! I just don't think I realized how many we'd see some years nor did I understand how much the close encounters would affect me. I am, truly, a big fraidy-cat.

I will say that living in the country is not for sissies. Venomous snake encounters are not nearly as frightening as running into a cougar, panther, feral pig, rutting deer or rabid skunk....all of which we've encountered here. And, when you buy formerly "raw" land where local residents have hunted for decades, you WILL encounter poachers on your land and they WILL tell you that they've always hunted on this land and they aren't going to stop now just because you bought the land and put a house on it. And you'd better be armed and ready to defend yourself, and you'd better call the sherriff and report each incident and make it clear you will prosecute, which is only possible if your land is properly posted, by the way. So, not all snakes are animals..... We cleared out all the human snakes found on our property in just a couple of years, but the actual reptiles will be with us forever because we're so close to the Red River.

I love, love, love living in the country and there are MANY enjoyable wildlife experiences.....bunnies, birds, fish, turtles, lizards, frogs, toads, squirrels, foxes, bats, dragonflies and damselflies, etc. I've had the great fortune to observe both bald eagles and golden eagles flying overhead or sitting on the tops of haybarns or trees. How wonderful is that? And, 99.9% of the people you encounter are wonderful, but there are a few that are scarey. So, you take the good with the bad and just try to go with the flow.

Carol,

I am as careful as I can be.....and, truly, I feel like God is watching over me and pray he continues to do so. Once, DS and I stepped into a "bunch" of coppperheads--a mother and 15 or 20 babies.....in the middle of the pasture. We fled from them....they fled from us, and somehow, we weren't bitten. (We were scared almost to death.) Those snakes are why we now mow 8' wide paths through all our pastures, and walk only on those paths!)

Another time I was walking through my garden on a chilly fall morning and stepped right over a western diamondback rattlesnake that was coiled up in a path. I DIDN'T EVEN SEE IT! Luckily, DS was with me and said something like "Um, Mom, don't move because there's a rattlesnake right behind you." Of course, I moved.....immediately jumped forward a few feet and turned and stared at that snake, wondering all the while why it didn't strike me. DS went to the house, got a gun....and you know the rest.

On yet another occasion, I was raking leaves and picking them up and putting them into a bag to carry them to my compost pile, and I suddenly realized a small pygmy rattlesnake was about 3" from my hand and was poised to strike......and, since I was crouched down low, I simultanouesly droppped the handful of leaves and the bag, and somersaulted backwards to get away. I didn't enter the woods for months after that.

Those are a few examples....but there have been many snake encounters, and I honestly believe that it is only through God's grace that I haven't been bitten.

For what it is worth, I don't hate all snakes, and I know that without them being here to eat all the field mice and meadow voles, we'd be overrun with rodents. We don't kill non-venomous snakes unless they are in our henhouse eating eggs, keats or chicks. I've even rescued non-venomous snakes which were being attacked by our cats, chickens, dogs or guineas. We have 14.5 acres and we pretty much leave the 10 or 11 wooded acres to the snakes during snake season. Then, in the winter months, we clear pathways and remove brush and enjoy walking through the woods (with dogs and cats tagging along behind us), but we don't kill snakes in the woods....we just avoid them during the 6 months of "snake season". In the couple of acres closest to the house, though, venomous snakes aren't tolerated. And, really, one of my biggest fears ISN'T that a venomous snakes will bite me, but rather that it will get away before we can kill it. If the venomous snakes are near the house, barn or garden, I want them dead.

I'm really enjoying the cool weather too. During the cool spell a couple of weeks ago, we got down to 44 or 45 a couple of nights and I was deliriously happy in those early morning temps. I knew, though, it wasn't quite sweater weather, yet, and of course we haven't been that cool again, but it is in the 50s here this morning and that is nice.

I know what you're saying about the nuts on the roof of the bunhouse! Our chicken coop and guinea coop are under a pecan tree and their roofs get showered with nuts too. Then the poultry begins squawking and carrying on because they think a predator is trying to come in through the roof. (A previous chicken coop had a fiberglass skylight to let in some light, and a large owl once crashed through that skylight in an effort to get himself some chicken, so their fear is not exactly unwarranted.)

Fall is my favorite time of year except for the part about the snakes being up and about....and the knowledge that colder weather is coming. Once we've had several hard freezes and the snakes are denned up for the winter, I enjoy fall even more!

