Just briefly, I’ll re-visit the frustrations of breaking/then learning about & then repairing shear bolts on tractor apparatuses (sp?)……………………sigh…

So, I did all that.

My axle-grease-stained cuticles attest to it.

Then I hooked up the bush hog to the tractor.

 

Then I “carefully” used the clutch to engage the *&%#%$&##&%* hog-thing.

(For professing to be so delicate, it sure does make a lot of thumping and clanking on its own!)

And then I mowed…

And I mowed…

And I mowed some more…

And after two days of mowing………………..I called the job done…

Other people could have been more thorough and the job could have been more pristine……………………………….but, I called it done…

Anything above knee-height that I could reach or back into was cut down……………..and a couple of smallish logs……………….but no wire this time (phew).

So……………………………yesterday, I finally finished…

And here comes the segue to the post’s title………………

And then, in a mere matter of a couple hours, my ENTIRE breeding program of Irish Wolfhounds have a whopping huge snake cornered on the back porch…………………(you know, the one right by the newly mowed expanses).

AND…………….it looks a lot like a whopping huge moccasin!

AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

I know I’ve said this before………….but the Florida Water snake’s (non-poisonous) big defense is to look similar to the Florida Water Moccasin (poisonous).

The only way you can tell is:

A:  Flip it over and see if it’s under-belly is orange-ish.  If it is orange-ish then it probably isn’t a poisonous moccasin………………….(not happening).

 

B:  Get really close (right there…………not happening)………….and see if its pupils are round (not poisonous) or vertical slits (poisonous)…………………..yep, not happening at all.

 

 

C:  OR…………..at a semi-close distance, in a non-agitated-state (the snake’s or mine?), check to see if the head is diamond shaped or less-diamond shaped………………..(compared to what?  The other baker’s dozen of snakes it’s lined up next to?  What!??!)

Apparently if the Florida Water snake is riled up, it even puffs out something on the sides of its head to even look MORE like a poisonous moccasin.

What is it with these stupid water snakes?………………….get your own life!!!………………….Because I’m about to dispatch this one quickly!!!

**********So all of this is happening at once…………..

Six Wolfhounds, one Jack Russell (there’s always a terrier in the mix) and an old housewife (on the phone) running after this snake who’s slithering just as fast as he can, along the porch foundation.

(With one good eye & one blind eye) I “think” I see a normal-shaped snake head (But he’s agitated, right?  Who wouldn’t be running/slithering for your life from a passel of hounds and an old, one-eyed housewife?) before he ducks under the cement foundation into a timely hole (which the Wolfhounds had previously dug).

 

And there you have it.

It’s the dawning of just another day at the oasis.

 

There’s a maybe poisonous/maybe not poisonous snake living under the house, the Wolfhounds and Jack Russell have to be closely monitored whenever they go outside to pee, so they don’t get their snouts bitten……………………………

But the &%$%#$%#$ grass is mowed and the shear bolt is still un-sheared.

And another day begins.