For the record, the worst fruit cellar experience was sharing the storm cellar with three wet dogs who had been recently skunked. Gasp.
There was a beautiful red garter snake in the strawberry patch, watching me weed and doing beneficial work.
People keep asking me if I've seen any rattlesnakes here. I have not, but I know the reason why. There is a big black snake that lives in the big oak tree. Lissa noticed it stretched out on a limb one summer as we walked by underneath. I gave it to understand that I would not appreciate it falling on me. It's over five feet long.
Whenever I hear a lot of agitated bird squawks high in a tree, I go out and see the snake has gotten into a nest. Once, the birds were driving it out and several other birds had gathered on nearby branches to watch the neighborhood disturbance.
There were lots of mice here when I first moved in, but the racer lives under the house and now the cats have a hard time finding a single mouse.
When I was digging in the garden last fall, I came upon a clutch of empty snake eggs. That made me glad, because the more of the black snakes on my land, the better. I see them around and know all is well.
Even the poisonous snakes do no harm if you don't mess with them. A reptile presentation I saw when working at the library featured boa constrictors. The herpetologist said, "Whenever people are bitten by snakes, alcohol is involved, and it's not the snake that has been drinking."
Two years ago, on the path to the river, I came upon a beautiful copperhead, one of our poisonous snakes. It was stretched out as if for me to admire it. At the moment, I was hauling a big snapping turtle in a wagon.
That day, I learned about those turtles. The dogs had encountered it in the yard and were barking their fool heads off. Trying to get to the tail end of the turtle to lift it up into the wagon with the scoop shovel, I was surprised to see how quickly it could turn and face me with its scary-looking mouth. Finally, I shoveled it head first and loaded it into the little wagon. It rolled off the shovel and landed on its back, which I thought would be better until I could finish relocating it. Halfway down the hill, I got Surprise No. 2: they can right themselves.
The copperhead, having heard my words of appreciation for how pretty it was, moved off the path. I used the dump feature on the wagon and the jumbo turtle scurried off. Surprise No. 3, they can really move fast when they want to.
People ask, "Aren't you bored living out there in the country?"
