1) Next door neighbors thowing their cigarette butts on my lawn, or letting their pets poop RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME... on MY LAWN! 2) Covinents!!! 3) Burmuda grass and its way of going everywhere!! 4) Verbena... and its reseeding abilities....Grrr! 5) TOO LITTLE RAIN! 6) This horrible clay (Though, I have been amending EVERYTHING... and now I have an abundance of worms... and better soil.) 7) The way my poppies die in the heat 8) The way I want to die in the heat... and that I do nothing but burn when I'm outside. 9) Weeds, weeds, and more weeds! plus many many more, I'm sure!

I know I'm not speaking for all Ozarkers here when I say this, but I think the attitude that is pretty prevalent around here is that I decide how to manage my own property within reasonable limits of the law. IMO, it is not reasonable for someone in an office in Jeff City to tell me I have to tolerate poisonous snakes on my 10 acres. Same goes for mountain lions. I have a bunch of little kids, and I just can't have deadly animals on my property. I do my best to teach my kids about all kinds of local animals, and basic principles of conservation. But I have toddlers, too, and they need a higher degree of protection. It seems like maybe some people are offended that there is this assumption that anyone who wants to kill pit vipers is phobic of snakes or ignorant of the importance of a well-balanced ecology. So many people come here from the city or out-of-state with these notions that we ignorant hillbillies need to learn a lessson or two about the beauties of nature. Au contraire!!! Why do you think we still live here? It takes time and personal commitment to learn what you need to learn about how to manage land properly. And the state of Missouri doesn't always know either. It's pretty complicated on a large scale. I am adamant with my kids not to kill spiders or beneficial snakes like black snakes, king snakes, bull snakes, garter snakes, etc. However, I am equally adamant that a pit viper is not necessary to our farm's ecology, and if they see one they need to kill it. Same goes for mountain lions. My property is not a wildlife conservation park. It is a home for humans, and certain wild animals cannot live safely that close to humans. Now, if I had chickens, and black snakes were getting in my chicken house, then I would have to change my policy about black snakes. You'd have to rely more on cats or terriers to get rid of your undesirable rodents then, I guess. My family raises cattle (for several generations) and they have never felt it was necessary to shoot coyotes, despite the fact that they can predictably be expected to kill a few calves every year. That's not enough of an impact to seriously disrupt the environment by getting rid of a species with such a major presence here. A mountain lion is a different story. What would they contribute that we really need? We've been getting along great without them for around 100 years. I don't want them to become extinct. Just extinct around here. If every single mountain lion and black bear were kept within the confines of the state parks, that would be a good thing. Same with rattlers, copperheads, and water moccasins.

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

Restoration of old gardens? The "outhouse". My best memories were on the farm in Ohio, we had electricity but not water, an old log house which is now over 200 years old. The outhouse was surrounded by the most beautiful lilacs and a cherry tree. I went on a memory walk back to the farm a few yars ago....the house has been restored, but the outhouse gone. In days of yore, the outhouse was used as a prank by teenagers during Holloween....moved to some rediculous place, like on top of a roof. My father was a story teller and photographer, every time he showed his "slides", the pic of the out house came up and he would recite a poem by Whitman about the lilacs/outhouse/friend....I still have his book of poetry from dad. This was part of my history and the wonderful gardens surrounding both the house and the out building. Call me an idiot (by those who couldn't care less about this topic) but I've always wanted to build one in my garden. Not to be used, but more of a storage or garden shed. There are tons of plans and pictures of them in current gardens, some new and some restored. And many still stand. Sears Robuck actually had options for indoor plumbing or an outhouse in their catalog of homes.