I made it through a whole day Friday without running into a snake, so my nerves have calmed down a little. Well, actually, I saw the same snake Friday morning that I saw Thursday night, because we had to lift the bucket, retrieve it and get rid of it. It wasn't as scarey, though, because I KNEW it was there.

To me, the most upsetting snake is the big, black, often 6-foot-long rat snakes that get in the chicken coop. I HATE even seeing them at all....even if we are a mile from the house and I see one crossing the road, it just makes me feel ill.

I hope I've seen my last venomous snake of the year, but at the same time, I am sure I haven't.

Dawn

Ooooohhhhh - poisonous snakes. We lived on the edge of town as I was growing up - population 2,000. We were situated between 2 rivers with lots of other ponds and lakes around, too. So, we saw our share of snakes, including water moccasins and copperheads. A boy tried to toss a copperhead on me one time - scared the excrement out of me! Dad came out and shot it with his shot gun.

Dawn, would you feel comfortable carrying a pistol around with you? I think I would arm myself if I lived in a rural location and gardened as much as you do. It's for your protection. Wear good boots, too, so if one strikes at you from the ground, you'll be safe. I don't think I would be wearing flip flops where you live!

Susan

Flip flops are not for the country!

"To me, the most upsetting snake is the big, black, often 6-foot-long rat snakes that get in the chicken coop. I HATE even seeing them at all...."

This summer I had the most unusual encounter with a big black snake. I went into the chicken coop to close up (after it was completely dark) and when I got to the inside door, between compartments, I had trouble finding the latch. So I turned on my flash light. I was standing only inches from the door (made of chicken wire in a wood frame). When turned on my light I discovered that a large black snake was wound into the chicken wire and his nose was only about a foot from mine. It took a moment to focus on him and realize what I was seeing! Anyway, he was after some chicks. But he didn't get away.

We haven't been seeing many snakes at all, lately.

George

Susan,

I have a pistol...a Beretta 8000 mini Cougar 9mm. I prefer using a shotgun. As one of my neighbors puts it "Girl, if your hand is shaking, you may miss with that pistol, so use the shotgun and you'll get that snake no matter what." Clearly, he knows me well and knows that seeing a snake makes me shake (and not just my hand...all of me trembles!). lol

I keep several loaded guns handy, and usually have pepper spray on me as well, although the pepper spray is more for feral dogs (coyote or domestic) and evil humans. Out here in the Oklahoma outback, the nearest law enforcement officer can be quite some distance away, so you have to be able to defend yourself, if you know what I mean. Having a DH who is a law enforcement officer means I am well-versed in self-defense, though.

I also keep a garden rake and shovel IN the garden at all times and have them leaning against the chicken coop and garage wall as well, since they are handy for chopping up snakes (the shovel) and for flinging them (the rake). I also have neighbors (with guns) programmed on the cell phone, which is always with me, in case a snake has me pinned into an area where I can't get around it.....like inside the garden's 7' fence. If there is a snake between me and the gates, I don't try to outsmart it or fight it in that confined area, I just call someone for help.

Around here, because of all the snakes and other wild things, EVERYONE has loaded guns handy....usually one in the pickup and one in the garage and one in the barn and another in the house. No one, though, really walks around with one strapped to their hip.

As for shoes.....I gave up all pretty and comfortable shoes when I moved to the country. I don't wear flip flops AT ALL. If I am going shopping in Dallas and want to wear sandals, I wear sturdy athletic shoes in the car and change to sandals when we get to the big city. Same thing if I am going somewhere in a dress....I leave the house in athletic shoes and change into the good shoes when I get to my destination. When working outside, I usually wear leather boots or very thick, sturdy athletic shoes. I have several pair of high-top hiking boots and my favorite boots for working outside are some black leather, steel-toed, steel-soled Caterpillar men's work boots....it was hard to find them in a size small enough for my feet, but they are the toughest, sturdiest boots I have ever had. I seldom wear shorts either as I want a nice layer of thick denim between me and the snakes. (anything is better than bare skin)

I NEED to get some snake chaps or some of the
"snakeproof" pants they make for hunters.

George,

This year I was a mere 3" or 4" from big black snakes in the henhouse a couple of times and I about had a stroke each time....and couldn't get out of that henhouse quickly enough. I despise those things!

Last year was a great (as in no snakes) snake year. This year, not so much.

Dawn