A Garden Helper

I'm in no way a "sissy girl". I believe one should always have dirt under the nails, callous on the hands, a wee bit of a burnt nose... and defiantly no fear of living creatures. In fact I welcome the creatures big and small... it's a great change from the former city life we held. Wildlife here in our region of Missouri is usually rather tame, entertaining, beautiful. We have your average deer, turkey (although I'm told ours must be a weird line as visitors are always amazed at their flight), rodents, varmints. An occasional wolf, tons of coyote and fox, and once in a blue moon your wee little bear and mountain lion. I've never seen a bear or lion out here... but they're sighted every 6 years or so. I'm fine with all of these creatures. I love them all... yes even the coyotes. BUT we are also home to some rather, um... well unfriendly creatures. Mainly copperhead snakes and brown recluses. I get that every creature has their purpose on this planet... but I'd be perfectly happy to terminate them from my portion of the planet.

Yesterday with my husband off, I headed out to my garden bright and early, working hard in the perfect peace and quiet. The boys came out to see what I was working on, and as if on cue, out slithered, from inches away, the largest copperhead I have ever seen. I'm talking thicker than a garden hose, almost longer than a rake. (And of course my camera was within it's striking distance)

I have a certain set of rules when dealing with snakes... 1) If it's black, make lots of noise as you walk away and pray it get's the clue to move on to somewhere else (black snakes eat copperheads... that gives them full right to stay around... although they eat baby chickens) 2)If you can't tell what it is, it must die... find out what it is later... when it's dead, cold and dead... preferably chopped up in little pieces and burnt to a crisp.

So hubby asks, is it a copperhead... I say does it matter? It's not black... kill it. So he strikes away with my only weapon... a pitch fork, lol. He hits it a few times, but it still manages to slither into cover. A perfect gardening day, gone down the drain. Stupid snakes.

So now hubby doesn't want his pregnant wife gardening with copperheads as company. He's throwing a fit. Not that I'm enthused to head right back out there and stick my arms in that grass. I had dreams last night about baby copperheads in my compost pile, lol. I do know copperheads hate strong smells like moth balls and paint thinners. I might be buying stock in mothballs. Again I'm at a loss with my poor garden plans... you never see just one snake. But I can't give up, as these dang snakes come with the the life out here... I might just have to carry my wee little .22 in my garden bag. What a gun doesn't count as a garden tool? *Sighs* I'm just glad I didn't bring my chicks out there with me as I had originally planned... or my son!

For today we're going to be working on a fence for the dogs with my father. I'm going to give them the choice of buying me battle gear for the snakes or finding me a new garden location... one that we've already won the battle with these evil things.