Snake 1 & 2

There are two incidents with a non-venomous snake appearing near the tack room. I'll start out with the first one.

It was near the end of the day, Marilyn and I finishing up feeding all of the horses in the outback and big barn. Now we were heading back to the tack room to put away the cans that we use to give each horse its grain. I am walking behind Marilyn and as we turn the corner to go into the tack room, I suddenly spot some movement. I instantly glance down and stare at the very small snake sliding across the mats directly in front of the tack room door. It was no more than a foot and a half long and as thick as a pencil. My first thought was; "Snake!" and that's what I instantly said. Marilyn instantly rushed out of the tack room and frowned at the snake.

"I'll be right back." She said and headed back into the tack room for a minute or so. The snake was slowly slithering away but I kept an eye on it. We both didn't want to get too close to it since we had no idea if it was venomous or not. Marilyn ended up coming out with a shovel and cut its head off. Picking up the body and head in the shovel, we headed to the very end of the property. There she buried if behind a tree so that no one would step on it and so that no animal would get hurt by it. I then remembered something.

"If the snake was right in front of the tack room and was slithering away from it," I began and Marilyn looked over at me as we headed back. "Then that means that you stepped right over it!"

Marilyn shuddered, a grimace on her face. "Crazy." She said and I smiled. We put everything away and headed back inside to the house, me getting ready to go home.

The second incident of a snake showing up wasn't as bad but it was still a shock to me. Instead of being later in the day, this snake showed up a few minutes after I arrived there. We were walking back around to the tack room when I spotted the snake slithering out of Apache's stall (now a place where the Bobcat is parked). Chuck had also seen it and now we were walking over to it. Shovel in hand, Chuck looked at it. He then straightened out and looked at us.

"It's a good snake." He said and I looked at it. Having no rattle and no diamond shape head to it, I also recognized that this snake was non-venomous. We let the snake be, Marilyn hoping that it would get into her garden to keep down to pests.