Don't Tread on Me!

As if coming home to a snake wasn't a bad enough omen, it had to be a black one. I came home Sunday from doing a ward audit and find stretched out in all its glory, a black snake just outside our front door, underneath our front window. Its tail was barely touching our steps and its head was pointed away from them. It was a bigger snake than I had seen in a while, I think that is what shocked me the most, to have that big of a snake near our house.

It looked like a bigger version of the snake that Christy had fall on her when we first moved to the area and were moving our stuff into her parents basement. Who'd have thought that a real snake would fall on you from the ceiling inside of a home?! It was in her parents backroom and they didn't have sheetrock on the ceiling, so the snake must've been on top of a pipe or something that was along the floor studs. She screamed when it fell on her...then thinking it couldn't be real and must've been rubber she calmed down slightly, until it slithered away. Her dad and I then tried to capture it, then when that failed, we killed it.

So back to our snake. I thought that I'd have at least a minute to come inside and put my scriptures and papers down that were in my hands. As I hurried back outside, thinking at best it might have moved a foot or so, or not at all, I was somewhat alarmed when I couldn't find it anywhere! My mind raced as to where could a snake that big go to in such a short amount of time? Then I thought of the spaces in the concrete of our stairs outside that would allow a gopher, mouse, or rabbit to burrow under our stairs...and how I'd never seen any gophers, mice, nor rabbits going in and out of those spaces.

This isn't good, I thought. That's the last thing I want is to have a snake in our house. After looking in the bushes and around our house for a few minutes, I hurried inside to do my googling about black snakes in Maryland. Black rat snake, non-poisonous, good climbers, sometimes can find their skin in trees, eats birds, small animals, can burrow in wood piles, mulch, sometimes (rarely) found in peoples ATTICS OR BASEMENTS!!!!

I wouldn't say I'm terrified of snakes. I mean I was ready to get a long stick and somehow maneuver this thing on it and throw it deep in the woods behind our house. However the thought of this thing being in our basement or living under our stairs outside creeps me out. I find myself going into our laundry room which the outside steps connect to, and looking up at our unfinished cieling for a snake that is waiting to drop on me. I keep thinking of what a pansy I have become...or have I always been a pansy? Either way it frustrates me.

So my solution was to go get some dirt and cover up all of the open holes that surround our concrete steps outside and check around it everyday for signs of movement or burrowing. My only hesitation in doing that was that I might trap the snake under the steps and it would find an escape to our laundry room. But the thought of never knowing if anything lived under our steps drove me to my solution. We did have a mouse in our mousetrap downstairs in the laundry room a few weeks ago, that is a good sign. If there's mice in our basement, probably no snakes. Of course I think if there are mice, a snake would have a reason to come inside... I can justify either situation.

Well in looking up black snakes in Maryland on google, somehow it led me to this video which I had seen before, but it was such a relief from the worry of snake hunting that I kept laughing and laughing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUT9eQ90EvM

which led me to one other video that had me going...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0eINGyJHz8&feature=PlayList&p=7269120F5CA72C18&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=7