Snake in a Box

If you love snakes, this post is not for you.  Please don't tell me I'm mean or I did the wrong thing.  When I know better, I'll do better.  I'll learn to make a snake-trap, but yesterday, I didn't have one. : )

I (yes, 'fraidy-cat ME!) killed a snake.  I will not tell you I did it bravely-I was *FREAKING* out the entire time.

Here's what Mary Claire spied out the window:

Mmm..these bricks are w-a-r-m.

His little weasel head watching me, before he got Mad and began sticking his tongue out at me!

Can you tell I ran and got my camera?  I just had to document this, as I couldn't believe it was happening.  I am petrified of snakes-they are my bad dreams.  I've even postponed writing this post, since the pictures gross me out!

So, I panic in the most girly way.  I call my husband who is taking Clay to his baseball game, and we are supposed to meet him there in under 30 minutes since he had Ethan (the bleacher-climber) with him.

This nasty snake is fast-moving.  He climbs around the corner of the brick, loops around an iron chair on the deck, all along my flowers and window, then back onto brick.  Who knows where he was headed?  I ran and got a flat-tipped shovel (the quintessential snake killer, IMHO) (good for banging, stabbing, flinging, etc.).  This is where the pictures dwindle, as I was on High Alert, Panicking, trying to figure out When to get him, How, and muster the Courage.  I swear this is the most crazed I've been (and I had a baby ripped out of me-fourth degree rip-no epidural..Crazy and Me?  We're friends.).

So this is where the rubber meets the road.  He's getting near my back door, where Mary Claire is on the phone with her daddy (I'm on the phone with my mom telling me I can DO this!).  When he dropped down where I could get his neck against the brick, I stabbed behind his head against the wall.  Odd angles and his skeleton kept him alive.  He dropped to the deck, slithering and hissing.  I slammed the shovel straight down on the same spot on his neck (isn't it all neck?), and had to hold the shovel on his neck for the longest time (I bet 5-6 minutes, but it felt like eternity!).  I could hardly feel my hands and feet by that time-they were tingly and numb.  All the blood had gone to my scared pumping heart I guess?

He kept slithering his back half around, and I waited till he'd quit moving, then I had Mary Claire get some bricks, and we set two on top of him right behind the cut mark:

And then, I went inside to get a drink. I couldn't even think straight.  If I'd been thinking straighter, I would have had a Good Drink (including alcohol), but I just had Coke.  After all my tea, Coke sounded stiff.  (ha!)


I sat and chilled out for a few minutes, then peeked out the window-he was gone!  I ran out, and saw him on the other side of the bricks. With his head barely attached, the dude pulled his body out from under those bricks!  He didn't get far, and was already crawling with ants (I know...gross!).  He was still alive (as in not dead, but not getting away), and can I say it was awful, just one more time?

I guess he tried to hide his body along the brick?

Finally Dead.

So, after I calmed down, I went to the ballpark, and by then Ethan was crying-he'd cut his knee, and a dog licked it, and he was freaking out.  Lucky me got to go back home to the snake. : P


Last night, a friend and her son came by to see Snake.  Luke couldn't wait, and had to see it.  They were super brave, and used some sticks to pry his mouth open (and got them caught on the fangs), and identified him as a water moccasin (also known as a cotton-mouth) (..also known as poisonous!).  He had a white mouth, white underbelly, and fangs.  He was not a baby since they have coloring similar to copperheads.  Mature snake + My house = Not Good.  They live near water and eat fish (I don't have any!), and I sure as heck don't want him feeding on the things in the water, i.e. the kids!!

I was super generous, and packed up the snake in a Glad disposable box for them to take home (okay, actually his mom put it in there-I was still grossing out!). : )  Luke wanted to show his friend, and maybe use him for beebee practice.  I love kids, and just want to do my duty helping them out with their gun practice.


We are currently snake-less (as far as I know), and I want to keep it that way.  Someone on FB told me she made snake traps, so that is my next project.  I'll show you when I get a lesson! : )

Easter Baskets, Cleaning, and Snakes?

