Snakes!

I hate snakes. I hate the way they move. I hate the way they feel. I hate everything about them. Many of my childhood nightmares were about snakes. My mother tells me that as a toddler I would see a snake and scream. I am chagrined to say that I do not think I have outgrown that reaction.

When I first moved to Willamina I was excited to create some order in the flower beds and create some beauty around me. I had always enjoyed gardening. I went out one spring morning and began digging and weeding. As I rooted in the ground with my bare hands I felt something that felt odd ... kind of squishy. So I stuck both hands in and pulled it up .... a writhing, seething mass of snakes. I remembering shrieking and trying desperately to get them off me .... it only got worse when I tossed them in the air because  ..... it began to rain snakes. Raining snakes is bad ... really, really bad. By that time all the neighbors were pouring out of their houses because they thought there was an axe murderer after me. I remember I could hardly get a coherent word out of my mouth as I tried to explain what had happened.

So, over the years I have been here in Willamina I have learned a few things. I have learned to never garden without gloves on, to make lots of noise and to cede certain areas to the snakes. The problem is that their territory seems to be growing and mine seems to be shrinking. I ceded a flower bed just this afternoon to a very fat garter snake who refused to move on. I think he probably heard that snakes had an easy life here.

Where is a mongoose when you really want one? I haaaaaaate snakes!

Just Connie