We Have Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself...And Snakes

A couple of years ago i had a three day gig in the big city, so Staci came to take my place as Head of Operations here at Tails Up Homestead.  Staci is a voracious reader, and had been consuming how-to books on homesteading, so we both thought this would be a great learning experience for her and the girlz.

Apparently, as soon as i was out of the driveway, she backed her car up to the slider and unloaded a trunk load of paper products.  She was very well aware of the fact that i would rather put phosphates in my ground water than use products that require petrochemicals or chopping down trees.  When i found out about this--much, much later i might add...she swore the children to secrecy--i chided her until she explained her time management theory.  She figured she could spend her time doing the work that needed doing around here, or she could spend her time washing dishes.   After giving me a while to concider her theory, she was able to convinced me that there is a place in my world for disposable aluminum pans.  But i digress.

As soon as i got home from my gig, and i mean within 10 minutes of arrival, Staci and her kids were pulling out.  The car had already been packed up, and they were waiting for me.  My kids assured me there had been no problems, so i was baffled by the speedy exodus.  I tried calling the next day, no answer.  Called the next day, had a very brief conversation.  Called the next day, and things were back to normal.  Turns out Staci had to sleep for two days to recover from the three days she spent leading my life. 

"Homesteading is not as romantic as they make it sound in all the books," she told me, "it is d*** hard work!!"

To that i say HA!!!!  The hard work is just the beginning of it!!!

So here is how the last twenty-four hours of my life have gone.

We lost Andy last nite.  He was my yearling buck that gave us the monster babies this year...Utopia, Veribest and Splendora.  Was really looking forward to next year's breeding, since we now knew what he would produce.  He had been off and on sick for about a month, then this past week, he crashed.  Achieved nothing else the last three days but doctoring the goat, but couldn't find the magic combination.

So that was a heart breaker.

This morning i go out to do chores, went to pull a new bale of alfalfa, and killed a little spider off the top of the bale.  Inspect it, and all looks well.  Pulled it off of the stack and three hobo spiders the size of dinner plates (ok, that is an exaggeration, one of them was only as big as a salad plate) crawl out of the bale.  I am not really afraid of spiders, i just HATE getting bitten.  So i dropped the bale. 

Went to open the doe barn door, and i see, headed under the pallet that the coastal hay is stacked on,  the tail of a snake skin.

As you may recall, i firmly believe that there is only one kind of snake in the entire world.  The Copper Headed Water Rattler. 

And there appears to be one living in my doe barn.

After giving a little girlie squeal (ok, it was a scream) and jumping back, i regained my composure and reached down to pick up the skin.  I pulled and pulled and pulled.  This is a HUGE snake.  I only retrieved about half of the skin, but that piece was approximately 74 feet long, and about 8 feet in diameter. 

And it is living in my doe barn.

Fortunately, all this happened after i had taken my blood pressure medicine.
Unfortunately, all this happend before i had coffee.

Mrs. H. told me one time that in every situation in life, you ALWAYS have two choices.  I have found this bit of advice to be sage, and absolutely true.

Given the options that i have at this time in my life, i CHOOSE this path.

But i do have days when i wish i could put on a pretty dress, go have a mani/pedi, and then go buy a superfluous pair of shoes that don't go with anything i own but make my calves look good.