Weekend visitors

Over the past 36 hours, we have found two little friends around our house. These little friends are not the kind of friends that are invited, but their appearance would make you think we live in West Texas.

On Saturday morning, Jen noticed a little snake coiled up in the corner of our garage, near the garage door. She came inside and asked me I if I had seen it, which I had not. I went and peeked at the snake, but didn't have much thought as to what to do. I knew we wanted it out of the garage, but my snake experience is quite limited. I continued working for a few minutes on the computer and Jen returned to ask me if I noticed that the snakes head was now moving. That was my cue to figure something out. So, I decided to grab a shop broom and shoo the snake out. By this time the snake was slowly starting to move, so I went ahead and swept the snake out of the garage. The snake skidded to a stop a few feet down the driveway. The snake looked a little dazed and was flapping his tongue in and out of his mouth like snakes often do. I took another swipe at it with the broom and the snake went a few more feed down the driveway. Jen came outside and took a closer look at the snake. The snake's head was up in the "strike quickly" position and his tail was rattling. So, on closer inspection, we had a little rattlesnake in our driveway. And we thought we were living in an urbanized city, 15th largest in the nation. Jen, who has more snake experience than I, suggested two options. One, shoot the snake with a gun loaded with snake shot. Or two, and the more practical option, take a shovel to the snake and take it's head off. Of course, we don't have a large shovel. Jen ran across the street to ask a neighbor for a shovel. The snake started to slither onto the grass next to the driveway. It was heading for a tree bed that is full of lantana, which is dense, leafy vegetation. I took a few whaps at the snake with the broom, but it went into the tree bed and disappeared. At this time, Jen returned with the shovel, but I couldn't even see the snake. I took a few more whaps at the lantana with the shovel, but nothing. I then sprayed the tree bed with a high pressure water hose, but again nothing. So we have a squatter on our property.

Then on Sunday evening, I was casually walking by our piano and looked down to see another visitor--a scorpion. Although I don't have much scorpion experience, similar to my lack of snake experience, I did know exactally what to do. Step on it. So that is what I did. The scorpion was about 2-3 inches long, and was easily squashed. The last time we had a run in with a scoprion, Jen was pregnant with Allie and we were alseep in San Angelo, Texas.

So, there you have it. Two univited guest, one of which is still roaming around our grounds and the other who is on the way to the county trash dump.