Poisonous Snake vs Big Mower, snake loses.

Yesterday I was mowing knee-high tall grass on the far side of our pond and behind the bee hives. Look at what I ran over. The grass was so tall, I did not know it was there, and I had been walking around looking for big rocks and tree branches before mowing - glad I didn't go too close to the bee hives. And good thing I always wear 10" high leather boots when working on the farm. I was driving fast as I mowed around the bee hives to avoid agitating them. I thought I had run over a stick because of the sound of the blade hitting something.

 On my next pass around this area I saw a big black thing slightly moving on the border of the tall and short grass, midway between the two hives. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but instead called for K2 to bring a shovel from the barn in case I needed to cut it's head off. No need. Apparently it must have raised it's head just before the blade swept over him and chopped it right off. We examined its head and could clearly see the "cotton" sacks in its mouth and it had wicked long fangs (although slightly bent). A big guy at over 3 feet long. Chucked it over the fence onto the dirt road - it was gone this morning, so some scavenger had a meal. K7 can be seen in the background carrying water for the recently planted pecan trees.

We are located right at the northern edge of its range. Just think, if we had bought a farm a few hundred miles further north...or maybe on the east coast. The good news is that our snake was a Western Cottonmouth, which are small at 3 feet compared to the Eastern Cottonmouth who reach 6 feet. 

I normally keep the grass shorter in the orchard and around the pond, but it didn't get done while I was gone the past 3 weeks in England and Oklahoma. Its happening now. We get all the big rocks out of here this week, and should be able to use the riding mower for most of it. 

You would think that after seeing the big bad poisonous snake just before this picture, that "Joe Cool" would have put on his leather work boots to complete his ensemble. No, he is more worried about a snake dropping on his head!