Snakes and Such

6/13/07 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. We knew that with the drought breaking around here, that the snakes would likely be out in force this year. There certainly has been a lot more of them, though, thus far, it really hasn't been that bad. I've killed two rattlesnakes in 3 days though. Yesterday I killed a rattlesnake about 20 feet west of Josie's cabin. Unhappily, we may have had some other "visitations". Two days ago, one of our cats (Belle) showed up with her face swollen up about twice the normal size. She looked like she had been beaten with a crow bar. Who knows what happened, and she has survived and is getting better, but I put it at 55% probability that she had a run-in with some type of snake. And worse news... we had received a beautiful milk goat from Tabletophomestead a couple of weeks ago that the children had named "Cocoa". We had her tethered out in some tall weeds and brush to thin it out, and when the children went to go check her water yesterday, she had collapsed. We weren't sure if maybe she ate something poisonous, or maybe had been bitten by a snake. The children nursed her all day and kept her cool, but she died yesterday afternoon. Still don't know the cause of death, but again it was likely either something poisonous that she ate, or a snake bite.

Yes, we are all trying to be careful.

And today our an old faithful hen we have had for probably 5 years (a she-hen named Stonewall of all things) died. She was a good chicken, gave us lots of eggs and offspring, and was the tamest chicken we ever owned.

Likely supposed to rain this weekend. We could use it.

I remain your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker