Little Black Snake in my Bedroom

More snake-ness!!! love it.




Anddddd, Frank Zappa's Baby Snakes song....
LOL


XoxoxoXO

Grey Snake

MORE Snakkesss! Yesssss!
This is so cool. It's like a snake-a-thon out here the last two days. And all friendly snakes too, i think maybe it's a sign. Of what? I dont know.... but i could make up a buncha silly stuff it could mean.... and i am going to right now....
like :::

• Dont judge a snake just cause its a snake, look closely at it's nature/attitude
• I can find bunches of cool shit on my own (no need to lament aloneness making it harder to find bad ass stuff in nature.)
  
• sometimes you get what you wish for, especially if it is obscure and easy to deliver, like seeing snakes or lunar moths
• and if i think hard with my hippy mind.... i am SURE it means my kundilini is a' risen' (and i want to note here that spell check wanted to change "Kundilini" to "cunnilingus".)
  
• According to my "Animal Speaks" book.... it means Rebirth. That the snake represents swift fast changes and shifts, and healing... AKA, phoenix rising from the ash in fast forward! that is me!
  

YAY!
Is this a garter snake? I can't remember.
I love him regardless of his name though.
XOxXO

Brown Snake in the Barn

YAY! today i saw two more snakes when i went to put hay out for JuJu the donkey. Just when i was feeling sad about not seeing enough snakes, now three in 24 hours! I found this one slithering around the barn (the other one was too fast for me to take pictures of. Neither was as cute as the Ring Necked Snake, which totally has a smile.) :))
This snake was scared of me, wasn't too aggressive... but i could tell it was very willing to get aggressive if need be. I have seen copperheads who are much more shy then this little guy.
Various shades of brown, with a tan belly... and a pattern that really looks like we could play checkers on it. And those orange eyes!

Does anyone know the scientific name for this snake?
XoxooxOX

Little Friendly Snake (Ring Necked)

YAY! I havent seen a snake in forever. In fact, i was feeling a bit sad about the fact that there seemed to be no snakes around the Luck Cabin at all in spite of all the water & wilderness... i am not used to a snakelessness existence. I used to live in a house so full of snakes, it woulda made Indiana Jones's skin crawl (on the sofa, under the fax machine, on the kitchen counter, swinging from the front porch, hanging over the bed board!)

My cat Toots brought this little cute snake into my bedroom. I knew he was not poisonous, so i scooped him up and got a closer look at the cute little face... the slithering tongue, and made a friend.
A yellow belly, and grey skin.... and small yellow ring around it's neck - which give it it's simple namesake as the "ring neck snake". (makes it easy to remember that it doesnt pose a threat, they rarely bite.)
I have only seen really tiny ones, this one was actually the longest one i have ever held.
:)))) I like how its tail end curls and wiggles.
(of course, i spared this snake from my cat, and put it near a log pile outside to hide.)
XOxoXOOX

Animal Tracking: Itty Bitty Birdie Feet & Mystery Trail

Tiny bird tracks! Aren't they cute? There is a perfect area a little ways behind the Luck Cabin that is all muddy, mushy and bog like - many creeks branch and converge in this area making it a tiny wetland that attracts alot of animals & birds. The cool part is they all leave perfectly shaped tracks in the smooth wet silt.
This second track looks more like a slither... but I am not certain that it is a snake trail? The slither track is coming up out the water of the creek, in a spot that is shallow and slow moving.

What do you think it is? Can anyone give a positive ID on this meandering track...
Xoxox

Slitherin' Mania: Copperhead, Black Snake, and 6 ft Snake Skin

The snakes are back! Yesterday I was in Big Sandy Mush... me and Bort were talking about how we had not seen any snakes yet this year, which I guess summoned them from the depths cause not an hour later we had a snake fest.The first snake spotted was a copperhead under some thorny blackberry bushes on a concrete path that leads up to the Silo. It was sitting all coiled up and very alert. I did not feel as though the snake was at ease and I kept a good distance and left it alone. The eyes on this one actually look like they are made of metallic copper colored material - which is probably why Bort was utterly 'creeped out'- (understatement on his reaction to copperheads).
We also stumbled upon a large black snake warming itself in the woods on top my favorite tree. It had some unusual markings on it's side that we didn't know was from a fight/injury or if it was getting ready to shed it's skin... it slithered down the tree trunk and literally did a disappearing act (hole in the ground, hide under the bark, hole in the tree???) It slithered into the oblivion.
When Bort tried to show me another black snake that lives in his well house it wasn't in sight, but the skin it shed was hanging from the rafters and I pulled it down. It was split in two pieces (in the middle of the belly it had broke), but Bort held it together and the snake is about 6 feet LONG!
Not only that but the skin was fresh and new enough to have the head totally in tact! How cool is this??! Even the eyeball skin is on there!
I got to keep this snake skin and brought it home. It smells gross like an old fish, but I can't stop myself from loving it.
Xoxoxo'ssssssss

Small Grey Snake

I did not expect to see a snake in mid November! Usually they are hiding away from the cold, but it just has not been cold the last few weeks- and after more of days rain this snake came out into the morning sun to heat up his cold blooded body. It was a rather small snake and very well camoflauged into it's surroundings- so well in fact that i had no idea i was sitting about 8 inches from it, while i was scraping some sap off the bottom of a pine tree.
Look in the pic below and see if you can spot it?
It's scales were mainly a grey color but there were tan bits and a tan belly. It was highly alert about me being there, it's tongue never came out, it didn't move and it took one breathe to my every 5. Watching it breathe made me forget about everything in my life I think is important, the movement was mesmerizing & beautiful.
Does anyone know what kind of snake this is? It seems rather common here, especially near creeks and spring water.
XoXo