Snake Wranglin'

OK, OK, so I know I've been lax with blogging lately (thanks for reminding me, Nellie!)  We are really enjoying living at The Ranch full-time.  So much so that I've had little desire to sit down and blog.  That's not to say there hasn't been a lot going on out here, however.  For example, we've had the stranded bird in the chimney that required a complete tear-down from the inside and a successful extraction of a grateful bird; mice hockey in the house in the middle of the night courtesy of the cat door (twice) before we wised up and closed the door at night; the neighbor losing ten of his chickens to a hungry bear; and, the wildfire started by lightening that was just over the mountain from us in our neighbors' backyard.  Yes, indeed, there has been a lot going on in the country lately.  And we have loved every minute of it!

Call us crazy, but even seeing this guy/gal didn't spoil our country high...

Neither of us are afraid of snakes, and we appreciate them for their place in the ecosystem, but when they get too close to the house or the chickens, we (translated "Neal") must intervene.

Unfortunately, we do not have a proper snake catch-pole like Linda at 7MSN, so Neal had to improvise with a paint roller pole that was lacking in the "catch" part.

Several attempts to wrangle the rattler ended up with one pissed off snake curled around the many branches of a currant bush and one frustrated Neal.  I, of course, was standing on the sidelines, taking pictures and giggling at the comical side of it all.  So many people we know would have either done nothing or immediately disposed of the snake in a not-very-nice fashion.  Here we were trying to save the dang snake's life by relocating him to a spot far enough away that he didn't cause harm to us or our critters.

Trying to get an angry, writhing rattlesnake to cooperate by attaching his body just-so to the catch pole is no easy task, I tell ya.  Neal had done this a time or two before on our property, but he swore the preceding rattlers were more cooperative.  This one, apparently, had a bone to pick and refused to be moved for what seemed like an eternity.  Then, finally, the dance between man and beast ended...

Neal and the rattler took a little walk far, far away from our house, the rattler claimed a new piece of real estate, and all was right with the world again.  Now, you understand why I've had little time to dedicate to blogging lately.  Too much activity going on at The Ranch.  Livin' the dream.

The End.