Good snakes vs bad snakes~

Aren't you glad not all snakes are venomous? I sure am, especially this morning. One of the other gate guard blogs mentioned a couple of days ago that the blogs will be full of snake sightings at this time of year down here in Texas. Truthfully, I was sort of hoping my blog would be the exception. I really didn't WANT to see any snakes, more specifically, rattlesnakes. And I haven't—at least not yet.

However, this morning I was startled to see a humongous, five-to-six-foot-long, bluish-black snake slithering away from me about 18 inches in front of my feet as I opened the gate. Now I am not panic stricken by snakes, but this was most definitely a surprise. Suffice it to say it got my heart rate up a bit!

Fortunately for me, I was opening the gate to a fellow from C R Keck Construction who was well versed in his knowledge of Texas snakes. He hopped out of his truck as he saw me jump and gesture toward my feet—he probably assumed I had seen a rattlesnake and was quite concerned. As soon as he saw the snake though, he asked me to please not kill it. Hmmm, killing this snake was not exactly on my mind at that moment. Staying away from it was! Anyway, he proceeded to explain that the indigo snake is good because it eats rattlesnakes. At that point, I was ready to keep it for a pet...well, not really, but I was happy to hear we have a protector nearby. Maybe I should name him~

We both ran for our cameras to snap some shots of this beautiful snake. I was surprised to see how quickly it moves, but I did get some good pictures. Of course they would have been better had I had my camera when it was down by my feet, but I am not sure I would have stopped to take pictures at that moment anyway! Did you notice I said it was a beautiful snake? Even rattlesnakes are beautiful. As much as I don't want to get bitten by a rattlesnake, I would hate to kill it. Now if the indigo snake wants to eat one for lunch, that's ok by me.

If I see him again, knowing myself, I will probably try to get up close and personal to see him a bit better. He won't bite, and even if he did, I would bear no long-term damage. I am fascinated by animals, insects, birds, etc. Always have been. I was the little girl who collected grasshoppers, worms, etc. and wasn't frightened when my brother tried to scare me with a spider.

Changing the subject, we have had a couple other cool things lately too. I saw a gorgeous white-tailed deer across the road the other day. He wasn't at all happy he was fenced in, and I can't say I blame him. We had a helicopter flying overhead for several hours yesterday, and I am pretty sure it was the landowner getting a good view of his deer herd. They went right over my head a couple of times and even waved at me.They couldn't have been more than 25-30 feet in the air.

Well that's it for now. Signing off at 1 week, 1 day, 19 hours and 25 minutes to go here on the La Corona Ranch.

One week, six days, 10 hours~

...until we are finished with gate guarding, at least for the time being. Unless something changes we intend on coming back in early fall, but I have to admit, it will be nice moving on for now. We have been at this gate for the past three months, and that means we haven't been in the car together for that same amount of time. It is a bit monotonous now, and we are ready to move on. Talk about "hitch itch"—we both have it bad!

We have had several instances in the past couple of weeks where we were aware of illegal activity in our area. The Border Patrol has told us of some major "bail outs" just up the road. Apparently the guys back on the oil pads have had some "visitations" they weren't expecting. Thankfully, we haven't seen hide nor hair of anyone at our gate though, and we hope it stays that way. Neither one of us is the least bit interested in meeting any south-of-the-boarder folks that have entered the U.S. illegally. No thanks!

I was able to finish copyediting the manuscript on time and mailed the USB drive back to the publisher. I had such a great time with it, and I am looking forward to the next one. I am not exactly sure when that will happen. I told him I couldn't do any copyediting between April 5th and 22nd, as that is when we will be seeing our kids and grandkids. I am not going to let anything interrupt the little bit of time we have to spend with them.

Spring has definitely sprung here in south Texas. Although they are weeds, we have some very pretty flowers all around us. Of course we understand some of the guys have already killed a six-foot rattlesnake too. Kinda hoping we don't see one of those either. Here are a couple of the flowers:

Pretty aren't they?

You would think I would have more to say since I haven't updated our blog for over two weeks. Hmmm, I guess that speaks to the monotony doesn't it. Don't get me wrong—I'm not bored. I have been able to read several awesome books. So long as I have books, I won't ever be bored. But there just isn't much going on, so I guess that's it for now.