I've never seen an 8 ft coachwhip in Calif. They rarely get that long in other regions. Coachwhips change color somewhat as they mature. It sounds like you found a hatchling. They lay eggs. Some snakes bear live young, but not coachwhips. Some subspecies of coachwhips are popularly known as "red racers." At the moment I'm in AZ and away from my library to check your subspecies. They capture prey with their mouth and by hold it down with a loop of the body, but they're not constrictors. Snakes have recurved teeth to hold prey. A coachwhip is unlikely to capture and hold even the smallest dog, but the snakes can deliver a nasty bite. For you, you'd have to catch it to be bitten. I like your attitude: curious but not overreactive.

Tonight was Round Two. Arriving home from a shopping trip to Dallas, I went into the chicken coop to turn on the heat lamp to keep the keats warm overnight and there was a big old long chicken snake stretched out on the chicken roost. Of course, by the time I turned on the lamp and saw him or her, I was already past the snake and it was between me and the door, so I had to go back past the snake to exit the chicken coop. (sigh) Several "hysterical woman" phone calls later, two sets of neighbors arrived, gloves and guns in hand. (We have the world's most wonderful friends and neighbors.) One dragged that ugly old snake out of the chicken house, the other shot it, and peace and calm reigned again. I did call DH at work to tell him that his "snakeproof" chicken coop, as he has repeatedly described it since building it--most recently two days ago--is NOT snakeproof. (I wish it was.) I believe we will spend his days off attempting to do some more snakeproofing. The good news is that, for the second time in a week, a snake got into the building but not into the bird brooder cage, which DS apparently did an excellent job of snakeproofing. And, I hate to say that for fear I will jinx us and the next snake we see will be inside the cage eating keats. And, by the way, fresh, home-grown tomatoes are an excellent "thank you" to give a neighbor who comes running to rescue your keats from a big ol' bad ol' snake. I gave one neighbor a bagful and promised one to bring one to the other neighbor tomorrow after I pick tomatoes. Only six more weeks until the keats are theorectically large enough that a snake cannot crush them and eat them. Of course, it still will be a battle with the other predators, but the guineas usually can fight that battle on their own pretty well. Ada, my cousin's cat was picked up and carried away by a red-tailed hawk about 25 or 26 years ago....and then the hawk dropped the cat into a pasture and it made its own way home, a little scratched up and bloodied, but it survived. However, from what I recall, that cat pretty much stayed inside the house after that....and that cousin had a big snake problem as well, but with western diamondback rattlers.....I'd rather have the chicken snakes. Dawn P.S. If the neighbors hadn't come to our rescue, I guess Kristine and I would have shot it, but we would not have dragged it out of the chicken coop first, because we weren't going to touch it....and we didn't really want to blow a hole in the wall.

ThunderBear48, I had a little bit of a hard time time following you on your last post. It's possible we're emphasizing two different topics based on different parts of the conversation. Maybe to clarify a bit: As I said in my original post, this is for a vegetable garden which would sort of implicitly exclude azaleas and blueberries. I understand that some species have different requirements but I'm interested in a more or less "generic" mix. My list at the beginning was (as I mentioned in another comment) an attempt to build a shopping list. Accuracy would be nice, but I'm not going to be dumping those amounts into a big bin & mixing at once. Having a surplus is fine, I just wanted to be sure that I didn't have too little to complete the project. I reached 15 cups based on the following (assuming at the time [inaccurately] 15 cu ft of pine bark and extrapolating Al's recipe): Big batch: 2-3 cu ft pine bark fines 2 cups dolomitic (garden) lime (or gypsum in some cases) Assuming that I used the least amount of pine bark in the mix (thus the highest amount of lime I'd need): (15/2) * 2 = 15 cups lime Obviously, there may be some flaws in the way I reached that number. Since that point, I've learned plenty (much of it from information shared in this thread) so I don't think the original numbers are as relevant as they were at the start. I've already purchased my materials so at this point I've moved on from those original bulk numbers, feeling confident that I have enough to complete my total mix. At that time I'll be following, more accurately Al's recipe quantities. Admittedly, I don't yet know enough to understand soil PH well, and I have to start somewhere. I'm relying largely on other's advice, so now the remaining question would be "is Al's recipe a good one". Given the number of times I've heard others reference it, I'm inclined to believe that it is. If anyone can share specifics (or information sources) on soil PH and how you are all arriving at your numbers, that would be great. The results of my research have been kind of across the board. Al's recipe calls for 4 tbsp per 1/2 gallon of peat, while Seysonn recommends 0.5 tbsp per half gallon. I've read other sources cite 8 tbsp per 1/2 gallon of peat. That's a pretty dramatic difference from all sources unless I'm entirely misunderstanding the information at hand. I'd love to understand it better if anyone has any (preferably quantifiable, not just anecdotal) info they'd like to share. I know the chemistry can get pretty complex so if we can keep tips at the kindergarden (pun intended) level, that'd be swell. :-) Thanks everyone for the time you all take to share your thoughts!

Here's some info about dolomite. It is from a master class in agriculture. Just remember you add lime, then foliage pro, better watch what you do. To much of a good thing can be just as bad. ---------------------------------------- High-magnesium lime Dolomite, or high-magnesium lime, can cause problems too. When dolomite is applied in too large of a quantity it can cause an excess in magnesium and have a negative effect on yields. The problem is it can be as long as three years after the excess lime has been applied before seeing the greatest amount of potential damage to the crop yields. By this time, unless the grower has kept good records, a connection between the liming and declining yields may be overlooked. (A moral here is to keep good records of when, where, how much and what type of lime each field receives.) Have you applied dolomite lime on any of your fields in the last few years? If so, count three crop years from the time of application and check the yields that year and thereafter as compared to yields prior to liming. Even if the applied magnesium from dolomite lime will have a detrimental effect, do not expect to see that yields have dropped the first year. For example, when too much dolomite is applied to land for cotton, it can eventually cause the plant to send out two lesser roots instead of one longer taproot. These roots do not go straight down, but curve to one side instead, and have less depth than the one taproot would normally have. (If you rip and hip, this effect will not always be as evident.) It will take three years to see the full negative effects of overusing dolomitic limestone. But when overused, once those effects have come into full effect it can cost a cotton farmer about ¾ bale of cotton per acre, every year, until the problem is corrected!Excess magnesium costs money In corn, on medium to heavy soils, a high level of magnesium (15%+) costs the farmer 10 bushels of corn per acre. Above 20% magnesium on the soil test reduces the yield by another 5+ bushels per acre. In addition, it will require more nitrogen to produce each bushel of corn every year until the problem is corrected. In legumes, taking soybeans as an example, 13-14% magnesium levels can cause 10 bushels per acre loss per year, even when all other nutrients are present in the proper amounts. Be sure what your soil really needs Even though too much, or the wrong type of lime can cut yields, limestone should always be applied where shown to be needed. Applying the proper amount of lime in the right form can provide far greater increases in yield than the losses that occur from misuse. Have your yields suffered in certain fields in the past few years? If so, avoid the mistake of failing to correctly check for and properly apply any lime that is needed. Just be sure that you use enough to correct the problem, but not so much that it causes problems three years from now and several years thereafter. If there is a need for lime, autumn is the best time to spread it for next Spring's crops. Do it correctly as needed and see the difference liming can make for crops over the next several years.