[Magdalen] Taking care of our neighbors in the yard

[Jay Weigel]

We do, or did, share the basement with a black snake. I didn't mind it
until the day I nearly shut its head in the freezer! It had been sleeping
coiled up on top of the freezer under the old microwave stored there, and I
guess got curious when I opened the door. I didn't even notice it because I
was looking for something, but when I went to close the door I almost
decapitated the poor thing! That was when we put snake repellent on top of
the freezer. Otherwise we just left it alone.

On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 8:38 PM, Susan Hagen <susanvhagen at gmail.com> wrote:

> Our New Hampshire property had dry stone walls, remnants of the farm
> it had been.  The walls were the favorite habitat of little striped
> garter snakes.  My cats loved those snakes, thinking them the best
> kind of cat toy, self propelled strings.  I never saw them kill one,
> they would just play with them for a bit.  The snakes and I had an
> understanding that whoever saw the other first would quietly retreat
> from the encounter.
>
> When my ex-husband and I first moved to the Valley we shared a big old
> house with a friend.  They later told me that we all shared it with a
> large black snake.  They had the occasional scramble to usher him out
> without me seeing his since they knew I would have a very hard time
> staying there with his company.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 5:39 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm like Juli in having little patience with people who are automatically
> > horrified by snakes without considering what kind they are, and whose
> > immediate reaction is to kill them. While I'm not crazy about rattlers,
> > copperheads, and pythons, I still admire their unique beauty. I find the
> > black snakes on our property quite elegant in a quiet way, plus I
> > appreciate their rodent and insect eating proclivities. I've had numerous
> > encounters with them and always treat them with respect. I love the
> little
> > garter snakes in the garden, too...they're cute.
> >
> > Two snake stories. One concerns my friend Kirk, who had a farm in the
> > mountains of east Tennessee. His original house had a separate cook house
> > out back which was no longer in use for cooking and he used to store
> > assorted equipment such as his riding mower and his 4-wheel ATV. It was
> > also home to a 7-foot king snake. He told every new visitor about the
> snake
> > and said that it was to be treated with respect and greeted when one
> > entered the building, and that if you didn't like snakes or were afraid
> of
> > them, stay out of the building. I always did as instructed and was lucky
> > enough to to see it twice, once coiled around a rafter and once gliding
> > along the edge of the wall. Magnificent creature. Second story--when my
> > Betsy was 9, she and a bunch of her soccer team were kicking around the
> > field before practice and one of the boys found a small, recently
> deceased
> > garter snake. She was the only girl on the team who would pick it up,
> which
> > engendered much admiration from the boys. She says she wouldn't do it
> now,
> > though. ;->
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 10:44 AM James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
> > oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I must content myself with the occasional turtle...
> >>
> >>
> >> Good for you ! ! !
> >>
> >> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> >> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not
> preserved,
> >> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
> >>
> >> On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 1:15 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> > I went out on the lower porch about half an hour ago to take in the
> sun
> >> and
> >> > the breeze, and while I was there I noticed a black snake that seemed
> to
> >> be
> >> > caught in netting which S/O had  stapled around the corner post years
> ago
> >> > to assist the autumn clematis in its journey upward. Poor snake
> seemed to
> >> > be pretty thoroughly entangled, and knowing that these guys are not
> >> > venomous, I went and got S/O to have him look and see if there was
> >> anything
> >> > we could do. His first judgment was that the snake had expired, but
> when
> >> I
> >> > told him I'd seen it move, he got gloves, scissors, and a sawed-off
> broom
> >> > handle and proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes carefully snipping
> >> > netting and vine away from our scaly friend, which had got itself MOST
> >> > thoroughly entangled. I assisted by holding vines this way and that,
> and
> >> > the snake seemed to understand what we were doing and actually
> positioned
> >> > itself as much as it was able to so that S/O could reach netting that
> was
> >> > in between coils of its body. At last we managed to get it free, even
> >> > though we couldn't get all of the netting completely off it, and it
> >> crawled
> >> > off down the porch. I looked for it later and it was gone. S/O thinks
> it
> >> > may have gone down to the woodpile to rest and try to scratch the
> >> remaining
> >> > netting off. I'm just happy we found it and were able to free it. I am
> >> fond
> >> > of black snakes and I would hate for it to have died tangled in that
> >> > netting.
> >> >
> >>
>
>
>
> --
> The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among
> you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the
> land of Egypt.
> Leviticus 19:34
>