Well, I cleaned like crazy today! I'm so happy my house is clean! It feels fresh and new (well, almost..). I cleaned the laundry room (baseboards, counter, and floor!) and got it ready for the new run-it is just scrumptious! : ) Love it! I cleaned everywhere else too (even had to swish/swirl the toilets-I fear the Clorox tabs have run out. Mental note to buy more.)-I feel like my soul is cleansed too, so fresh! Maybe appropriate for the Easter season! : ) Ahhh..maybe that's why we are supposed to do Spring Cleaning!

Also got Easter baskets made (and had a sweet friend give me a great compliment on FB!) so, I'm happy! I posted them in a slide show down below (and it's working!). They are cute. Clay's big box of K'nex wouldn't fit in the basket I had, but I'll just set the basket up on top of them! Mary Claire's looked the fullest, but I think I spent the same on them. You always wonder-they notice things (not prices, but still) like who's is biggest or fullest. And I can't tell them they're equal since I'm not supposed to know! : ) I made me and Ches one this year! I used the book I'd bought, the chickadees, my new stationary, Ches' movie, and lots of eggs full of Reese's pieces eggs-which are VERY good, BTW!

It was very hard to hide them. I put each one in a carrier bag (heehee from Shopaholic), and put them in the top of my closet crowded with suitcases, and travel stuff, and one tub and a travel bag kinda leaning over one basket. The bows were kinda visible, and I DO NOT want them finding the stuff this time! I did end up putting Mary Claire's panties in, but not anyone else's! Hers had room, and Ethan's was jam-packed! Clay's had room due to the oversize K'nex, but he'd blush. Mary Claire will be proud of hers!

You know I could buy bigger baskets, but I think they look better overstuffed than big and underfilled. I'm not buying more, so this is how it is!

Oh, and the Clorox tabs are working in the other bathrooms, but in the hall bath (busy potty!) it must be all out. I had to scrub, which I don't like! Eww! Nor do I like to clean the bathroom floors, but I use only disposable stuff: Clorox wipes or my Clorox mop with the throw-away pads. Ick if it touched my body or hands! Toilet areas are just gross, but somebody's gotta do it, and no one else here is volunteering!

Ches is off to the stone yard again! We are landscaping the east side of the pool (slow but steady...) and he's putting in stone around the beds to slow down drainage (or should I say speed up?). He's redirecting the water, and we've already put in a gutter system and drainage along the wall. It's hard work (for him), but it's looking good! He wants me to pick out plants and landscaping stuff to fill it, but after all my fresh pansies DIED in the cold, I'm not in the mood. It makes me sad to see stuff die. Especially cold-hardy pansies! Wahhhh! I'll get it together. We already got a few azaleas (which should set blooms soon!) so maybe more boxwoods and nandina to blend in with other landscaping, maybe a hydrangea (that I can cut from!), but nothing too tall. I need the sun to hit the water in the morning to start heating it up. It already takes till 10:30 to be in the sun due to all our trees, and our neighbors tall houses (and I guess the shadow of our house too?)! It's been so long, it's hard to remember.

He'd also like to rip out the deck and have a patio laid. We'll see what our taxes look like! We're bracing for a repeat of last year, so maybe! Cross your fingers! : ) I'd love something more level with the ground/pool, and we have a small plan, but nothing in "stone" yet!

Alrighty, kids are home, and I'd just die if they saw the pictures! Clay just came in, and I had a tab called Easter Baskets up! I don't think he noticed...

Okay, tonight is PRE and a meeting for parents of First Communion students. All I know already is that girls have to have their shoulders covered! At least I don't have to worry abou that till next year! : )

note: Clay is currently moving a dead snake around the yard, and wants me to inspect it. I am so creeped out! He has now moved it to the mulchy area under the window. We looked up pictures on the internet, and he thinks it's a copperhead or brown snake. Big difference. I just can't look at the pictures, it makes me ill. He's now on Ches' computer looking up snakes THaT take SEVEN people to hold! ugh.

Can I just say again how clean the laundry room is! heehee yay! : )