"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

I know we have a "Four legged friends" thread around here somewhere, but obviously, this can't go there.:) This guy's (?) been hanging around the back yard here for several years now. We always see it either heading for the creek, the flower bed, or the wood pile. It's a good 6 feet long. I think it lives in the wood pile, because I'm always finding shedded snake skin in the Winter when hauling wood in the house.

Yeah, the grass is that dry around here. It's crunchy, but we're supposed to have about an inch of rain coming this afternoon.
 
Ironbut said:
I know we have a "Four legged friends" thread around here somewhere, but obviously, this can't go there.:) This guy's (?) been hanging around the back yard here for several years now. We always see it either heading for the creek, the flower bed, or the wood pile. It's a good 6 feet long. I think it lives in the wood pile, because I'm always finding shedded snake skin in the Winter when hauling wood in the house.

Yeah, the grass is that dry around here. It's crunchy, but we're supposed to have about an inch of rain coming this afternoon.
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We had a watersnake set up camp in our garage a few years back. It didn't really like us trying to remove him. After a few failed attempts, I had my sister come over to offer her expertise. She's a biology professor at a local university, specializing in herpetology. She usually spends her summers doing fieldwork for the university, catching salamanders, turtles, snakes, hellbenders, etc. She gave him a new home, and I was glad I didn't have it living in the garage anymore.
 
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Rookie82 said:
We had a watersnake set up camp in our garage a few years back. It didn't really like us trying to remove him. After a few failed attempts, I had my sister come over to offer her expertise. She's a biology professor at a local university, specializing in herpetology. She usually spends her summers doing fieldwork for the university, catching salamanders, turtles, snakes, hellbenders, etc. She gave him a new home, and I was glad I didn't have it living in the garage anymore.

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We have water snakes in the small stream beside our house. They're not very friendly. Our old lab hated them, and would go along the bank hunting them every day in the Summer. He'd grab them, shake them once, kill them, then drop it & go look for another. I never stopped him, because when there are too many snakes in the stream, they kill all the frogs & fish.

Here's a garter snake we found on our daily walk today. It was just getting ready to cross the road.
 
I got you all beat, snake-wise that is. My grandson had a birthday party at their place over the weekend. They had a local guy bring some snakes for a visit. I edited faces so I don't get in any trouble.
MwcfiQb.jpg
 
Ironbut said:
OK, I've had about enough of this! It's been in the 90s all week around here, and the weather guessers in Harrisburg say we'll probably be one day short of setting a record for consecutive days above 90F. The record was 11 days straight set in July of 1999. I'm ready for October.
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Only 11 days? Here in south Texas we have temperatures in the upper 90's daily for several months. Guess I'm used to it, but I sure would like it to be 70 degrees year round!
 
The only snake story I have is when my wife came in to where I was working at the computer and showed me a picture of a snake on her phone. She asked if I could look it up.
"Don't need to look it up. That's a rattlesnake. I can tell from the pit viper shape of the head. Where did you take that photo?"
She says, "in the garden. It was about 6 inches from my hand as I was working with the tomato plants. "
"Bother (or words to that effect). Where's the shovel?"

I don't mind them on the trail. I just walk around them. I do mind them in my back yard.
 
While they can be ill-tempered and a bite would hurt, I'm glad to be seeing more banded water snakes over copperheads this year. I need to be attentive walking, so the dog doesn't come up on one.
 
knarfeng said:
The only snake story I have is when my wife came in to where I was working at the computer and showed me a picture of a snake on her phone. She asked if I could look it up.
"Don't need to look it up. That's a rattlesnake. I can tell from the pit viper shape of the head. Where did you take that photo?"
She says, "in the garden. It was about 6 inches from my hand as I was working with the tomato plants. "
"Bother (or words to that effect). Where's the shovel?"

I don't mind them on the trail. I just walk around them. I do mind them in my back yard.
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We live in the mountains, so we have seen some rattlers on our walks along the road & in the woods. I should keep my mouth shut, but I haven't seen any in the yard though.....yet. It's a fish & game law violation to kill any snakes here, but a couple copperheads & a whole bunch of water snakes have died of mysterious causes in the back yard.
 
knarfeng said:
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I don't mind them on the trail. I just walk around them. I do mind them in my back yard.
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For most of the field work I do, rattlesnakes aren't too much of a concern, but when you get out to Eastern Oregon, they sure are. Most of the time, we just go around them. But when you are at a six-week field school, that many people camping and cooking in one spot starts attracting rodents pretty quick. After a few weeks, the congregating rodents start attracting the snakes. The last few weeks of field school is when we start needing to kill the rattlers that start wandering in for the kangaroo rat buffet.
 
Ironbut said:
We live in the mountains, so we have seen some rattlers on our walks along the road & in the woods. I should keep my mouth shut, but I haven't seen any in the yard though.....yet. It's a fish & game law violation to kill any snakes here, but a couple copperheads & a whole bunch of water snakes have died of mysterious causes in the back yard.
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I know what you mean! I was camping with my wife and daughter at a state park a few years ago. Against the law to kill the snakes there. But a baby rattler died a mysterious death at our campsite....
 
Ironbut said:
We live in the mountains, so we have seen some rattlers on our walks along the road & in the woods. I should keep my mouth shut, but I haven't seen any in the yard though.....yet. It's a fish & game law violation to kill any snakes here, but a couple copperheads & a whole bunch of water snakes have died of mysterious causes in the back yard.
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Prester John said:
I know what you mean! I was camping with my wife and daughter at a state park a few years ago. Against the law to kill the snakes there. But a baby rattler died a mysterious death at our campsite....
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The silly things shouldn't play with shovels.
 
knarfeng said:
The only snake story I have is when my wife came in to where I was working at the computer and showed me a picture of a snake on her phone. She asked if I could look it up.
"Don't need to look it up. That's a rattlesnake. I can tell from the pit viper shape of the head. Where did you take that photo?"
She says, "in the garden. It was about 6 inches from my hand as I was working with the tomato plants. "
"Bother (or words to that effect). Where's the shovel?"

I don't mind them on the trail. I just walk around them. I do mind them in my back yard.
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Frank we have a saying over here in the land of the first 8 most venomous land snakes plus a couple of others in the top 15...also the most Python species on Earth: for every snake you see ,there's 15 you didn't see.
 
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