Just a quick story that I thought was a little humorous at Mrs. Faulkner's expense.

I was up early this morning preparing to do our first cutting of hay for the season. As I was leaving Mrs. Faulkner was putting on her Muck boots and she said she was going to fill up her watering pale and water the numerous potted flowers she has on the front porch and those adorning her new deck. The purpose of all the colorful flowers are for hummingbird and butterfly attractants and I must admit they accomplish that quite well. She enjoys sitting on the porch in the morning and her deck in the evening watching the numerous hummingbirds that visit the feeders and flowers.

As I headed to the barn I told her I'd leave Daisy to hang out with her.

Not five minutes later as I was preparing to hook up the hay cutter to the tractor, my iPhone buzzed with text message from Mrs. Faulkner:

"I need you quick. A black mamba has me cornered and Daisy is fighting it off. Bring a big gun."

What the heck?!? I dropped what I was doing and ran up from the barn to the house and as I got closer I could hear Daisy barking around the front porch. As I rounded the corner of the house I saw Mrs. Faulkner standing there with her phone filming Daisy as she flirted around with a black chicken snake.

Mrs. Faulkner looked over at me as I was catching my breath. "Where is your gun?" she asked. She's not a fan of snakes. After all these years living out in the country snakes are one thing she never got used to being around. The whole good snake/bad snake thing doesn't work with her. They're all bad as far as she's concerned.

"That's not a black mamba," I replied.

"How do you know?"

"Because we don't have black mambas in Arkansas," I answered. "They're over in Africa someplace."

"Well, if it wasn't for Daisy I could be dead by now. She saw it as I was headed to the faucet to fill up my pale and she jumped in front of me and started growling."

"Baby, that's a chicken snake, it won't hurt you."

She wasn't convinced. "What if I'd broken my neck trying to get away from it. I'd be just as dead. Fortunately, Daisy stayed between me and the snake until I saw it and I slowly backed up."

As I watched Daisy spar with the snake I said, "Fortunately, she's gotten a little snake experience lately. She came across a bigger chicken snake than this one behind the barn a few days ago and played around with until I put it in a 5 gallon bucket and hauled it off. She found another one out by the mailbox but it slithered off into the driveway culvert."

Mrs. Faulkner looked up at me with arched eyebrows, "you mean we're infested with snakes around here?!?"

I corralled the snake into a 5 gallon bucket as we talked.

"No, no, that's not what I'm saying. It's just that time of year when they're out more catching young field mice and robbing bird nests and such."

She wasn't having any part of it. "Well, you need to get rid of them. Get some snake-be-gone or buckshot or something, but I don't want them around the house. Oh, and you need to go find you another dog because Daisy is staying full time with me from now on"

Here is a short video clip she took of Daisy and the "black mamba".

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- Change it back -

Looks like you need another dog!

Can’t have too many dogs.

Smart and loyal dog.

I know I'm gonna get roasted over this, but I'm with Mrs. Faulkner. Handgun, shotgun, shovel or hoe, the snakes have got to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know there are "beneficial" snakes. Well that requires me to get close enough to ID them, even if I could tell one from another, but I am not getting any closer than the length of a hoe handle.

My first summer in NC, while out riding my bicycle I ran over this one coming around a curve. I quickly turned around and stopped to make sure it didn’t latch onto the frame.

I knew garter snakes, but never ran into something this big, about 6 feet long.

He is a good one, or so I heard.

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Sure you did

Chicken snakes are very good to have around. They mostly eat mice and rats, the chicken name came from supposed egg eating? Many years ago we had a “ pet” one in the spring house at the hunt club. Ms. Sylvester was her name, never had any mice or rats around the old farm house.

As I have posted , depends on where is that snake and is it harassing the locals, especially the animals.
Snakes are certainly beneficial is eating mice -rats but they can be a problem.
I taken more than a few of then out usually with a hoe.
As much as I like to shoot, a chicken house is not a good place to start blasting.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

The first time my wife and I encountered a snake when we were together, she eeked and said "Look out!, Don't let it touch you!"
Country raised as I am, I ID'ed the critter as a gopher snake and promptly picked it up, mid body and eased him off the trail into the weeds, Steve Irwin style.

Thinking she would be impressed, I turned, smiling, to see her "eyeballing" me like a plague victim.
Her reaction to my reach to hug her was clear enough.
She didn't want the snake to touch her.
And now, SHE didn't want ME to touch HER.
Not , in fact, until I had a shower.

She's better now after living in the country for a while, but still on the "All Snakes Must Die" team.

Some years back my wife spotted a snake on the walk just outside the front door. She didn’t use that door again for months. My explanation that it was a garter snake and no I’m not killing it did no good at all
And the bull snake in the window well?

My charming bride woke me up one morning as in midnight telling me there was a huge snake on our front porch. She, a friend and daughter were talking on the porch. I asked how big and she said huge. I almost became a herpetologist but couldnt figure out a way to make money not handling the venom type. Anyway, was a six foot gray rat snake, which I caught. Asked if I could let it go away from the porch on our 5 acres and was told no. So had to put it in a pillow case and carry it down the road and let it go.
As for me, would rather see an occasional reptile outside, than mice in the basement.

Wow, Daisy ain't no wilted flower . . . she is quick and doesn't seem to mind getting in there and having it out with that chicken snake.

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Live long and prosper

This story had me laughing so much that my wife had to come in my office to see what caused such levity. She has, over the years, come to distinguish between "good" and "bad" snakes here in Texas.

Personally, I am a big fan of anything that eats rodents. I hate meeces to pieces! I can't remember what cartoon that had that remark, but I'm a subscriber to the philosophy.

Just last week I had my wife helping me pull the tarp off the topsoil pile.
She let out with a screech and said a snake was under the tarp.
I asked her what kind it was she said just a garter snake .
It just slithered into the woods and we got the tarp off the pile.