We were once again on our way up in our mountain to enjoy our regular Sunday afternoon walk. The weather was magnificent today, with blue skies, a gentle breeze and a comfortable 70 degrees temperature. This was about as perfect weather as you can have, especially after the rain and dreariness we've been experiencing. (Everyone always says that if you don't like the weather in Kentucky, stick around and it will change!)
Like last Sunday, one of our goals was to check the walnut trees on our property. Like I've mentioned previously, walnuts are one of Lisa's favorites nuts. Last Sunday (after Simon's stings were feeling better) we gathered 5 or 6 walnuts from the trees near by; for some reason they have never borne many nuts. We found one good tree way out in the "back 40" last year. I'm afraid we might miss harvesting the walnuts because it is getting late in the year, and the tree that produced the most nuts is about as far up in the hollow as you can get. We do not get up there as often as we would like to, even though it is a beautiful part of our woods. It is within easy walking distance if you don't mind walking straight up a mountain for about a half-mile! We usually take the truck up to the head of the hollow and then walk from there.
We stopped the truck at what we call our "clearing" about half way up. This is a nice level area carved out of the mountain and would be a good house seat. Right now it is where some very good and plentiful blackberries grow in the summer and also where we have our annual Christmas fireworks.
We stopped here because from this point there is a trail that we named the "Paw Paw Trail" a few weeks ago because of all of the paw paws that were growing all around. (Some years we have been blessed with an abundance of paw paws but other years there don't seem to be any.) It looks like this year there will be a good harvest if we can get them at the right time, so we wanted to check on them before we got up to the walnut tree.
There is also a woodpile up there that we use for our fire at Christmas. The tarp had come partly off, so Matthew decided to cover the wood better. He lifted the old, blue tarp up a bit, and then dropped it again with a breathless gasp and got off the wood pile in a hurry!
"It's a snake! There's a snake under the tarp!" Matthew said this with a bit of urgency but not panic. We asked him what it looked like and he described a light and dark brown pattern with dots in between the dark spots. We have one common poisonous snake in eastern Kentucky and Matthew had just described it: a copperhead! (We also are supposed to have rattlesnakes around, but thankfully, we have never seen one.)
This was one of those afternoons that we had not thought to bring the pistol with us and we did not even bring any hoe or shovel with us. I went up to the wood pile and began to carefully look around and I saw the one Matthew saw and as I uncovered a couple of pieces of wood with my walking stick, I found some more of the same marked snakes! I couldn't be sure how many but I was sure this was actually a den of copperheads!
We sent Matthew back down to the house with the truck to get the .22 pistol, a hoe, a shovel, and our Peterson Field Guide of Reptiles and Amphibians. He is only 13 years old, but he handles that big old '79 Ford truck like he has had his license for years. I gave him his own key to that truck even before he turned 12 because he was doing so much work with it and had shown how responsible he was with it. (He of course does not drive it on the road; only around on our own property. Erica, our soon to be 15 year old, can also drive the truck with no problem. I would have no reservations at all allowing her out on the road if she could have a driver's license now. It will be a big help to us when she can drive legally!) Anyway, Matthew returned soon, and it was time for the Snake Slayers to go into action!
Peterson confirmed that we were definitely dealing with copperheads. We also read that they sometimes den up with other species of snakes as well. I want to kill copperheads, since they are poisonous, but I don't really want to kill snakes just to be killing them.
Matthew and I began carefully digging through the wood blocks with the hoe. There was a big pile of these sawmill blocks and slabs of wood so it was pretty difficult moving them around. We were disappointed at first because we were not finding the snakes and were getting pretty tired, and nervous. After all, we were standing on what may be a huge den of snakes and we could not see them!
Finally we uncovered a couple of snakes, but they were getting out of the way quickly. I tried to chop, but could not get a good strike at them because of the wood. I decided to shoot. Even though I could not see the head, the body was exposed, and I figured it would slow it down anyway. BANG! A direct hit through the body, but it did not seem to slow down any at all. It wound this way and that, and we were frantically overturning the wood to try to follow him. There was another snake near, too, and I awkwardly hit at it with the hoe and tried a shot at it but it seemed to get away! We were finally able to uncover the first one's head and I got a shot off that hit right behind it's ears! (Do snakes have ears?) I fished this big snake out so I could see the other one better. Lisa thought that this other snake that seemingly got away was bigger than the one I shot! I had hit it a couple of times with the hoe, so maybe it was wounded, and a bullet maybe grazed it, so I thought we would be able to find the thing. Surely it was just resting someplace near by. We overturned block after block and dug through the whole pile, but we never found that one.
We did overturn one block and found another copperhead! Actually it was Matthew again that found it! (Could this be a gift of his?) This one did not send us on a wild chase; it just stayed curled up there and looked at us! It was an adult, but not as big as the one we already got. They can strike, so I did not want to waste too much time. I just took aim and ... BANG! This bullet went right through it's head and also hit it in the body because of how it was curled up.
We searched through the pile for another 20 minutes or so but by this time it was starting to get too dark to see if a snake did jump out at us. I am sure there was at least one other snake that we were fighting. It either found an escape or else we just did not overturn the wood it was hiding under at the right time. I plan on making time to go up there again during the day sometime soon and remove the entire woodpile. I will be on guard, for sure, and hopefully I will be able to eliminate any remaining snakes, as well as clean up our woodpile.
One thing I don't want in Pure Water Hollow is a poisonous snake! There are now at least two fewer that we have to worry about. By the way, one of the snakes measured 35 inches long and the other one was 24 inches long! Peterson says that copperheads range from 24 to 36 inches long with a record one being 53 inches long! Who knows how long the one that got away is! My role as Snake Slayer will not be over until I am confident that they have all been eliminated!
We did take some pictures of them, even though it was now dark.
I wish to end this post with a prayer of thanksgiving.
"Dear Lord, thank you for keeping that snake from striking at Matthew when he uncovered the first one. He was right there on top of the pile and he could have been bitten, perhaps by several snakes. Thank you for putting your hand of protection over him. Thank you also for keeping me safe, and for allowing the outcome to be a positive one. Help us to clean up the woodpile and get rid of any other snakes that may endanger us in the future. Thank you most of all for your son Jesus, who is the real Snake slayer! In Jesus name, amen."
3 comments
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Morning Sunshine on October 2, 2006 at 9:39 am
now, walnuts are something I DO know about: my mom has a huge black walnut tree, and we are annually cleaning that up!
first, ours do not ripen and fall until Thanksgiving. Dad says there has to be a frost before they will turn black. we get our first frost long before then, and they hang onto the tree, all shriveled and black, but they do not fall in bulk until after thanksgiving.
also, it took 20 -odd years before the tree actually started to produce fruit. I don't know how old your trees are – I would imagine a lot older than that, but…
that is our experience with walnuts.
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Jessica on October 2, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Uncle Eric, you are kind of scaring me with all the say of yellow jackets and copperheads! I hope we have a wonderful time when we come to your house! I am so glad you and Matt are safe! I am praying for you, and tell the kids hi for me! Have a great day!
Love,
Jessica
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Purewater on October 4, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Hello Jessica! Thanks for visiting the blog. We sort of live in the wild but it is a good, safe place, overall. Nothing to worry about, much. There are black bears and bobcats occasionally reported to be around, but we have never seen any animals like that! And we hadn't seen a copperhead in about 10 years before last Sunday, so hopefully they are not very plentiful. We are looking forward to you all visiting next week if you are able to! Tell everyone "hi" for us.
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