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:scream: we used to have a "thumbs down" button. I don't like snakes. Some clients and some attorneys resemble snakes to me lately too.

Now it's a good snake.

somethin' happened to his head...I guess he's not moving anymore..

Yeck!! :liar:

Here's what we do with snakes around here... 😎

Recently my brother went to our spring to check the condition of the intake.
He had a piece of plywood over the pipe intake with big rock holding the plywood down.

He straddled the water flow and grabbed a big rock off the top of the plywood and set it aside.
He lifted the plywood and took a peek at the pipe intake. Everything looks good so he sets the plywood back down.

This might be a good time to describe what he was wearing....shorts and flip flops (straddling the water).

Sometime between picking up the rock and lifting the plywood a huge rattle snake quietly slithered out from under the plywood unseen.
Brother was picking up the large rock to set back on top of the plywood when he heard the sound of snake skin rubbing on the stalks of weeds.

He looked down in time to see a 4 foot rattler passing quietly between his legs. It quickly circled around and headed back for the plywood.
My brother leaned out and dropped the rock directly on it's head killing it neatly.

12 rattles and a button. It had recently shed it's skin and was a beautiful bright green color.
It was given to a guy that uses the skins.

That was a close call, especially considering how cranky they can be after they shed their skin.

imaudigger, post: 390784, member: 7286 wrote: Recently my brother went to our spring to check the condition of the intake.
He had a piece of plywood over the pipe intake with big rock holding the plywood down.

He straddled the water flow and grabbed a big rock off the top of the plywood and set it aside.
He lifted the plywood and took a peek at the pipe intake. Everything looks good so he sets the plywood back down.

This might be a good time to describe what he was wearing....shorts and flip flops (straddling the water).

Sometime between picking up the rock and lifting the plywood a huge rattle snake quietly slithered out from under the plywood unseen.
Brother was picking up the large rock to set back on top of the plywood when he heard the sound of snake skin rubbing on the stalks of weeds.

He looked down in time to see a 4 foot rattler passing quietly between his legs. It quickly circled around and headed back for the plywood.
My brother leaned out and dropped the rock directly on it's head killing it neatly.

12 rattles and a button. It had recently shed it's skin and was a beautiful bright green color.
It was given to a guy that uses the skins.

That was a close call, especially considering how cranky they can be after they shed their skin.

I have goose-bumps just reading that. Yikes.

I love/hate watching them slither near my feet. I hate them being that close, but love the fact that they are going away, not coiled to strike.

I was surveying with a guy many years ago. I was probably 17, he was in his 30's I guess.

We were standing in a field looking at a map, when the topic of snakes came up.
We talked about how this looked like good snake country.

He proceeded to tell me how much he HATED rattlesnakes and that they gave him the creeps.
I looked down as if on cue and calmly said "you mean rattlesnakes like that one by your feet?"

He jumped about 7 feet backwards instantly and scrambled for a shovel.
Weird how things like that work. Timing and delivery could not have been better. Yes there really was a rattlesnake at our feet!

Another time many years later, I was working with another surveyor and we were standing on a bridge deck. He commented on the fact that the creek looked like it was crawling with rattlesnakes. Of course he went on to tell me how much he hated rattle snakes....I looked down and saw a water snake at his feet and said "you mean like the one at your feet?" I had to grab his shoulder otherwise he may have jumped off the bridge. Had a good laugh with that one.

Never ever talk about snakes, they can hear you and will show up at your feet. It's bad mojo.

I was recently on a horseback trail ride with a friend of mine, and as we made a bend, I pointed down at a prairie racer snake on the edge of the trail. She looked down, said, "oh, a snakeskin. I hate snakes." I took the cue, and kept my mouth shut for a few steps, then told her that was a live snake. She rides in the canyons of the panhandle of Texas, so she didn't go nuts, however, I got some new nicknames for the next couple of hours.

We were laying out subdivisions in 1975 in a fairly wooded area. The boss brought a new hire out to the jobsite. His first words to us were, "Hi, my name's Robert...do you guys see many snakes? Snakes scare the hell out of me."

We truthfully admitted we had been out there the best part of three weeks and had not seen a one.

