Stepping back, I noticed the length of this, er, "baby".
It's about 4; long:

And finally, notice its delicate little tail holding itself off the joist...

That is just lovely! Did you email carlos? From your other thread....

Nancy

Hmmm. That's a good one. Somewhere I have my grandson's boa's cast-off skin. It is 8 feet long. But it wasn't hanging from my rafters when I first saw it.

Poor snake. Couldn't find anything else to pull off the old skin? Do you think he tacked its tail to the beam and jumped?

Isn't life interesting when you live in the woods? Yesterday a neighbor stopped by to say he saw a MINK crossing our drive. No doubt about it. He knows the local beasts well. I went out and told my koi to lay low for a while. Minks LIKE to fish.

And a couple weeks ago I had to rescue three chimney swift fledglings from the livingroom after I stupidly left the chimney vent open. They looked like bats clinging to the bricks around the fireplace. And screamed loudly for mom and dad when I got close.

Yep, It's fun being a woodie.

Sandra

Ahh.
I don't live in the woods.
But I do live in farm country. Kinda the same thing. I worry about my neighbor's chickens when I see fox run across the road at night. :)

I am laughing hard at the image of the snake nailing its tail to the rafters and jumping. It still had a good 4' fall to the ground, but I guess they kind of stretch. I'd love to have seen it. I, thank God, like snakes.

Nancy, yes. Just did. I asked for your last name, but I guess you didn't see it. I'm hoping he remembers "Nancy" and perhaps you mentioning GardenWeb.

No fun is it?

We have been having summer of snakes - the count in the yard is up to 9 when most years is none. When I leave the house, I look up, at where I will step and every place my hands will be. I wonder when they start hibernating? Mine are little brown snakes and multiple sizes of rat snakes.

I'm sure its a comfort to know that the snake is bigger now and it knows where you live. ;)

Oh, (black) snakes and I have a long history. At least 5 years' worth!

I had two fall out of a hole in the ceiling where a pot light was going to go. They were having sex. When the knot broke apart and 2 heads started looking around, they finally fell. I caught one in a cat littler bucket & released it across the road. Never did find the other.

Another time my dear friend electrician was in the attic. He is a man of short stature but huge personality. Crankly, IOW. Suddenly I heard this SCREAM out of the attic. He brought down a snake skin much thicker than this one. Ironically, 2 years later when his grandson was installing my HVAC in the attic, I heard this scream.... Must be genetic.

My Multi-purpose Fred has pulled many down while closing up the aforementioned holes, or putting dry insulation into wet, exterior walls.

Can't tell you how many times the cats have let me know there's a snake in the house that's come in thru the holes in the floor.

Yes, I'm one with nature.

Yes, nature and I are one.

Looks like a garter snake skin to me!!! We have those here in CA don't know bout where you live. They are harmless, constrictors, but harmless to humans. Very interesting!!!

Ughhhh. And that's all I have to say about that.

Nah. Garters are green. Very cute.
Here they're black snakes. They're beautiful.
They also eat mice, with which I am not one. They poop too much.

Woops. I meant GOPHER snake, not garter...gopher snakes brown, beige and black.

I've got one of those in my laundry room hanging on my water heater. I don't think it originated in exactly that spot but was placed there by my husband. I forget about it for long stretches of time. When I notice it again, it makes me jump.

Who poops too much? Mice or snakes?

why did I look?

why?

ugh

Eeek!
I'm like your electrician and his grandson. Well, not short or crankly (I don't think) but snakes bring out my inner girly girl and I scream. Every time. I've tried not to pass on this silliness to my kids. Yay, they love snakes - pick them up (makes their hands stink), show me, want to keep them. My cats bring them inside. And I scream. My kids think I'm joking. I'm not.

I know I'm not going to impress anybody with this picture but ...

Glad you like snakes. I can't say I share that feeling. I keep hearing something in my attic and wonder if it's a snake or rodent of some kind. I'd prefer a snake up there. I think.

I have the chills just looking at the photo. But it is kinda cool.

I once found a garden snake in my kitchen. I got a broom, picked up the snake with the handle and calmly carried it out back to the woods and released it. I never said a thing to my wife about it. Months later while having friends over, the topic of snakes came up. So I told my snake story. My wife flipped out that I never told her about the snake and went on about what if it were poisonous and all that. When she finally asked why I never told her, I simply pointed to her and said, "Your reaction just now? That's why." Everyone laughed except her. She did eventually thank me for not alarming her the first time. :)

"I'd love to have seen it. I, thank God, like snakes. "

gross. gross. gross. you all are sickos. i'm running away from ALL of you! ick, ick, ick.

