No snakes!!!! No, thank you!!

[Kathie in Thorp]

SNAKES!!! Have I told you before how much I DO NOT LIKE snakes? Went to bring the pups in from their outside kennel a few minutes ago . . . along the walk, a 3 ft. snake. LARRY, GET OUT HERE AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE, RIGHT NOW!!!!! He said, "good snake, bull snake, eats mice and rattlers. . . . . Oh, and look -- here's another one!" ANOTHER F'N SNAKE??? WHAT IS IT? Same, he says -- good snake -- that one about 2 ft. FINE, says me. Get them out of here. Move 'em. "And honey, if I see another one when you're not here to decide if it's good snake or bad snake, they are all bad snakes to me. Good snake is a dead one." I'm not going to vet it; it's gone.

 

[Nesikep]

I'll take your snakes if you take my @#$#$@ crickets! We don't have any bad snakes around here, and I don't mind the garter and king snakes. Have seen some lizards and salamanders as well

 

[branguscowgirl]

Let me say, I do not like snakes in my space either.
However, they do a good job of eating mice and rattle snakes. So I live with them. I don't bother the good ones, though I do relocate them if I have baby chicks. Otherwise they keep the mice down around the feed in the chicken yard. Seems that they do have a purpose.
We don't have all the nasty varieties like some of you have. Only Rattlers. And I can identify those.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I'll take your snakes if you take my @#$#$@ crickets! We don't have any bad snakes around here, and I don't mind the garter and king snakes. Have seen some lizards and salamanders as well

Hey, Nesi, get yourself some guinnea fowl for bugs. No joke! We don't have breeding pairs, but just 4 of THE BOYS. They wander all over our place, to the neighbors' 1/4 mile away, and never bother plants. They only want bugs. When we got them, we figured they'd nest in the trees. Yeah, they will . . . . but they figured out in a couple days that spending the night in the chicken coop was way better than being out in the cold and snow. They do not bother our hens at all. But they are fun to watch -- make lots of racket if someone drives in or out, but are not aggressive. They get up on the roofs, in the trees, all over the neighborhood. But come home every night to the coop. We don't let our chickens free range because we have both air and ground predators, but The Boys hold their own.

 

[Nesikep]

With that racket they'll end up in the stewpot too! Thankfully it seems that cricket has left the flourescent lights today. Our neighbor across the river has peacocks... I hear them every morning and evening.. pretty to look at but what a noise! I heard guinea fowl hens are horrid mothers.

We have dusky grouse around here.. nice and quiet, and they walk through the garden beds and eat the bugs, don't touch plants either. Once in a while we see the mother hen with the little ones in tow.. they're about due at this time of year now.

 

[Jalopy]

NESI is it common to have crickets this time of the year in your area? We get them later in the summer here, at least that is when the most noise is made. Maybe that is just when they are mating.

 

[Rafter S]

Hey, Nesi, get yourself some guinnea fowl for bugs. No joke! We don't have breeding pairs, but just 4 of THE BOYS. They do not bother our hens at all.

I'm surprised to hear that. I had guineas years ago, and the males worried my chicken hens so bad (trying to be "friendly") that the hens stopped laying eggs.

 

[Nesikep]

Jalopy, we have them from beginning of may through september.

 

[Ryder]

SNAKES!!! Have I told you before how much I DO NOT LIKE snakes? they are all bad snakes to me. Good snake is a dead one." I'm not going to vet it; it's gone.

Kathie you are exactly right.
I started to say that the only good snake is a dead snake. Then I thought again and realized that I don't like the dead ones either. But at least they are not alive.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

We were over your way a couple weekends ago poking around the river looking for morels when my heeler took off and started pawing around the base of this willow scrub. I called her off but she ran right back, it was a light brown (creamy) colored snake about 30 inches long. Freaked me out!! I hate snakes.

I told my wife while driving from Cle Elum to Thorp "Keep yor eyes peeled for some British Whites"

A couple real nice mules on the corner where we turned to cross I-90 to get to the river.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

We were over your way a couple weekends ago poking around the river looking for morels when my heeler took off and started pawing around the base of this willow scrub. I called her off but she ran right back, it was a light brown (creamy) colored snake about 30 inches long. Freaked me out!! I hate snakes.

I told my wife while driving from Cle Elum to Thorp "Keep yor eyes peeled for some British Whites"

A couple real nice mules on the corner where we turned to cross I-90 to get to the river.

Named 'em, you can't see ours from the freeway. If you came down Hwy. 10 from Cle Elum, you'd get close to us. Up on 10, Bristol Flats area (that nice stretch of green, just east of where Taylor Bridge Fire started) there are folks that have White Galloway cross. I don't think they've kept a purebred bull in years, but that color keeps showing up year after year in their calves. LMK sometime when you're coming through.

Nesi, I know what you mean about the peacocks -- neighbor in ID had them; they were horrid to listen to and they never shut up! The guinea boys chatter when someone drives in, or sometimes chatter at the cattle or some other critter they see around, but they are not obnoxiously or constantly making noise. And we've had no issues whatsoever with them sharing roosting space with our egg layers. I will petition to NOT keep guinea fowl hens, but I don't think hubby is actually all hot and bothered to do that.

 

[melking]

One of my neighbors lost his dog, a beagle, to a rattlesnake bite last week. It sucked, Buddy was a good dog.

 

[melking]

We have some big lizards here too. They do not seem to eat crickets

 

[branguscowgirl]

Dang Mel! I don't know how I would handle having those "big lizards" in my back yard!!! :shock: Now that would be scary!

My sister just stuck her hand in a potting soil bag with a snake in it. It nearly gave her a heart attack!!
I told her Rule #1. Never stick your hand where you cant see! :lol: