snakes 0 us 5

Bow is currently 'swiffering' my carpet. I usually stop him when he gets a broom or such. But I am just so glad to have him on the floor that I am allowing him his fun.

He woke up at 1am yesterday morning, and puked. in my bed.

He has a fever. after he quit puking, and I had gotten his fever down I finally got him to sleep. I was sitting here, had done up the laundry that he messed up, cleaned up the floor, and fed him some fruit cocktail. Anyway, I was sitting here, and was trying to decide if I could catch a quick nap before it was time to get the big kids up for school. About the time I decide to try it, I could hear my alarm going off. Its set a few minutes early for the snooze effect. He has literly been in my lap for 34 hours. Twice I got him down. The first time he went to sleep, and I was able to get the kids up and going and then BR held him while I cooked supper last night, but other than that he hasnt gotten up. He is a laplander anyway, but whe he feels bad, he is REALLY clingy.

I would get him to sleep, but inevitably I would have to go potty. And when I did put him down he would wake up and cry.

Anyway, thats been my last 2 days.

earlier in the week I sent the boys out to practice pitching. They went out and said they kept smelling something. Finally they looked. In their backstop, which is made of deer netting, was a snake. It was about 3 feet long. Just a chicken snake, but it had tangled itself up in there.

A few days later, we were out working on the boar pen, Wilbur is starting to get old enough to fiqure out he is a boy, and we need to seperate them, and kept smelling something dead. this is a different smell than the soured corn that usually perments from the hog pen. Brett got to looking. Sure enough, there was a 4 foot snake. we fiqure it was a chicken snake, but it was closer to decomposed than to identifiable. We fiqure the dogs killed this one. no other explination is plausable.

So counting the spreading adder and the copperhead, plus the small one in the netting, thats 4 snakes, in a short period of time, that we have killed or have been killed. not a good record when you concider we have lived up here for 4 years and never seen a snake, except the 2 hognose snakes the boys got down in the back of the pasture.

That was on Saturday. We built our fence, and got it done. Now we just have to build the gate.

Sunday we went over and helped my father in law start his fence for his mule. I told you about that right? He called me, said he was buying a mule, needed a round pen, trailer and such? Cause he didnt have a way to haul it or place to put it. He has a pasture for his horses, BUT, the mule is onery, and if you let him go on a few acres you will never see him again.

Anyway, off we went to build that. Bow had a blast he thinks anytime the tractor is running its a great day.

He helped his dad drive for a little while, And Brett got to run the bucket while we loaded stuff into it. He did pretty good.

We only got half the posts put in the ground. He is using pipe, and although we had been asked to come over and do it a week before, nothing was ready for us to get started. The pipe wasnt cut, the string wasnt pulled, nothing was measured. heck, the pipe wasnt even pulled up to where we were putting it in. Instead we got to go on an easter egg hunt for it, in the overgrown weeds and poisen Ivy. Since I couldnt pick it up, they had to. and now BR has poisen ivy on him.

when we got home we were messing around outside, and found ANOTHER snake. this one was in the backstop too. but it was closer to 5 foot long. You couldnt even pull it out. BR told Brett to cut it out and so he did, then brought it down to the pigs. Rayley got mad because noone would let her bring it down.

I just wonder, since we have killed 2, and had 3 die-that we know of, how many more are out there? I blame it on having chickens. I know they are after eggs.

Matter of fact, I called my mother in law yesterday. I asked what was up. "we are just killing snakes" come to find out, she had torn down a wrens nest about 4 times in her laundry room and dog trot, but then it snuck around and nested in an old plow on the front porch. She didnt know it until the babies hatched, and now snakes are coming up.. It was just rat snake, but it was about 4 foot long, and coming across the yard as my sister in law, who always goes barefoot was walking out to her truck. After Suzie (and I quote) "jumped 4 foot in the air, squeeled and did a back flip" she killed it.

So, I reckon its the season for them.

Ball season is winding down, and I have to make a baseball field cake. The boys are not practicing much at home, therefor they are sucking on the field. Both pitched this week. Managing only a few strike outs and allowing some hits. Since most of our team could care less about being out there, we just threw the ball around and let them score.

Brett is getting good at drawing the ball to him on base though. He loves to screw with the pitcher and get the ball thrown away so he can steal a base or allow a score. Of course it fits, since he loves to agitate people so much.

