[Magdalen] Taking care of our neighbors in the yard

[Sibyl Smirl]

I feel the same way about blacksnakes: I want them eating mice and rats. 
  I'll kill copperheads when I see them, but I think maybe the 
blacksnakes eat them too--haven't seen any in quite a while. But 
blacksnakes get so BIG that they're definitely unnerving to run across 
unexpectedly.  I'm quite friendly to the skinny little green snakes and 
garter snakes.  Anyway, I picked up an upside-down windowbox a couple of 
weeks ago, that was on the ground outside my potting shed, and there was 
a humongous blackie underneath it -- sluggish and slow, must have just 
come out of hibernation.  He was tangled up with himself, so it was 
difficult to judge length, but he must have been at least six feet long. 
  I left the window box off him, and left the vicinity of the potting 
shed, and after a while he was gone.  He lives here, clearly, but I'd 
really rather not encounter him again.  I don't have chickens now, but 
what's really spooky is reaching inside a box nest to get an egg and 
touching a blacksnake who is shopping for his egg lunch!


On 5/1/17 2:01 PM, Jay Weigel wrote:
> It did. That's why I didn't want it sleeping on top of the freezer any
> more. I don't want to harm it. I'd rather it eat the mice than have to deal
> with the damn mousetraps!
>
> On Mon, May 1, 2017 at 2:47 PM, Susan Hagen <susanvhagen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Oh Jay, that would have seriously unnerved me!
>>
>>
>> On Mon, May 1, 2017 at 10:02 AM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 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.



-- 
Sibyl Smirl
I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net