I usually walk around the yard when the kids want to play outside just double checking there isn't a sneaky snake cruising through. I have a stick about 6 feet long that I brush over the grass. Well, today I spotted something. Yikes! It was a snake. Big long one but it didn't look like a rattler. But then I did see a big rattle on the end but that was by its head. Weird. I sent the kids to get the neighbor and actually it was the ranch hand Pablo who came down. Turns out it was a beautiful reddish color gopher snake who was finishing his lunch -- a rattlesnake. Once I knew it wasn't something that was going to possibly kill me or make me so sick I'd wish I were dead, I got a kick out of looking at up closer. Pablo tapped it and it moved under a tree. It was probably about 5 feet long. And he just had a little bit more of his lunch to gulp down -- that's why I saw the rattle near his head. Patrick and I watched him slide off back into the orchard. Maggie was literally shaking. I tried to get her to look at him just so she could see the difference between a gopher snake and a rattlesnake. She wouldn't have anything to do with it and went back in the house. I'm really thankful that he had already killed a rattlesnake. But I'm not really thrilled to know that even the big gopher snake is still roaming around out there.

joy

I hate snakes. They all give me the heevy geevies!!!

I'd have been freaked knowing he killed a rattle snake so close to the house! I swear...you have the most interesting takes of country living!

Hey....can you mow the grass low enough that you wouldn't have to move it with a supelong stick? (BTW the stick is a great idea.)

Hugs..thankfully no one was bothered...and he/she decided to go on off into the orchard for probably a big snooze after that meal.
Donna

We don't have much grass growing in our yard but where we do, I mow it closer than DH would like. He says it will cause the lawn to die. I'd rather the lawn die, than someone get bit by a snake. And if I'm going to exert that much energy and sweat, I'm going to mow it close enough that I can actually tell I've mowed teh lawn.

The gopher snake will probably not need another meal for a week. DH said they can eat a rattler 1 and a 1/2 times larger than themselves. Yuck!

joy

seen one but I think I'm the only one in the family. Our neighbors at the ranch grab them by the tail, whip them hard, and it snaps their head off. Lovely, eh?

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I would be scare to death! Glad everything worked out ok and you found out what kind it was!

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be snakes in the protected areas around our house (we live adjacent to a large nature preserve) but I haven't seen any around our house. That definitely one thing I don't miss about desert living...the snakes and the tarantulas and the scorpians!!