I finally got that party planned, and now I just have to get the cakes made. We are just going to collect money (why do I say we?? I mean ME) then I will buy soda's and pizza. we will set up a tent and enjoy our end of year party at the ballpark.

Then comes the hard cakes. The boys asked me to bake them each a cake for their last day of school. I said I would. Now, I am in a pickle. I dont know WHAT to bake. We are the bulldogs, so I might try to do a bulldog cake.


And the National Wild Turkey Federation Banquet is well underway. We had our meeting for it last week. BR went with me and had some great ideas. We are selling tickets now.

I also talked to a friend. We met because our boys are on the same team. she does taxidermy. So, I found the perfect gift for Martha and Elray. She loves coons, and he hunts them. We are going to get a coon stuffed for them.
I got all the other kids on board, so we will split the cost and come out much cheaper in the long run.

BR and I also went to the cemetary working this weekend. Here we have community cemetaries, you go a few times a year, do a cleanup, and then sometimes there is a buisiness meeting. We are trying to fix it so you have to have an ancester IN the cemetary to be burried there. It only makes sense. This cemetary has been there for hundreds of years. BUT, new people are moving in, or just buying lake houses, then they find out there is a free cemetary and want in. Well, we cant get more land, so we are running out fast. Folks are just dying to get it. So we had to change the bylaws.

we voted last year to change it, agreed on what it should say and then proceeded to accept it. I tried to help, since I have written bylaws before, but because I am under 60, I dont have the intelegence needed to form a complete thought or opinion.

So, they handed out the new sections. I pointed out some problems with the first. both in grammer (yes, I CAN find grammer mistakes) and what made a loophole in the intent of the changes. THen, came the line and I quote "... you must have a direct decendant burried here....."

Well, I know that not everyone does geneology. But, everyone SHOULD know what a decendant is. Its YOUR children and childrens children.

This was pointed out. We even said just say "you must BE a decendent of someone previously interned..." but no. Instead we had all of them saying it was fine. Okay. At this entire meeting there was ONE couple that would be elegable after these new bylaws went into effect. They had a daughter burried there. The rest of us were screwed.

They finally put in ancesters. still swearing that both words meant the same thing. And I swear the woman that is president was staring dagers at me. Her sister or cousin or something even walked over to me and tried to tell me how I was wrong and that it all meant the same thing, and I should just let those that had more expierence and education handle it. To say I saw red is an understatement. Whats sad is, aside from BR and myself, one other woman, and a cousin and his wife, who are in their 50's. Noone else there is under 70. Now, if their own kids and grandkids cant be bothered to show up for the meetings and dinner on the grounds, who do they think will be taking care of the cemetary when they are gone? Seriously?


Even my own grandfather was adamant about the fact that I was wrong. That BR was wrong, and a handful of others. And noone could convince these people any differnt. even when BR looked up ANCESTOR on his phone and gave them the definiton. They said their 'dictionary book' at home said differently. Like because he used a phone to go to dictionary.com it somehow made the definition an antonym.

They never did get it right, and we left there with it added as "....with a direct decendant or ancestor burried here......" thinking back, that opens it up to inlaws being burried there because thier daughter or son who is the spouse of someone with direct linage is burried there. THus bringing in the exact people that we were trying to keep out. Its not like we are trying to be mean. But there is very limited land. And no way to get more. unless we steal it through eminent domain. And I am not in the habit of acting like an out of control goverment. I wouldnt want someone walking up to me and telling me they were taking MY land because they couldnt take care of business. I would not accept that gracefully.

The food was good, and I did have one person come up and thank me for arguing about the word decendant. They said I was right, and they were proud that someone as young as I am is willing to be involoved out there. Its a sad day when you are thanked for taking care of those who came before you and built everything that you take for granted.

I just have to wonder, at what age do they think I will become intelegent enough to speak in their presence? seriously. These were not the only issues with the new bylaws, it was just the most glaring.

When we left there, we went and dug taters. We only did one row, seeing if they were about ready. They are getting there, and we got a few messes. There is nothing better than eating something you grew with your own hands.

Oh and my chicken eggs are still in the incubator. They are on days 10 and 9. I candled them a few days ago, and will do so again tonight. At that time there was only three out of the 40 plus that were clear, or unfertilized. I did break one yesterday. It was devoloping nicely. Till it splattered. But, maybe I now have that out of the way, and the rest of the hatch will go smoothly.

The rest of my week is supposed to be slow. I actually havent left the house since Tuesday. And other than going in for a function at the kids school on Friday, I dont have to.