Snakes’ Alive
I used to be a sewing machine dealer–and this is where I housed my little shop. It is out on a major highway and across that road is a train track. On one side is the Goodwill corporate headquarters with huge boxes of donated goods in their parking lot and on the other side is a palette making factory. I can hear the palettes being made and occasionally the owner practices flying his helicopter over my little yellow house.
This house was an original rice farm house–located about two miles or so away from its current location. The area around it has been cleared and is now a huge field full of assorted grasses—and varmints. I have had rabbits and deer sampling my garden.
And then there are the snakes. And inside! Sometimes I find their remnants–a shed skin either upstairs or down. And sometimes I surprise them and my dear friend helped me chase one out. Her husband came and did a snake search–he didn’t laugh–husband did–. They are rat snakes–not poisonous–but I prefer them to live quite contentedly outside someplace where I don’t see them.
I’ve spread out mothballs, tried to keep greenery to a minimum around the house but in a drought–they try to find water—and in the winter they follow the mice inside.
So this past week, I had a contractor fill in all the crevices–they were originally there for air movement in pre-A.C days–but now I have an heat pump that performs quite adequately—and now I should not have any more uninvited guests.
Just rabbits and deer to eat my garden.
Sylvia Weir Art 