Anarchogeek

Snakes, Snakes, Rattle Snakes Everywhere

I'm not a big snake person, especially the snakes which hiss and rattle then try and bite you with their poisonous venom.

In the few days we've had a bunch of rattle snakes hanging out around our cabin. The first one Shane heard while walking back to the cabin in the dark. We got out the flashlight and Tim picked it up with a rake and put it in a garbage can. The next day we dropped it off about 4 miles up the valley.

Yesterday Gaba and I were unloading the truck and she noticed another rattlesnake. We followed it around looking for the rake to catch it also. Somehow the rake disappeared and with gaba and i alone, we were less keen on getting close to it. Eventually it went in to the pile of cement bags. The next morning when we went to look for it, we couldn't find it. We hoped that it had just go away.

It didn't.

Today we went up to fix the spring box which was clogged up. We got it working, but more work needs to be done. When we were driving back down to the cabin we saw our friend the snake in the middle of the road. I looked at Gaba and said, why not. We drove over the snake, expecting it to be splattered out in the road behind us. To our surprise, the snake did not die quietly. It in fact spun around and quickly skirted off of the road. We turned around and tried to make another pass, but the snake had made it in to the brush near the cabin. We found the snake, slightly worse for the wear, moving around. We pulled the truck up next to it, and used a shovel to chop it's head off.

Apparently my vegetarianism doesn't extend so far as not killing scary venomous snakes who have taken to hanging out really close to my home. I won't eat it, but i don't have a problem killing it, if i do it myself.

Then, tonight as was getting up after dinner to clean up, I heard another rattle in the dark. I slowly walked away from the direction of the noise, and went in to the cabin. I looked for it with a flashlight, but couldn't find it. Just as i was about to decide i'd made up the noise, i heard it again. It was real. I just gave up, went back in to the cabin.

A few minutes later Shane and his daughter Rosa drove up. I went out on the porch and yelled over to them. They walked very loudly, taking hard steps so the snake would feel the vibration in the ground, and rattle when they were close. They made it over to the cabin and Shane went back out, found the snake, and convinced me to come out to help capture it. After a long time of trying to pick it up on the end of a long stick. We discovered if we kept a garbage can between us and the snake, it would strike the plastic and not us. It hissed and hissed and rattled... it's 11pm but there seemed to be plenty enough heat that it was very active in moving around. Once we got it in the garbage can, it circled and kept hissing. Tomorrow we'll drive it even further away and let it go.