You know you've won, in life, when people pay you to do what you would pay them to let you do


Monday, August 30, 2010

Just One More Thing

I just wanted to add one thing to my late Sunday night/early Monday morning post.


Saw this on the paved road going through the lease. Ya, it's a rattler, run over by more than one car, I think. The head was squished pretty flat.



This is why they have rattles: they are so hard to see, the colour of dirt. I hate it when they surprise me. They say cowboy boots are pretty good protection if you step on one. The tops are higher than they usually can strike and the leather is too thick for them to really bite into your skin. It looked to me like someone had robbed the rattles off this one.



I took this with my boot beside it to give you an idea of the size, pretty long (it's head and my toe are pointing the same direction, I told you it was squished flat).

It's been a particularly wet year here, this year, and I think they have moved farther away from the river than usual. This one was headed north towards the river to get back to his den for the winter. My cowboy had seen a bull snake (usually bigger than rattlers) run over last week headed the same way.

I've never seen a snake den, but my cowboy has and he explained it to me this way. You smell it before you see it. In a depression in the ground are hundreds of snakes, Rattle Snakes and Bull Snakes together, in one big writhing mass. Pretty yucky!





13 comments:

Josie said...

EEW EEW EEW! I hate snakes, even black snakes even though all they can do is scare you. Bull snakes make me run and get a gun, but Rattlers make me run to the house and hide my head under the bed!haha Just can't handle 'em, scares the bejesus outta me when I see any kind of snake!ha

Rachel said...

Eww, those things are just EWW!
We found one at the back door a couple of days ago. They are starting to find their winter hidey holes.
That was a big'en!! :/

Jazlyn Oliver said...

Apparently according to my husband... rubber boots are the best to wear when there are rattlers around, he was wearing his steel toed leather boots and was lucky enough that the snake tried to eat his big toe after failing to bite at the baby maker, but the leather was ripped from his boots. He also says that the guys at Dinosaur Park told him that they wear rubber boots, they say anything that is impervious to water they cannot bite through (he says your dish gloves won't protect your hands though) So there is a new fact, even I didn't know.

~ Janis said...

When I lived in Florida rattlers killed my sheep, killed my bosses dogs and killed several cows ( bitten in the face ). One thing I learned was that they tend to travel in pairs.
I had one crawl up inside the bed of my truck one day and almost bit me in the neck when I threw some bags of feed in.
Why do I love Vermont? NO RATTLERS!!!

Please ask the cowboy what the snakes smell like.
Is it an oily smell ? or snake poop smell? or what. I'm curious.

Sarah said...

I would shudder right out of my skin if I saw a den of thousands of writhing snakes.

Hey, could you email me at unprocessedfamily at gmail dot com? I can't leave a comment on your 'dogs for sale' post and I'm interested ... Thanks!

Becky said...

Glad we don't have snakes like that here in Maine. I don't like any kind of snakes.

Crystal said...

Thats a prettty big snake! Cant say Im too sad someone run him over though.

Anonymous said...

oh that gave me the creepy crawlies! I hate snakes!

Anonymous said...

Ooo, I hate snakes! With a bloody passion. Can't stand em'. I was riding the other day, helping J bring in some cows. Anyway, Heathen and I were trotting along when a huge rattlesnake suddenly struck. Thankfully my pony just sidestepped. I've never seen a snake that mad, for no reason. He was coiled up and ready to strike again.. scary thing was, he never rattled!

Mikey said...

That IS a big one. Ours seem much smaller, and this year I've only seen a handful of them :( I like them, long as I don't trip over them :)

Ames said...

YUUUUCCCKKKK! I don't know how you do it. I mean... when they surprise you, what the heck do you do? I would probably break some kind of world record for fastest retreat, like one of those air walking scenes from one of those oriental kick butt movies.

I have read stories about pioneers crossing the prairies on foot and it amazes me that there aren't more stories on deaths from rattlesnake bites.

One female Montana homesteader I read about said she saw the king of all rattlesnakes slither around her 10 x 10 shack. She was so afraid, she couldn't bring herself to leave her shack for days.

Did your cowboy say what a den of rattlesnakes smell like? Pole cats? Bat urine? I can't even imagine. I guess I am a bonifide wimp.~Ames

The Wife said...

Ugh! That snake was thick! Ours usually don't get that large around, just long. Luckily, we haven't ran across any rattlers this year.

LindaG said...

It's kind of sad that people will go out of their way to run over snakes. We've seen them on the side of the road and people will swerve to hit them.
When they're in the road it's kind of understandable, but my husband will either swerve to miss them or stop to move them off the road.
But I don't like anything that can sneak up on you (loved ones excused sometimes. ;) )