I screamed as I flew out of the tomato patch. Of course all goats, chickens, & ducks ran for the hills, leaving me in their dust. What happened, you may ask.
Well, I was working my way through all the tomato plants, gingerly lifting all stems & branches in search of any ripe fruit. I noticed 2 purple Russian orbs laying at a plants base ( I think it is a mixer since it appears to grow red & purple fruit- more on that later). As I stepped closer and deeper in the plants, I see something slither inches from my hand as I reach for the two purple tomatoes. A freaking snake! From the half I did see, it had a thin upper body. But I wasted no time sticking around to see more.
I have issues. Who doesn't. But today the one about snakes came out. I never had a problem in my youth hanging lizards from my ear lobes ( they open their mouths when you catch them & then you put your lobe in their mouth- hey- I was a kid...). I did not mind snakes but did not have a desire to handle them. Now as an adult I find I cant stand them out in the wild. To see them slithering gets my heart racing and my feet jumping.
After going through a few scenarios of what to do about my situation, I came to the conclusion the snake had to go. Evicted from my garden immediately. After all, my flops and garden basket could not stay out with all the baby poultry around. They like to hop into the basket gobbling all that I have harvested then run off only after I dump them out of it.
So I go back up to see where it was. This time, I see its back half slithering towards the Zinnia's. A fat middle section which indicates to me, our toad habitat became a snake buffet and most likely the one lone feeder fish in the little pond is no longer likely swimming.
Well I lost the snake but did find this near where I came in contact with it:
I wear a size 9 (US) in womans shoes which would be a size 7 (US) in mens. I would guess this snake to be a full yard (3 feet) long.
Go ahead and laugh. Thats fine. Everyone has their issues and their things that scare them. But its not that i am afraid of them. No. They just creep me out the way they slide along the ground weaving in S's and the way they stand up with their tongue all hissss. sigh...
Just creepy.....
Well, I was working my way through all the tomato plants, gingerly lifting all stems & branches in search of any ripe fruit. I noticed 2 purple Russian orbs laying at a plants base ( I think it is a mixer since it appears to grow red & purple fruit- more on that later). As I stepped closer and deeper in the plants, I see something slither inches from my hand as I reach for the two purple tomatoes. A freaking snake! From the half I did see, it had a thin upper body. But I wasted no time sticking around to see more.
I have issues. Who doesn't. But today the one about snakes came out. I never had a problem in my youth hanging lizards from my ear lobes ( they open their mouths when you catch them & then you put your lobe in their mouth- hey- I was a kid...). I did not mind snakes but did not have a desire to handle them. Now as an adult I find I cant stand them out in the wild. To see them slithering gets my heart racing and my feet jumping.
After going through a few scenarios of what to do about my situation, I came to the conclusion the snake had to go. Evicted from my garden immediately. After all, my flops and garden basket could not stay out with all the baby poultry around. They like to hop into the basket gobbling all that I have harvested then run off only after I dump them out of it.
So I go back up to see where it was. This time, I see its back half slithering towards the Zinnia's. A fat middle section which indicates to me, our toad habitat became a snake buffet and most likely the one lone feeder fish in the little pond is no longer likely swimming.
Well I lost the snake but did find this near where I came in contact with it:
I wear a size 9 (US) in womans shoes which would be a size 7 (US) in mens. I would guess this snake to be a full yard (3 feet) long.Go ahead and laugh. Thats fine. Everyone has their issues and their things that scare them. But its not that i am afraid of them. No. They just creep me out the way they slide along the ground weaving in S's and the way they stand up with their tongue all hissss. sigh...
Just creepy.....
SSSweeet dreams,
~Tammie
~Tammie
8 comments:
I know the old good snake-bad snake thing. They still make me jump because we have so many copperheads around here. Since I have found our king snake and a huge black snake near the tree line north of our garden I have not seen ANY copperheads this year (around the garden) I wear sandals or no shoes at all in our garden so that unexpected movement always gives me the willies.
Hi I have been reading your blog for some time now so I thought I better say "Hi" I also have issues with snakes and I've written about them in my blog. I found your blog via woody's rocky ridge. I was given an award last week and now I get to pass it on to 3 others who inspire me and even though I haven'tcommented before I read your blog often and get heaps of inspiration so I've given you a "Nice Matters" award to! You can read about it at my blog if you would like to know more.
Cheers Kirsty
I can totally relate to the snake thing. My rational brain knows that they're not that bad, but you're right, there's something about the way they move that's just not right and it gives me the heebie jeebies.
I hope you've seen the last of him!
Wow! that's a big one, I'd have run for the hills screaming.
You know I think it's the surprise. I'm the same way with spiders. They just sort of sneak up on you when you don't expect it.
You know... if the skin was 3 feet long, who knows how long the snake that broke out of it was!! :-)
Uggghhh! I hope you can speak Parsel tongue!
Oooooooh cool snake skin. But I'd've jumped too! Yikes!!!!
So this is off topic but I went back to your post for rose petal jelly (long ago, huh!?) and you said you use powdered pectin. How much do you use? (I don't know any other way to contact you!)
Michelle
Its been raining like crazy so picking in the patch has gone on without any fear of running into the unwelcomed guest.
Michelle- I use the small box
(1.75 ounces)you can purchase in the grocery store. They are put out by the Ball canning company.The entire box goes into 1 batch for the recipe I used.It is pictured on their site here:
http://www.freshpreserving.com/pages/pectin/21.php
I hope this helps.
~Tammie
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