We had seen three by the end of the day. Robert was pretty jumpy. I've heard there are people that have been struck by lightning several times and there are theories they may actually "attract" lightning. I believe the same could be said of Robert and snakes.

I found a hot and limp 3' section of a garden hose in the tall Johnson grass and tossed it to Robert. It took him 3 days to talk to me again.

We had a guy that was likely to see a snake a day. Most of us could go weeks, but not this guy. He even had them fall from trees on him when cutting line with an axe. Fellow just attracted them!

Any coworker who attracts snakes is going to be stuck in the office full time. Seeing one is one too many.

Holy Cow, post: 390914, member: 50 wrote: Any coworker who attracts snakes is going to be stuck in the office full time. Seeing one is one too many.

You better be glad we never worked together. With your fear of snakes and my twisted sense of humor you'd have probably shot me by now. 😉

paden cash, post: 390921, member: 20 wrote: With your fear of snakes and my twisted sense of humor you'd have probably shot me by now.

Back in '77, when I was a gunner, somebody stuck a dead garter snake above the party chief's sun visor in the driver's seat of the old suburban. He was deathly afraid of snakes. We come around this corner, first thing in the morning and he pulls down the visor. Well, this guy immediately jumps out of his seat; into the back and I had to slide over to take control before we hit something! Good times.....

RADAR, post: 390931, member: 413 wrote: Back in '77, when I was a gunner, somebody stuck a dead garter snake above the party chief's sun visor in the driver's seat of the old suburban. He was deathly afraid of snakes. We come around this corner, first thing in the morning and he pulls down the visor. Well, this guy immediately jumps out of his seat; into the back and I had to slide over to take control before we hit something! Good times.....

About that same time I had a crew member named Barry that was from the Bahamas. Interestingly the British had introduced the mongoose to the Bahamas in the 19th. century and to this day there are ZERO snakes there. Barry looked like Eddie Murphy, spoke the Queen's English and had never seen a snake.

We drove vans back then. The engine "doghouse" between the front two seats was a great catch-all flat spot for all sorts of junk. Someone (?! 😉 ) found a dead grass snake, coiled it up in a small box with a lid and wrote "DANGER - KEEP OUT" on the box. Barry's curiosity got the best of him. He asked "what's in the box?" I told him "a snake". He didn't believe me and opened the box...

He somehow made it over the front passenger seat where he was sitting, over the back seat, and wound up on top of the plywood tool box in the very rear of the van...in about a half a second. The amount of fear in that man made me realize how badly people could hurt themselves trying to get away from a snake.

We also had Barry convinced that a common rattlesnake turned white in the winter, like the arctic fox and hare. All you could see of a "snow snake" was their two little black eyes. And their venom was exponentially more powerful in winter months....

God I miss messing with that guy.

Some great times with the gullible to be had. In Australia the old favourites have always been drop bears and hoop snakes. Nothing better in the days of remote field camps, someone would take a newbie from an urban background and guide him away from a tree, explaining that it was a likely one for drop bears, which of course are feral koalas which will drop out of the tree onto someone sleeping and claw them apart.

We would express amazement that the new guy didn't know about hoop snakes, which are snakes that bite their own tail to form a circle and will roll after you faster than you can run.

Best snake story was while working on a helicopter portable seismic job in Asia. Every afternoon the chopper would drop off a cooler with your beer, food etc and you would send an empty one back. One guy sent back a cooler with a dead python the guys had killed, which cleared out the kitchen staff for an hour after they opened it. We promptly cut a nice fillet out of it, which looked just like a bit of fish. Sent it out the next day, then casually enquired how he enjoyed the snake fillet the next morning. The radio channel turned blue for about 5 minutes. Good times

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[USER=20]@paden cash[/USER]
Yup. You would be six feet under...................just like the first three guys who pulled that crap on me. Their widows sure appreciate it, though, when I drop by the house to comfort them regularly, or irregularly.:p:p

In The Sandpit, post: 390945, member: 99 wrote: Some great times with the gullible to be had. In Australia the old favourites have always been drop bears and hoop snakes. Nothing better in the days of remote field camps, someone would take a newbie from an urban background and guide him away from a tree, explaining that it was a likely one for drop bears, which of course are feral koalas which will drop out of the tree onto someone sleeping and claw them apart.

Drop bears! I love it.