Country Living Update

Living in the country is an adventure!! Yesterday, on my "way to town", I passed a blue jay, a cardinal, a turtle, two cats playing, umpteen horses, cows, and of course my goat neighbors! That's right- loving the drive! However, we are just learning how to cope with predators out here! Not the scary alien kind from the movies, but the creepy crawly kind like foxes, racoons, and SNAKES!!!!! UGH!! Just to set the story- I am nature woman! I love all things nature. We keep an aquarium in our school room just in case we find something interesting that we want to "observe". We were thrilled to come out this morning to "Lance", our new turtle friend in our garden. BUT, all that said, I ABHOR SNAKES!!!!!!! During chore time this afternoon, I sent Bennett out to gather the eggs. He went into the chicken house looked all around for eggs, and found a few WITH A SNAKE COILED UP ON TOP OF THEM!!!!! I am so glad he didn't reach down for them without looking more closely. Turns out it was just a black Rat snake (4 ft long!!)- a good snake to have unless it is EATING your chicken eggs!!! So, goodbye snake! I think I will start notching the hoe for every snake that Roger has to kill- a trophy of sorts!!! Oh yeah, and did I mention that we have lost 10 chickens to a fox! Oh, the joy of country living!!! BEWARE- THERE IS A PICTURE BELOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!