Disclaimer:

Many stories herein are subject to the faulty, and sometimes creative, memory of the blog owner and should not be taken as factual, although the names and events are real! Kind of.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Wildlife in my backyard


We have a really pretty pond.  If you squint.


And you don't mind green water.  
I have spent the last three days working about ten hours a day on cleaning it up.
I'm sunburned, scratched, smashed, and weary.  
I have major hangnails, broken nails, and permanently stained nails.  


I smell like pond water, my hair is disgustingly dry and I'm running out of band aids.
And a friend commented on Facebook that perhaps I shouldn't be in this pond with cuts or open sores.  
Thanks so much..... Haha.  

I'm not really afraid of getting Swamp Fever or whatever....

The fish like to swim up and nudge you and give kisses and such when you are in there.  
They are wondering what that enormous white thing is in their 'house.' 
And I keep reminding myself that those are FISH.  Even though the water is icky and I can't see them.
The nudges have to be fish. 
Cause if they aren't,
they might be snakes.
(Did I tell you we had a snake in the pond all last summer?
I didn't go wading any then.  And it was kinda big) 



I found this baby one a day or two ago.  I hope he's not part of an undiscovered litter.

I know he's tiny but I'm getting sick of snakes!  
A few days ago, there was a big bull snake looking one in the front yard--long and fat.
Then when I was cleaning up some leaves, a pinkish one flipped out of his hiding place under them
and slid away too fast for me to catch/kill/photograph!  

Now this.  

I had just moved that rock.  Shudder

I sprinted for the porch, grabbed my camera and a bucket
and caught him before he could slither away.
(What?  You don't grab your camera when you go to catch a snake? 
The real unbelievable part is that I sprinted!)
I had the presence of mind to turn on the camera 
as I 'raced' back to the snakey rock.


Then I caught him in a bucket and killed him with a shovel.
(And I put a hole in my bucket.  Another dollar bucket, down the tubes.)

See how tiny he is?  I'm a murderess.
But he was striking and hissing and being ugly.
And after I cut him in two, (or her, whatever)
He continued to strike and hiss till I cut his head off.


And then I buried him in a gopher run.

And today, I saw these on the fence:


Lady bugs (good) or Asian Lady Beetles (not good).
They both eat aphids but the Asian ones tend to swarm and are indoor pests.

Ah well.

I forgot to take a picture of the 20 million (more or less) Black widow spider egg sacs
I saw when cleaning up leaves.  Sorry you missed it.

5 comments:

LV said...

You need to be very careful. They have warned us that snakes are going to be really bad this summer. You never know what might be hidden. Your pond looks nice, but they do require a lot of work.

Denise @ secondtimearoundfinds said...

I totally HATE and fear snakes of any kind. Be so careful, lots of nasty insects to get rid of (and I am sure there are so many good insects around too. Do watch your cuts and scrapes because you do not want to get them infected. I dropped over from LV who is a real sweetie.

Keetha Broyles said...

What KIND of little snakey snake is that? The pattern on its back (what little I can see of it) looks rattlerish.

Speaking of "wild things" - - - having arrived home from the northwoods camp last evening, I now feel what I HOPE are imaginary ticks crawling all over me!

Linda M. said...

Dawn, I DO NOT LIKE SNAKES! Your pond looks very pretty but now that I know snakes like them too I do not want one. LOL. Be careful. Joyous Wishes, Linda

Melody said...

WOW! I think you are very courageous and fun! Who would think that you would dare to enter the murky waters of pond life and risk the nudgings of a little (or giant) snake as opposed to the cute little nudgings of fish. You Go Girl. Your pond is gorgeous and worth all of your hard work. I loved reading about it and the pictures.

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