'TIS THAT TIME OF YEAR...

...to refresh the Snake Away around the perimeter...

(Yes, that one is poisonous. It may be little, but it's still a Cotton Mouth. Jay found it sunning itself on the back deck very near the kids' teeter-totter... and also near our tiny pond. It will have a new home soon.)

 ...and force passengers from the car after dark to clear the dozens of mating (and searching-for-a-mate) toads from the driveway... At one point Cora told Jay to just go around because she "can't disturb these two because they're making babies!"

"I LIKE TO STUDY ANIMALS"

It's late spring and the time of year to start being EXTRA careful in the great outdoors here in the Deep South. There is now a plethora of ticks and mosquitoes and fire ants. And SNAKES! (Remember the video of the king snake I posted here recently? - that one is harmless, and actually wonderful to have in the yard because they eat the poisonous snakes!)

 

Pictures of snakes meeting their demise have been all over Facebook lately, posted by local friends. In recent weeks we have been reminding the kids more and more to watch where they step in the yard, especially when out walking Buster together in the morning, just the two of them...

 

Jay came home from school with the kids yesterday to find a scary specimen back by our little pond:

Apparently James ID'ed it before Jay even had a chance to tell him. In explanation, he said "I love all the animals and I like to study the animals that I don't get to see!" (It's a copperhead, in case you don't study snakes as thoroughly as James does.)

(After some observation and a reminder lesson about watching where they step, the copperhead was transferred to an Action Packer via snake stick, sealed in the trunk, then relocated about 10 miles away from our house.)

 

I suppose it's time to buy a new jug of snake repellent. It doesn't work perfectly, but it helps. While we don't mind the king snake or banded water snakes or corn snakes (some of which might be the ones that used to live INSIDE our house) or rat snakes that frequent our yard, we also have quite the history of copperheads and cottonmouths and rattlesnakes making appearances. For the time being, we've decided not to let the kids walk the dog solo in the morning...

OUR KING

DATE RUN

Christina and Al graciously granted us a date run this morning (instead of a date night) and took some cute photos of the kiddos throughout the morning...

We keep meaning to ask... did Buster behave and walk nicely without a leash, or do we just not see the leash?

This cat goes with her everywhere (whether he likes it or not)

Meanwhile, Jay ran his first-ever 14-miler, his last long run before taper. It was a little longer than I'd originally planned to go this weekend, but I was happy to do the miles with him. Turns out Christina and I talk WAY more together when we run than Jay and I do though. He had to ask me to stop talking at one point... It's cool. He's just used to running solo... and my peppiness can occasionally be annoying during hard/long workouts, I admit.

 

We spied a baby copperhead in the gutter near the end of our run and Jay kindly moved it back into the woods, hoping to prevent other runners from accidentally stepping on it and getting bitten (he didn't see it until the last second himself, just as I did a few weekends ago finishing a 20-miler when I came across an adult copperhead in practically the same spot).

He's wearing his kilt at the Soldier Half in 2 weeks, so today was dress rehearsal.

TIMBERRRRR.....

...RATTLESNAKE, that is!

We went outside this afternoon to release some fish into the new pond, turned around to go inside through the back door to the sunroom, and were greeted by a 3ft-long Timber Rattlesnake. Awesome! A first sighting of this particular species for both us. Well, James too, but I don't think he was paying attention... Isn't it beautiful? Don't worry mom (and other future visitors), Jay immediately tossed it off into the woods and threw out some snake repellent, liberally, all around the sunroom and deck. This has worked before (with the copperheads, and the kingsnakes and rat snakes). We promise to keep you safe!

(Erin, did we get it right this time?)

SUNROOM OR ZOO?

Everyone knows we've had a kitty in our sunroom for some time now. Maxine comes and goes as she pleases (we leave the door ajar most days and nights), even though she wishes more than anything to be a house cat. If anyone is looking to adopt a loveable 2-year-old beauty, here she is (and by the way, she's slim and trim now that's she back to being an indoor/outdoor cat - she had put on some serious weight after her kittens were born and she was locked in the sunroom for a couple months until we could get her fixed):
Due to our leaving the door open, our resident pair of Carolina Wrens decided to build their nest inside this year, in one of our hanging plants. So, no more closing the door at night...
Then we found a snake in the sunroom. Maxine was scared, so we don't think she brought it in. When we told my mom she asked whether we had a sunroom or a zoo...

FISTS FULL OF SNAKES

Well, our 4th generation of snakes has hatched...

Fiona (now 5-years-old) laid 17 eggs over the 4th of July, 10 of which hatched. Most are your standard corn snake color, a few have only the black and white coloring, and two are albino:

Our two-year-old albino pair laid 7 eggs that same weekend, 6 of which hatched:

A few of those have the pretty motley pattern:

They're already growing and some have had their first shed. They'll be ready for their first meal sometime this week!

So, if you're in the market for a snake or two, or three, just let us know. Free to a good home!

FLORIDA CAVERNS

So, even though the trip started off shaky, we stuck to our plans and stayed the night in Marianna, FL, and the next morning we went to Florida Caverns State Park. FYI, even though it opens at 8:00am, the tours don't start until 9:00am (so sleep-in that extra hour and save yourself some frustration). They also happened to be one tour guide short that day, so the first tour didn't get started until after 9:30am. To pass the time, we went up to the Blue Hole swimming area (yeah right, like I'd ever get in that opaque gator pit) and walked around.

This snake (we think it's a Florida Pine Snake) was being attacked by a Mississippi Kite and a Red-shouldered Hawk (at the same time!), but we inadvertently scared them off.

On the other side of the pond, we saw this Cottonmouth curled up at the base of a Cypress. Jay walked within striking distance, then turned to point at a nearby caterpillar when I looked at him like he was crazy (he's Captain Obervant, so I figured he had seen the snake).

The caverns themselves were pretty cool (65 degrees, he he)... if you aren't someone who lived at Carlsbad Caverns National Park for 8 months! The tour was short (45 minutes, maybe a quarter mile long) and shallow (most of the caverns are at 30ft, though they go as deep as 50ft below the "wedding cake") with far too much lighting (they had algae growing everywhere)! The tour guide was OK... he knew his stuff, but he kept it really basic and left a LOT of silence hanging around. Anyway, here are a few photos from down under (and we'll do another blog later with some of our better pictures from Carlsbad, so you can see what a REAL impressive limestone cave is all about).

One cool, unique aspect to this cave was the number of shells and fossils we could see.

This bullfrog, who took up residence at the "South America pond" about 6 months ago, was pretty unique too. The rangers say he must be happy eating cave crickets...

1 OF 13...

It's snake season! Did you know that there are 13 species of rattlesnakes in Arizona? Here is the one we found in our sample plot at 7am this morning...

For those who are interested in details, it's a Mojave Rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus)