Sleeping Snakes

Gentle readers, it has been a harrowing week for Ken and McKenna.  On Monday, I found a snake skin in the laundry room and, upon further inspection, I was fairly certain that there was a snake coiled up in the corner.  Since I couldn't see it very well and had no idea what I was dealing with, I decided to call for help.  Jason the Snake Remover wasn't able to come until Tuesday afternoon, so Kenna and I sequestered ourselves in my bedroom until he could get here and find the snake.

Of course, Tuesday just happened to be a day that I had an open house scheduled and, when I called the realtor to tell her about the snake, she informed me that she had just received a phone call from another agent who wanted to show the house on Tuesday afternoon.  The buyer was only able to see the house on Tuesday and she wanted to come, snake and all.

As I suspected, Jason the Snake Remover arrived just after the realtor and her client, so it was kind of a mad house around here.  While they looked at the house, Jason, Kenna, and I worked on the snake problem.  Based on the snake skin, Jason thought I had a fairly good size snake (maybe a rat snake) traveling between the laundry room and the basement.  He did assure me that the snake was not venomous and he also told me that I didn't have an infestation (thank God!).  Unfortunately, the snake had disappeared, so all we could do was put some traps out in the laundry room, basement, and outside of the laundry room to catch whatever snakes we could.

Snake skin in the yard, where Jason left it (I have no plans to move this sucker):

The plan of attack is to put these traps out, catch whatever is living here, remove it from my property and release it far away, then close the points of entry, and spray snake repellent around the perimeter of the house and the property.  For what we're paying to have this done, we get a three year transferable warranty, so any time there is a snake or snake skin in the house, Jason comes back and takes care of it free of charge. 

The outside trap:

One of the laundry room traps:

I would pay a million dollars to have Jason fix this problem--I do not care how much it costs, I just want the snakes gone!  So, Jason left at about 6:30 and by 6:50/7:00, I heard a rustling noise when I put clothes in the dryer.  We had one.  When I called Jason to tell him, he couldn't believe we had one so fast.  So, he came back this afternoon to move  our laundry room guest to a new abode and while he was here, he checked the other traps.  We had another one in the basement, so he left with a water snake and a milk snake.  He's coming back tomorrow morning to check the traps again.

In other animal news, I saw a doe and three baby deer in the creek the other day--they are a lot cuter than the snakes and they stay far away from the house.

Stay tuned for snake updates--hopefully, these two are the only ones living here and the plan to snake-proof the house will proceed quickly.  I haven't really slept for the past two nights knowing that a snake was in the house and I haven't eaten a full meal either because I don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen.  Hopefully tonight I will get to eat a decent meal and sleep for a solid 8 hours.

Burning Down the House, Part I and an update on Sleeping Snakes

You read correctly, gentle readers, that I have a Sleeping Snakes update. As I was preparing for the contractors to do some work on my house by cleaning out the laundry room, I found this:



I choose to believe that this skin belongs to the snake that I removed previously. End of discussion.

The following are some photos of the improvements that the contractors are making to the house and once I work my magic this weekend, I'll be posting before and after (and sometimes "during") images of what's been happening around here.

The new white aluminum covering my fascia to keep carpenter bees away:




A detail of the fascia--I think the contrast will look really nice when they are finished.





Supplies.

New door and framing supplies. The door is installed, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the photo ;-)

New paneling installed on the east wall of the laundry room. This will be painted shortly--don't worry.

North wall paneling--detail of how they cut away from the logs:

View of whole wall--the left side is actually a single smooth cut. The light and logs are making it look choppy, but don't worry dad.

Poor McKenna has been displaced. Her room used to go here, under the window in the laundry room, but this week it has been moved to the guest bedroom. Even though this has been the case for three days, she keeps looking for her room in the laundry room and then she looks sad when it is missing.

Sleeping Snakes

I live in a lovely log house on a creek. I love my house--isn't it pretty?

Really, the only downside to living in this house is the "handywork" of the people who lived here before (another blog entry) and the fact that it is located smack in the middle of nature, which is beautiful to look at, but full of pesky animals. My yard:

On Saturday morning, I left McKenna in her "room" (a.k.a. her kennel which is located in the laundry room) while I went to pick up some plants. When I returned and let her out of her room, she wouldn't leave the laundry room. She kept sniffing and creeping around the room and eventually got down on the floor, poised to catch something. I had no idea what she was after--a mouse? Some other creature? I looked around, but didn't see anything unusual and I wasn't too worried about a mouse for reasons that you will read about soon. So I left her there and got busy doing some other things and when I came back about an hour later, this was on the floor and the dog was on the porch:

McKenna often catches flies, bites them, and then leaves them on the floor for me to find. So, I decided that was what was bothering her and I didn't think anything more of it.

Fast forward 24 hours to Sunday afternoon. After spending all morning planting flowers, I decided to take a lunch break. I entered the laundry room to get something from the pantry and I saw something strange out of the corner of my eye. Turning toward it in disbelief, I began to register that there was a snake in the corner of the laundry room. Now, anyone who knows me even a little knows that I do not care much for nature or any animals other than dogs, cows, and horses, so a snake is a big problem for me. My general policy is that if an animal is living outside of my home, I won't bother it, but when an animal enters my home, it will either die or be removed immediately.

My first reaction was to scream and run out of the room, which left me standing in the living room trying to figure out the best way to quickly get the snake out of my house. I contemplated calling someone, but decided that I didn't know anyone who could help. The best solution that I was able to come up with in the space of about three seconds was to get my "bird tongs" (tongs that I use to remove the dead birds from my woodstove) and use them to remove the creature. Naturally, I keep the bird tongs outside, so I ran out to the porch to grab them and then I went back into the laundry room, grabbed the snake with the tongs, and headed for the back door. Of course, I screamed all the way because it seemed like the right thing to do--who would hold a snake silently? Once I got out to the porch, I accidentally dropped it and it started to slither toward the house. I grabbed it again and hurled it into the yard. After landing on the rocks at the edge of the creek, it began to slowly slither toward the house again, stopping for a while in the middle of the yard:

It eventually slithered off into the sunset, leaving me freaked out, paranoid that there might be more, and more than a little impressed with myself for having dealt with the situation on my own.



Where was the dog when all of this was going on, you ask? On the porch, of course, where she always is at this time of year, and completely oblivious to me screaming about the snake.




Maybe that was for the best--I'm not sure what she would have done with a snake...