Hi All, Thanks for all the tips; you actually helped me solve my issue (the clutch did not engage). Two years ago, I decided to buy a “Portable Car Battery Charger” instead of keep buying new battery every winter, which apparently was the root-cause. I used the “Portable Car Battery Charger” to jump-start the tractor then disconnected it and start plowing but this year the clutch did not engage. Apparently, the clutch need some power from the battery and since my battery is dead it simple didn’t engage. So, as a "temporary solution" I ducted tape the “Portable Car Battery Charger” to the tractor hood and I keep it connected after the initial “jump-start” and the clutch (and me) are happy. Next week, I will get a new battery for the tractor and a “Battery Buddy” to keep the battery alive during the summers. Hopefully, this post will save others some time & $$

Bird dogs are notorious for being able to scent rattlesnakes. I grew up in a bird hunting family, dove, quail and turkeys and I can tell you there's nothing more sickening than having a bird dog on point when quail hunting, and NOT flushing any quail...then you SLOWLY start looking for the rattlesnake, and hope you don't get snakebit. Fortunately for us none of us did suffer but we did kill some really BIG rattlesnakes back then. Not much of an issue here in the burbs now, but being on a brackish lake I do get those d**n moccasins and I do remember the time I almost lost a good bird dog to a moccasin strike to the head, unfortunately they don't scent these snakes. It was a really dry year and the moccasins were coming out of the cypress swamps searching for any water to survive.... Tom

Exactly so, nativemel. Any snake bite can get infected, but if you know for sure you've been bitten by a venomous snake, get professional treatment as fast as you can to avoid complications. Don't attempt any first aid yourself, except to keep the limb below the level of your heart. Some folks now recommend a compression wrap (like with an Ace Bandage) but NOT a tourniquet. But most experts say the best thing is just to get to a medical facility pronto. Most snakebites are NOT fatal, but they can become very nasty wounds, and the sooner you receive proper treatment, the better the chances that you won't have any longterm effects. Tom, your picture is of a baby cottonmouth and you are very right that it could be mistaken for a copperhead by someone who doesn't know snakes. Of course, ALL of you folks here who read my posts on ID-ing cottonmouths would recognize this one immediately by the dark cheek stripe. Copperheads do not have this, btw. It is diagnostic for the Florida cottonmouth. There are many things this lady's snake might have been, some venomous, most NOT, but a copperhead really isn't very likely. Of course, since none of us saw her snake, we could argue the point forever and it wouldn't change her mind a bit. But for future reference to most of the folks on this group, you aren't likely to be menaced by a copperhead in Florida, unless you live in the area shown on the range map above. Nativemel, glad you dad survived the experience without permanent injury or disfigurement. I'm sure it wasn't fun, though. Be careful out there, folks. No need to be in a state of alarm, unable to enjoy your yards & gardens. But keep your eyes open and don't do silly things (like reaching under logs or rocks without looking first.) Marcia

I don't know who should get credit for this, but it appeared in my mailbox a couple of days ago. After this thread, I decided to go dig it out of my trash file. GRASS SNAKES CAN BE DANGEROUS... Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes. Here's why. A couple in Sweetwater,Texas had a lot of potted plants. During a recent cold spell, the wife was bringing a lot of them indoors to protect them from a possible freeze. It turned out that a little green garden grass snake was hidden in one of the plants. When it had warmed up, it slithered out and the wife saw it go under the sofa. She let out a very loud scream. The husband (who was taking a shower) ran out into the living room naked to see what the problem was. She told him there was a snake under the sofa. He got down on the floor on his hands and knees to look for it. About that time the family dog came and cold-nosed him on the behind. He thought the snake had bitten him, so he screamed and fell over on the floor. His wife thought he had had a heart attack, so she covered him up, told him to lie still and called an ambulance. The attendants rushed in, would not listen to his protests, loaded him on the stretcher, and started carrying him out. About that time, the snake came out from under the sofa and the Emergency Medical Technician saw it and dropped his end of the stretcher. That's when the man broke his leg and why he is still in the hospital. The wife still had the problem of the snake in the house, so she called on a neighbor who volunteered to capture the snake. He armed himself with a rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the couch.. Soon he decided it was gone and told the woman, who sat down on the sofa in relief. But while relaxing, her hand dangled in between the cushions, where she felt the snake wriggling around. She screamed and fainted, the snake rushed back under the sofa. The neighbor, seeing her lying there passed out, tried to use CPR to revive her. The neighbor's wife, who had just returned from shopping at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the woman's mouth and slammed her husband in the back of the head with a bag of canned goods, knocking him out and cutting his scalp to a point where it needed stitches. The noise woke the woman from her dead faint and she saw her neighbor lying on the floor with his wife bending over him, so she assumed that the snake had bitten him. She went to the kitchen and got a small bottle of whiskey, and began pouring it down the man's throat. By now, the police had arrived. Breathe here... They saw the unconscious man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed that a drunken fight had occurred. They were about to arrest them all, when the women tried to explain how it all happened over a little garden snake! The police called an ambulance, which took away the neighbor and his sobbing wife. Now, the little snake again crawled out from under the sofa and one of the policemen drew his gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the leg of the end table. The table fell over, the lamp on it shattered and, as the bulb broke, it started a fire in the drapes. The other policeman tried to beat out the flames, and fell through the window into the yard on top of the family dog who, startled, jumped out and raced into the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it and smashed into the parked police car. Meanwhile, neighbors saw the burning drapes and called in the fire department. The firemen had started raising the fire ladder when they were halfway down the street. The rising ladder tore out the overhead wires, put out the power, and disconnected the telephones in a ten-square city block area (but they did get the house fire out). Time passed! Both men were discharged from the hospital, the house was repaired, the dog came home, the police acquired a new car and all was right with their world. A while later they were watching TV and the weatherman announced a cold snap for that night. The wife asked her husband if he thought they should bring in their plants for the night. And that's when he shot her.