Snake Week

August 14, 2022

Howdy folks,

Well, we finally had snake week out here and had three different snake encounters over the last week. On Tuesday morning Valentin found a baby rattlesnake underneath one of the big rocks that we had delivered that he's using to build walls around the barns. Upon lifting the rock up, he found a tiny, little snake coiled up in the damp underside of the rock, no wider than a pinky finger and no longer than one or two pencils, end to end. It was only about twenty feet from the garage at the new house and when we went back to find him a little bit later, we couldn't find him anywhere. I've also seen babies near the gate that goes out into the pasture, but not since last year. Then, that very night, when Erin was out watering plants and weeding the driveway, she found a garter snake that had been bit in half and was still alive! There was no sign of the lower half(or third, not exactly sure), but the rest of it was alive and trying its best to breathe and move to safety. Its eyes looked normal and it was also not gushing blood or fluids anywhere, so we really weren't sure what to make of it. We're pretty sure that Erin scared Bootsie off from eating it and entered the scene there. We didn't know whether we should dispatch it or not, although it seemed to be mortally wounded, for sure, but we decided to let it go and let nature take its course. Sure enough, we saw that it was dead later on that evening and by morning it had filled someone's belly. So, on Friday night as we were trying to get all of our chores done ahead of the weekend, Erin suddenly texted me letting me know that there was a rattlesnake in the driveway, right in front of our house. I was up in the hay barn rearranging things again now that we had used up our two oldest types of hay and more room was available. I ran down the hill with the snake stick and a small metal garbage can and went to work. He was moving across the driveway, towards the boss's backyard, and was in a straight line, but my first attempt at grabbing him went unsuccessful. He then headed just inside the fenced-in yard and curled up right on the other side of the fence, rattling the whole time. I went into the dogs' backyard(who we had put in) and found him in a tiny little crevice, coiled up as small as he could be. This time, with just one jab, I was able to grab a hold of multiple sections of his body and thus firmly hold him still while I brought him back towards me and successfully slid him into the can and got the lid on top without incident. The whole time I was talking to him, just like he was one of the dogs or horses, and let him know that I wasn't going to hurt him, just move him. That actually seemed to make him a little less grouchy and when I tipped the can over a few hundred yards away on top of the hill, he slowly worked his way out and slid up the hill until he found a nice big juniper to coil up underneath and that's where I left him, letting him know that if he stayed up there on the hill he'd be just fine!

As for the weather this week, it was a really nice week. If I can recall correctly, it only rained once and the temperature pretty much stayed at or below 80. Now, over the weekend, it has risen a little, but looks to be heading right down into the 70s again for the coming week. It's starting to dip into the very upper 50s at night and you can just about imagine yourself snuggled around the fire again soon. Our casita is built into the hillside with a concrete floor and thick adobe walls and it does not take much to make it cool in here. When we go to bed it's starting to get pretty chilly downstairs, even with all the windows closed, but the upstairs is still warm with windows open. Til the dogs have me up around 5am, everything is shut up tight and even Erin is freezing in the bed upstairs. Speaking of her, she finally got a box of the New Mexican green chiles that I mentioned earlier on, opting for a box of 'hots'. We still weren't able to locate any mediums, and truly are adapting to the heat out here, so to speak, so we just went with it. Now, she can't decide whether to roast them all on the grill out here, like people normally do, or to throw them in the dehydrator for a few days and preserve them that way for later usage. The garden is booming, too, and is making good use of the wet summer. In just one day, she picked over eleven pounds of green beans and we literally have lettuce coming out of our ears and going on everything at meal time! The dog walks have been super short this week, because of the snake activity, but we've seen no other sign of them and can only assume that they're around at all times, just few and far between, so we're seeing no particular reason to be freaking out. In any event, it's just the latest in our great and slightly scary critter parade that we are constantly dealing with in the high desert!

So, here is our batch of pictures for this week. First up, a shot of two of our cats: one of the second-most recent batch of kittens, Zia, eating outside with nearly twenty year old Buckwheat sitting on her heating pad inside. Then, three shots of the baby rattlesnake: the first two showing him still coiled up; then, one slithering away to safety. Next, the grisly scene of the garter snake encounter. Then, four shots from Friday night's rattlesnake encounter: first, in the driveway; then, trapped and in the can; next, on its way out of the can; and, finally, coiled up under a tree, safely removed from around the houses. This is a seven year-old, adult Prairie rattlesnake, as you can tell by counting the rattles. Next, two shots from the kitchen: first, a box of New Mexico chiles that Erin finally got; and the eleven pounds of green & yellow beans that she picked one morning this week. Then, a shot of Valentin's latest creation at work, a stairway up to an entrance to the boss's backyard up by the barn and the walls that he's been building on each side of it. Next, a shot from further up the hill from that spot that shows just how green everything is right now! And, finally, three shots showing me moving all the pallets of forage around in the barn once we used up the older hay. That's it for this week, we haven't seen a snake since, so, you know, things always come in threes, so we’re good!