Monday, April 9, 2012

Mariachis, Snakes, A Full Moon, Oh My!


Hello, beadlings! I hope you had a very nice weekend. We did. We visited the Starving Artists' Show in San Antonio. I found my friends Carol Bradley and Laura Zeiner  I picked up a sweet reversible enameled pendant from Carol and will be picking up one of Laura's Bee Keys soon. I also came home with a lovely bird feeder made from a cup, saucer and salad dish - lovely greens and creams. Ariel found Gort for her wall and we had lunch on the Riverwalk complete with strolling mariachis and begging ducks. It was a very nice afternoon all in all.

We came home, debated dinner, and took care of feeding the animals and putting the chickens in their house. No big deal, right? Until Ariel rain into the house "mom, mom, mom, hurry, hurry, hurry before it runs away!" Well what could it be that would run away? Then she opens the hen house and I realize it's probably the snake that's been stealing our eggs. I see a big head but from where the tail is (slowly pulling up behind the the nest box) this snake would have to be over six feet long! And then I realize that Mr. Big Head already has his tail near his head and what I am seeing disappear belongs to another snake! Great - TWO egg-stealing snakes. These are desert king snakes. I hate killing these snakes because they kill rattlesnakes and copperheads along with rats and rabbits. They aren't poisonous themselves, but they have a bad temper and they will bite. These were about four feet and four and a half feet long respectively. We had one here that was over six feet long - we left him alone. But since these were witnessed egg eaters (Ariel caught one in the act) they had to go, plus we lost a hen last week to some sort of bite. We think a snake bit her and it became infected. Such is life in the country.


And then the moon came up, as you can see at the top of the page, which really just capped off a very full day. Yesterday was full of nothing but beading, to which I must return. I'm beading a garden full of horrifically cute flowers - you'll see! Bead on!

2 comments:

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

O! I couldn't take that snake stuff. Nope, not me. The best snake I ever saw was hanging over our fence, a hopeful deter for other snakes.

That moon was fantastic. We saw it at 6AM. It was glowing so much that we thought it was what a moon seen from another planet would look like.

Keep them snakes away!!

Bead-Mused said...

Oh no Carol! Those are beneficial snakes! I truly hate killing that particular snake. I haven't seen a rattlesnake in our yard in years, but we find them in the neighbors' quite a bit. I'd much rather lose a few eggs than here that nasty buzz.

The moon was awesome! Almost as good as the Super Moon last year (and I have pictures of that, too!).

~.~