Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Preparing for Garden Guests

On Sunday morning, shortly before my visitors were to arrive for the Open Garden, we found this guy slithering across the driveway near the nursery roses.

See him?


This Black Rat Snake is a welcome addition to the outdoor cast of critters around here, since he is always on the prowl for vermin that may find their way into the house.  He is NOT, however, welcome to be out in the open during the times when visitors are expected.



There's only one thing to do when confronted with a large, harmless-but-scary snake that must be moved ... so I grabbed and moved it.  I couldn't leave him for guests to see, because folks like me who aren't afraid of snakes are definitely a small percentage of the population.  While I was doing this, my daughter made me stop so she could get a photo of her mom wrangling the snake, to post it on her Facebook page.

(I didn't crop my head out of this photo, she did.  It IS a photo of the snake, after all.)
... and the Washington Capitals T-shirt was one of my Mother's Day presents. 


With photos taken, I deposited the snake safely into an area of the garden where visitors don't go, and I got back to work.

My husband says that Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) and I would have gotten along famously. 


Sharing this post with 'A Rural Journal's' Rural Thursday.

 

25 comments:

  1. Good grief, it's enormous! Fortunately, we don't see things like that here, but if we did, I don't think I would fit into the 'not afraid of snakes' category!
    How is your finger doing?

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  2. I fit into the totally freaked out by snakes category. We haven't seen any snakes this year, but it's mating season so they are out and about looking for sex. Crazy snakes!

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  3. OMG Connie! I can't believe you actually picked the snake up. I would so freak out and run!

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  4. I'm pretty sure I'd be up a tree if I came within ten feet of that thing....

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  5. Craaaaaaap, that's a big snake!!! I'd have to see it long enough to identify that it was safe... and that's not likely to happen! I'd either be passed out, or have a heart attack from running.

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  6. The snakes always seem to appear when visitors are expected! An hour before my garden guest was to show, a black snake came out. I couldn't reach mine to move it, but I nonchalantly told my guest not to be startled if the snake appeared! Good vole hunters!

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  7. Wow! I wouldn't think of myself as 'afraid of snakes', but I would NOT pick up a creature like that with my bare hands! You ROCK Connie!

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  8. That is a long snake! What I don't like about them is the unexpectedness. (I made the word up, I think!)♥♫

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  9. Yep-That is one big snake and I am sure it would scare the bejesus out of most folks! Good job, Connie. I am awarding you the "Headless Snake Handler" award. xo Diana

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  10. OH....MY....GOSH!!! I can NOT believe you did that, girl!!!! I would'ave been freaking out if I saw a snake that big slithering across my yard!!!! Kudos to you, my dear. I am in awe. I'll certainly know who to call IF I ever see one in my backyard. lolol!

    xoxo laurie

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  11. You are a lot braver than me! He was trying to crash your party!

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  12. Happy to meet you fellow historic home loving, gardener, Snakechaser across driveways, Virginia Dreamer.

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  13. i'm not afraid of black snakes but i am afraid to pick one up lol...in our last house we had one that i didn't mind having around for the same reasons as you but one day i was trying to move him away from the front door of the house and he popped into a hole in the siding and freaked me out. i was so worried he'd find an entrance to the inside! i've seen a few black snakes in the road already and my boys ran home yesterday and told me they found 3 garder snakes...i think it's a snakey year!

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  14. i've discovered a snake identical to yours (size, color) in my yard recently. he suns in the grass and then makes his way back under the front porch steps in the afternoon. what a life!

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  15. Holy smokes- you are brave! I'm sure he would have set a few guests to searching for the exit!

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  16. I do not do snakes! I see evidence of them all the time, and when I do see them, Bob moves them. I still have goosebumps from that picture! Bob has named our black snakes...I ask him all the time, how he can tell them apart...lol! Happy Sunny day Connie and I'm sure Lucketts will be a big success for you!

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  17. I'm not afraid of harmless snakes, but I don't pick them up, lol :-)

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  18. Mr. Snake does not look very happy. He might have been in line for the tour!

    janet xox
    The Empty Nest

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  19. I have the same basic attitude toward snakes, and won the admiration of a baseball team of middle-schoolers and their parents when I picked up a bull snake to remove it from the wooden backstop on the field. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been any practice that evening! ;-)

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  20. Good for you! But maybe your visitors would have enjoyed seeing him? Lol.

    Thank you so much for sharing at Rural Thursdays this week. xoxo

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  21. I just found your blog and when I saw that snake I decided we must have a lot in common. I have one that large living in my garden off the back porch. I've had her moved a couple of times but she returns so we are becoming family. I'm not picking her up. Like your blog.

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  22. At work we can't say the "S" word on the walkie talkies when we see one, otherwise our customers might freak. So we euphemistically say we have a "visitor". Then we go grab the snake pole. We have only had one venomous visitor in the 15 years I have worked there, all the others are relocated.

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  23. That is one huge snake! I cringe at the sight of snakes and will kill them regardless of whether they are good snakes or not. At my house, the only good snake is a dead snake!! Thankfully, this one is at your home and not mine ;)

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