I know I won't be able to sleep tonight...

Don't like snakes. They startle me. Fortunately not many around. Winters too cold.

Living in the country can be interesting. My friend, who owns some farm animals farther out of town, pretty much in the country, found her four chickens separated from their heads. Errant voodoo practitioners? Nope, weasels.

Ain't nature grand?

Ew. Hmmm maybe living on top of my neighbors is not such a bad thing after all. There is no room for snakes.

I would welcome garden snake -- out in the garden, but would not want to see one in my house. Actually, I have a dog that would probably not allow it. LOL

Soooooo..... where is it?

Snakes have the same rules in my house as spiders. If they want to live here, they can't be seen. Should they choose to show themselves, that's punishable by immediate death.

Oh, I have a snake story that I tell all the time (it poked its head out from under the stove one day while I was just standing there minding my own business). Everybody who has to do work in our basement gets to hear all about it, because we found a snake skin down there long before we saw the actual snake. We have found a skin since then, too, but I prefer to think it's an old one that we just didn't see before. We have copperheads in the neighborhood, but this one was a black rat snake; lucky thing because that's the only snake I can ID just from the looks of the head while I am busy having a quiet heart attack. I have no problem with snakes, my school roommate and I even had one as a pet (it couldn't be released into the wild and needed a home) -- but seeing an unexpected snake in the kitchen does tend to give you a turn, as I told DH.

(p.s. We live in the city. Lots of wildlife around here, though.)

Just think of all the mice she is eating for you.

The mice poop too much. [LOL]

I really don't mind them.
This particular snake I haven't found yet. He'll either show up or go down under the house through one of the many holes I have in the floor.

I think the part I don't like about snakes or mice, is the startle factor. You cannot HELP but jump. Once I land, I don't care, but darn! Who needs the heart attack, right?

So... admit it.
You guys doubted my crazy stories, didn't you?
And to think I haven't gone into some of the more wild ones.

My dtr. had snakes that would winter in her attic, laying on or draped over the rafters. LOL, after the first discovery they didn't go into their attic during winter months.

Those snakes spent summers in a tree. The same tree her children had a tire swing hanging from. I once counted 11 big fat snakes laying on branches or moving from place to place up in that tree with the children playing below.

OH, wow, MuleHouse! That's a lot of snakes. Happy ones, too.

I know of a few people out here that had true infestations of snakes. I didn't know black snakes in particular have eggs and live births. The thing is, they eat most of their "children" and it keeps the numbers down.

When we'd say something obviously stupid, my mother used to look at us and say, "I should have eaten you at birth."
I've come to understand the sense in this.

Better call Sam.

BEE! Sam!! OMG!!!
No one's killing MY snakes. Not Noone, Not Nohow.
(Somewhere here there is a wizard involved, I think.)

I have learned when my cats are stalking something, then jump straight up in the air and 90 degrees backwards, yes, a square, there's a snake. Time to get the broom, but it'll probably be back down the hole in the floor before I get back.

momo, I love that picture. Nature at it's most equitable.

Last week I saw what I thought was a piece of black plastic near my desk (in a public library!). Turned out to be a ring neck snake...it was at least 20 feet from the nearest door and is now living free. The kids in the library at the time were quite tickled, the staff...not so much.

CEF, I knew right away what you had found. We find snakeskins all the time in our flower beds, but have never had one in the house. Snakes have never bothered me unless it's a rattler.

I live in the burbs, but we have lots of nature in our neighborhood--red foxes, coyotes, voles, an occasional lost prarie dog (their colony is about 1/2 mile away), snakes (garter, blue racer, bull, and rattlers), muskrat (in the creek) and elk (for the first time last winter after living here 20 yrs). The only ones I don't like are the rattle snakes and the black widow and brown recluse spiders. Oh, and I don't like the voles because they're so darn destructive to the lawn and garden!! But our dogs are pretty good at catching the voles.

The biggest snake skin we ever found was from a bull snake; the skin was about 4 feet long. We're always happy to see the bull snakes because they kill rattlers and keep the field mouse and vole populations down. :)

At one with nature--ohmmmmmmmmm . . .