Another rattlesnake

7/3/09 Friday


I found another rattlesnake in the corn. This one was a little bigger than the other. I was going through the rows pulling weeds and putting out fertilizer, bent over with my head below the tops of the corn. Just as I reached to grab a weed I saw it. The snake was all curled up and not moving. That’s the way they hunt, sitting still waiting for a gopher or whatever to come wandering by. My hand was only about twenty four inches away and heading in it’s direction when I noticed it. So I backed out carefully and got my hoe and finished the critter off. This tells me that the corn is a good place for them to find gophers and rats. Still I hate to kill them but that’s how it has to be.



Here's the "after" part of a before and after picture. The before is the first picture on yesterday's post.

I hurt pretty bad this morning. Had a hard time setting up from bed. A lot of that has to do with pulling so many big honker weeds yesterday. Some of them had roots as big around as my wrist and took a lot of effort to get out of the ground. I’ve been having an increasing amount of pain in the joints of my fingers over the past few months. They are swelling and it’s hard to close my hands all the way. It sounds like arthritis. My grandmother had arthritis pretty bad. Through my life these hands have been through a lot so I’m sure that contributes to it. Hell, there was a time I could break two by fours with my fist. You can be sure that didn’t help. We’re going to buy some stuff called glucosamine at the health store and I’ll start taking it regular. It’s supposed to help the joints a lot. Suppose I should go online and research it, looking for ways to slow down any decay or whatever it is. I plan on working these hands hard for as long as I can. They get weak easy also and holding the hoe gets hard.




I fired up the tractor and used it to pull the Yucca plants up. That’s a lot easier than spending hours digging like I was doing. I soaked the ground real good to help them pull up. Don’t know if they’ll survive transplanting but I’ll give it a try. I’ve been weeding the corn patch till I ran into the snake so switched to landscaping stuff. There’s just so much to do that no matter what I’m working on something is neglected. Hard to believe it’s already 2:00 now. It’s a poop scooping day so I have to go into Midland. Janie told Cherie she would like some help from both of us but we don’t have a clue when that would be. Cherie just went in to do some laundry. I’ll wash some of my work clothes later today too when I go to poop scoop.

That’s it for now. I should take my nap but have too much to do. As long as I stay busy I’m fine but when I sit at this computer or lay down it catches up to me quick. Whenever I lay down my whole body stiffens up so I walk like an old man when I get up till things loosen up. I think I’ll take some aspirin and see if it helps the fingers.