{"id":311,"date":"2013-05-01T14:24:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T19:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/?p=311"},"modified":"2013-05-01T14:24:23","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T19:24:23","slug":"nature-101-bull-snake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/2013\/05\/01\/nature-101-bull-snake\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature 101: Bull Snake"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is very disconcerting when you’re following your husband into the house and he suddenly gets a serious look on his face, starts moving slowly, and keeps staring\u00a0 at one particular location in the garage like there is a big problem…<\/p>\n

We’d had\u00a0our prized Java chickens free-ranging in the pasture while we were working outside, keeping\u00a0the shotgun handy in case of predators (coyotes are quite brazen here even in daylight).\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0There was a little\u00a0bit of daylight left but\u00a0it was too late to start something else, so we headed\u00a0inside.\u00a0 Suddenly hubby hands me the shotgun he is carrying – and\u00a0I’m worried.\u00a0 Especially since he didn’t tell me what the problem was.\u00a0\u00a0All I could think by the serious look on his face was Why in the world are you handing me the shotgun if there is such a serious problem?\u00a0 <\/em>By this time I’ve grabbed the shotgun and backed up several feet.\u00a0 Hubby FINALLY blurts\u00a0“Maybe Bull Snake”\u00a0after staring\u00a0at something for what seemed like an eternity.<\/p>\n

A snake apparently discovered that\u00a0a favorite snack, little field mice, enjoy the comforts of our garage.\u00a0\u00a0Mr. Snake had stationed\u00a0himself on top of an animal condo that\u00a0had temporarily housed chickens, having curled himself in and out of the vent holes of a cardboard animal carrier.\u00a0 Right\u00a0next to the path\u00a0into the\u00a0kitchen.\u00a0 ACK!<\/p>\n

I don’t actually mind snakes unless they surprise me.\u00a0 Or they are in my house where they don’t belong.\u00a0 Like this one.\u00a0 Hubby said he was glad that he’d actually had\u00a0the day off so he could find\u00a0our visitor instead of me – since I was likely to have had a cow (more like a whole herd of cows),<\/em> if I had encountered our visitor first.<\/p>\n

Mr. Snake stayed put long enough for me to snap some pics with my phone before trying to get away from the paparazzi.\u00a0 At which point I made it clear to hubby he’d better catch that thing and get it OUT of my garage!\u00a0 Like many people, we don’t keep cars in our garage.\u00a0 The thought of that thing slithering behind something and waiting for another chance to scare me…<\/p>\n

Hubby took Mr. Snake out of the garage for another photo op, then out to\u00a0our dilapidated barn\u00a0and let the thing slither off into the grass.\u00a0 Hopefully\u00a0Mr. Snake\u00a0will figure out that the pasture is a much more appropriate place to be than in our garage.\u00a0 I also hope that he ate the little mouse that nearly ran across my feet last\u00a0week while walking through the garage.<\/p>\n

After consultation of the reptile book, noting the\u00a0usual range for snakes that have these types of\u00a0colorings\/markings,\u00a0this snake\u00a0is\u00a0likely a bull snake (hubby’s first impression).\u00a0 <\/em>Although according to the book, a Texas rat snake might not be out of the question.\u00a0\u00a0Either are good for rodent control.\u00a0 And for scaring unsuspecting wives.<\/p>\n

\"Mr. <\/a>
Mr. Snake, waiting in the garage for unsuspecting prey. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Look <\/a>
Look how long it is. <\/div> <\/div>
\"closeup <\/a>
All the better to see you with my dear! Let me go. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"closeup <\/a>
Pretty yellow and brown coloring. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Come <\/a>
My snake wrangler. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
*Click on a photo for a closer look.<\/em><\/strong><\/h6>\n

No snakes were harmed in the making of this story.\u00a0\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

We live in peace with non-poisonous snakes here.\u00a0 Even when they visit unannounced.\u00a0 But then I guess they can’t announce themselves very well\u00a0since they don’t have pockets to carry a calling card and we don’t have a butler or a silver tray with which to receive calling cards anyway.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is very disconcerting when you’re following your husband into the house and he suddenly gets a serious look on his face, starts moving slowly, and keeps staring\u00a0 at one particular location in the garage like there is a big problem… We’d had\u00a0our prized Java chickens free-ranging in the pasture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,108],"tags":[177,5,113,114,112,55],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farmlife","category-nature","tag-farmlife","tag-homestead","tag-reptile","tag-rodent-control","tag-snake","tag-wildlife"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/snake4-c.jpg?fit=768%2C913&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2wWew-51","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}