If my on-going battles with Mrs. Black Widow and her extended family hasn't been enough - well, now I am at war with the snake world.........we have 8 baby chicks that hatched the week before Mother's Day - and Mrs. White (the momma hen) has been such a good momma and so happy in their little private coop just outside the main chicken house. Well, night before last, I had forgotten to shut the front door of the big chicken house and my 13 yr old son and I meandered up to close it (.....both of us already in our pajamas....). We closed up the barn and rounded the corner to peek at Mrs. White and the chicks, however, she was running around inside the coop clucking and puffed up and the baby chicks were cheeping as loud as I've ever heard and running around as well. I knew something had to be in there with them and told my son to run and get the spotlight...............as soon as he returned - sure enough in the far back corner of the coop was a king snake constricting a baby chick and trying to swallow another he had already killed. As soon as he realized he had been discovered he let go of the one chick and began trying to escape the coop - my son grabbed the pitch fork off the back of the barn and I had the steele rake and was holding the spotlight - while both of us (in p.j.'s......) are stabbing at this reptile who had "violated" our little chicken family.......my son managed to stab him once but he still slithered underneath the barn and escaped us. I was just glad it wasn't a rattlesnake and that my wild pitchfork aiming son didn't get one of my toes!!

The damage was done, the snake had killed 2 baby chicks, but the 3rd one he was in process of constricting survived. Now we are down to 6 chicks.

Last night arrives and my son and I were ready to round up that snake if he returned. So during a commercial break of Into the West, here we go ~ I was armed with my garden hoe and my son w/his pellet rifle (this time we were dressed in normal clothing...). The first thing we checked (& yes, we took the spotlight this time.....) was of course, Mrs. White and her chicks - they were all fine. Then we entered the chicken house to discover an 8ft plus, plus, plus rat snake that was stretched out underneath the chicken roost helping himself to a late night egg snack where a couple of hens decided to lay eggs (as opposed to in the nesting boxes!!)................I put the spotlight on him and then my son and I proceeded to attack - but first we had to argue over how close he needed to get to shoot the thing so as not to shoot a chicken...............(that's all I needed at this point...). Finally, my son shoots the snake (I think it merely grazed him....) that, in turn, caused him to come AT US!!!!!!! He was moving so fast and wild he took on the looks of an Anaconda in my opinion - I think I screamed in there, too, somewhere. But, at this point, I know (in my mind) that I cannot effectively "hoe" the snake while holding the spotlight - so I throw the spotlight down (but we still had enough light) and here I go hoeing the snake.......I think the snake had armor on because my hoe was just bouncing off of it.............and my oh so "cool, afraid of nothing" son (who had his BB/pellet gun) is now jumping around like a jack rabbit because this thing is moving WILD all over the place and trying to get out of the barn..............(no kidding, huh?)......and all the while, all our big fat chickens are lined up on their roost with BIG EYED stares at all that was playing out in their barn (....I mean, afterall, they just wanted to sleep for Heavens sakes.....). At this point the snake had maneuvered US out of HIS way and he was making tracks out of the door.............I still kept richochet hoeing after him. He makes for a getaway under the barn and for whatever reason beyond my ability to recall why...............I grabbed the end of that snake and held on..........(it must have been a flash back from when I was trying to get a possum out of a neighbor's garage years back and I grabbed it by the tail, too...........) - I'm yelling for my son to shoot the snake and he's yelling for me to shoot the snake - finally I told him to go get Dad...............who is inside the house NOT missing Into the West . Sam runs to the house - a football field away - and I'm in the dark holding onto the end of this snake...............

You know ~ before we moved out here, if someone told me that "in my future, I would be grabbing and holding onto a snake............" I believe I would have laughed myself to death. But it made me so mad that that creature thought he could just make him self at home and eat my chickens' eggs..................and when I get mad, I get just mad and I was not about to let go of him.

Finally, the [ Y chromosome ] "troops" (hubby and now both sons) arrive w/the .22 rifle and I'm still holding on to the snake's tail...............you would NOT believe how strong that snake was - I could not budge him from underneath the barn. My husband said I looked like I had hold of a huge ship rope and was trying to pull the barn from where it sat! Long and short - my husband shot the snake while I still held onto - it broke in half and the other half slithered on under the barn........and I hope it died under there and is NOT like lizards that grow their tails back................

Needless to say...........I had to watch the encore presentation of Into the West .

That would be a Friday Night adventure for Jacobs Farm!! Guess I need to stockpile my mothballs and sulfur, huh?

Tonight - I'm taking the machete..........

~HKJ