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Author Topic: Another day in the life  (Read 4589 times)

Offline GSF

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Another day in the life
« on: August 20, 2013, 10:46:08 pm »
A few minutes ago my wife and I were walking back across the garden/yard from putting the chickens up dusk evening. I heard her say; "OH MY GOD!!!"  "OH MY GOD!!!" "OH MY GOD!!!" She didn't have to tell me I knew it was a snake. I froze because I never saw it. When I saw it I told her to keep an  eye on it and I ran and got the shotgun. Clean shot, right where I wanted it. This is a timber rattler, 8 rattlers and a button. I laid it by a garden hoe so you could get an idea of the size. I killed on last year about 15 feet from that one. It was over 5 feet long, thick, and had 9 rattlers left after the blast. These were both in my back yard. Year before last I counted 17, none were poisonous either. If you look at the third picture you will notice the triangular shape of the head. Around here 99% of the time that's how you identify a poisonous snake.

Snakes ain't nothing to be played with (taken lightly). A friend of mine is about 6'2", 280lbs. He was weed eating in the ditch in his front yard. A moccasin got him on the inner thigh. I asked him How long before you felt the effects of the venom? He said immediately, it was like every joint in his body started aching with the worst arthritis. It got worse, the FDA had pulled all the anti-venom off the shelf for some gov't reason. He said weeks later he would be feeling fine, and then he'd feel it coming on. Weakness would take over his body and he would start sweating like he'd run a marathon. What is wrong to laugh?









When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - then you know your nation is doomed.

Offline iddee

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2013, 11:15:56 pm »
You should have saved the one last year. It could have been a world record.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7147.html

""The record length is 74 ½ inches (189 cm).""

I see one on the farm every now and then. I just watch them for a bit, maybe snap a pic, and let them go their merry way.
They, nor the rats they eat, don't destroy my feed and other stuff in the barn and sheds.

Here is the last one I found this year.











"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2013, 11:21:28 pm »
GFS,
2 weeks ago I took a large rat snake out of my grand daughters rabbit cage nest box. It had one of her baby rabbits in its stomach. I didn't kill it but I did take it 10 miles away so that it would not find the rabbit cage again. I have had to do the same thing with egg stealing snakes in the chicken coops.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline BlueBee

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2013, 02:17:08 am »
Hey GSF, if doomsday comes, you and the wife might need to move to Michigan to escape the snakes. :laugh:  We only have one poisonous snake up here and I don’t know of anybody who’s ever seen one; they’re very VERY rare.  And oh, I should mention, illegal to shoot. :-D

https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12201-32995--,00.html

Offline GSF

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2013, 05:14:09 pm »
Thanks Blue Bee for the offer. But I'm from the south. The first thing I'd do is fry it and eat it  :-D

If ever you're interested;

54th Annual Rattlesnake Rodeo - Opp, Alabama 36467
www.rattlesnakerodeo.com/ - Cached
Dates: April 5 & 6, 2014. Where: Channell-Lee Stadium 500 North Brantley Street
Opp, Alabama 36467. Questions: Call (334) 493-4575 or (334) 493-3070.


When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - then you know your nation is doomed.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2013, 10:11:33 am »
>The first thing I'd do is fry it and eat it

That's what I do with rattlers if they are somewhere they are a threat to anyone...
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
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"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

Offline ziffabeek

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2013, 10:13:17 am »
I don't consider myself afraid of snakes, and king snakes and garden snakes and such fascinate me.  I'm with Iddee on live and let live, BUT . . . having grown up in Scottsdale AZ back when it was a cowboy town with dirt roads, those rattlers still make my skin jump.  I think I would have been a mile away before the first "g" left my mouth if I was your wife! Was it coiled or moving?

Good shot by the way!  

love,
ziffa

Offline GSF

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2013, 02:42:16 pm »
ziffabeek;

It was stretched out. The one I killed there last year was rattling - at the cat. That one last year was huge. Both of these had good size and were very healthy.

I understand folk's position about catch and release. However, when a person is taught something from a child it pretty much stays with you. My grandparents & great grandmother survived the great depression. A trip to the Doctor was 20 miles away. They took it by mule and wagon. A snake bite was a serious life threatening thing that lasted days.

Everytime I run across a poisenous snake "kill" pops into my mind. I kill rat snakes and chicken snakes as well - egg suckers. King snakes, grass, garter, black runners, and eastern indigo's I don't hurt I relocate.
When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - then you know your nation is doomed.

Offline BlueBee

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2013, 02:56:24 pm »
What’s the motto here?  If it moves, shoot it. :-D

So what does a rattle snake taste like?  Chicken?

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #9 on: August 22, 2013, 03:52:43 pm »
>So what does a rattle snake taste like?  Chicken?

More like tough shrimp than chicken... but really, it tastes like rattle snake...
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
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"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

Offline GSF

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #10 on: August 22, 2013, 09:43:46 pm »

BlueBee >So what does a rattle snake taste like?  Chicken?

an invitation to find out;


54th Annual Rattlesnake Rodeo - Opp, Alabama 36467
www.rattlesnakerodeo.com/ - Cached
Dates: April 5 & 6, 2014. Where: Channell-Lee Stadium 500 North Brantley Street
Opp, Alabama 36467. Questions: Call (334) 493-4575 or (334) 493-3070.


Plenty of time to fit it in your schedule  ;)
When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - then you know your nation is doomed.

Offline iddee

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #11 on: August 22, 2013, 09:57:15 pm »
Taste kinda plain to me, kinda like eating cardboard. I prefer 'gator by far.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Another day in the life
« Reply #12 on: August 23, 2013, 12:04:41 pm »
It does taste kind of plain.  I agree, 'gator is better... but in some ways similar.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

 

anything