One day in the summer of 2003, I was spending a day at the cabin alone.
I pulled the chaise lounge into the side yard (one of the few places that gets direct sunlight) and settled back to do some reading while warming myself in the sunshine. With all the trees on the property, we have lots of fallen limbs and twigs at different times of the year. And there were several on this day. So I didn't notice one particularly long, straight stick laying about 2 feet from where I was sitting. That is, I didn't notice it until it moved.
I didn't have my camera that day, but this picture is identical to the snake that was sunning itself in my side yard that day. He wasn't curled around like the one in the picture. He stretched out straight and long, getting every bit of warm sunlight that he could. I'd say every bit of 5 feet long.
So I thought, "Well, I'll just sit here and see what he does." So I settled in, introduced myself to Mr. Snake, and welcomed him to the cabin. So, he laid there for awhile, then slowly started to move away from me, toward a stand of trees about 30 feet away. He sure wasn't a fast mover, I guess it took him 5 minutes to maneuver himself to the base of a large tree, and then up the side he went, all the way to the top. He blended in with the bark of the tree so well that I had trouble keeping my eye trained on him.
Now, I am not afraid of snakes, especially the slow movers, like Mr. Snake was. In fact, my daughter, Amanda, had a yellow rat snake as a pet when she was about 12 years old. But my husband, aka Preacher, is a different story.
He soon pulled up and sauntered over to where I was seated. I said, "You'll never guess what I just saw", and proceeded to tell him about the visitor. But by then, Mr. Snake had disappeared into the foliage of the nearby tree.
So Preacher decided to do some lawn work and trimming, so he got his weedeater from the garage, and I hopped on the riding mower to do my part. About 10 minutes later, as I came around the corner of the yard, I noticed our "visitor" had returned and was slowly slithering his way UP THE SIDE OF THE CABIN! I stopped the mower, hollared at Preacher and pointed at the side of the cabin. When Preacher saw what I was pointing to, he started running toward the cabin, with his trusty weedeater raised and ready for battle. I didn't like the looks of this, so I hopped off the mower and ran into cabin, not wanting to see what was about to happen to Mr. Snake.
I heard a couple loud thumps and the weedeater motor revving up, then all was quiet. I stayed inside, not wanting to see had become of Mr. Snake. Then after a few minutes, I heard the weedeater motor revving up again, and couple more loud thumps against the side of the cabin. Oh brother, Mr. Snake is probably mincemeat by now. So I again stayed inside.
After about 5 minutes, I slowly stuck my head out the door, and asked, "Well....?"
Preacher said, "I thumped him good with the weedeater, and he fell to the ground and coiled up. So I figure that was it. I went over and started trimming another section, and looked back in a few minutes, and he was heading up the side of the cabin again, so I thumped him again. He fell back to the ground and I figured I got him that time, so I went about my business. I came back in a few minutes, and he was heading back up the side of the cabin again. So I thought, 'God love ya. If you want to live that bad, you go right ahead.' So he crawled on up the cabin, and he's probably sunning himself right now on the warm tin roof of the cabin porch."
We haven't seen him since. Although I'd like to. He has as much right to be there as we do!
