Snakes

Bruce Small, post: 369178, member: 1201 wrote: We could depend on Steve Owens to code Dead Kat when doing a road topo.

Only slightly related, my favorite attorney called to chat about a survey drawing, and she asked, "Why is the dog so sad?" Eventually I found the note by the entrance curb that said, "Depressed cur (sic)."

Ah, those were the good old days.

I once made up about 10 shots in an open area and coded them "cow". I put a note in the book that said "shots 201-210 represent a snapshot in time at 2:32 pm, as subjects were constantly moving in an unpredictable pattern".

Bruce Small, post: 369178, member: 1201 wrote: We could depend on Steve Owens to code Dead Kat when doing a road topo.

For a major lawsuit, was sent out to locate an ancient road that a land owner was not allowing other land owners access to get to their property.
The road actually was a connecting road that left the original road from Jefferson to Linden and connected Bera to Kellyville.

The land owner had brought in every dead animal he could gather and spread along the 3500å± ft road.
Office manager had a fit when my notes showed the location of cows, dogs, cats, possums and rats spread out everywhere.
The smell was most foul and we practically had to fend off buzzards and there were dozens of them everywhere.
Some of the smaller things were gone but a fur wad remained.
Almost lost the chainmen when a live possum crawled around inside one cow poking its head out snarling and hissing as they passed.
One of the most bizarre jobs ever.
<img src=""" " border="0" alt="Gagging" title="Gagging" />

gschrock, post: 369145, member: 556 wrote: Not a lot of snakes on this side of the mountains, but would find in job files some mystery DC codes to indicate various dead critters... my favorite was "WEC" for Wile E. Coyote...

Bruce Small, post: 369178, member: 1201 wrote: We could depend on Steve Owens to code Dead Kat when doing a road topo.

Only slightly related, my favorite attorney called to chat about a survey drawing, and she asked, "Why is the dog so sad?" Eventually I found the note by the entrance curb that said, "Depressed cur (sic)."

Ah, those were the good old days.

One of my favorite DC codes to use was D*IR with the "*" being whatever particular animal I had encountered: DDIR, DCIR, etc., lol

Never had any problem with rattlesnakes, they USUALLY will get well out of your way. Those damn cottonmouths are a different story. They will actually "come after you" if they even see you and they smell too. It's hard to kill a snake with a rod by trying to stab it so I just use the prisim end to smack 'em with. 😉

Biggest snake I ever came across was just a really big gopher snake (thankfully). The party chief and I were hiking across some overgrown ground near a pond. It seemed that we were coming across wild rabbits about every 300 feet or so. Then, about halfway across this area, he suddenly steps forward over something. I see a fat snake moving across the little trail we were following. The markings were a bit like a rattlesnake, but it was fatter than any snake I had seen outside. The party chief takes the shovel handle and slips it under the belly and starts to lift the snake up. It speeds up and slithers forward, over and off of the shovel handle. I never saw the head, but the whole snake was at least 7 feet long. No rattle on the tail, so I was able to start breathing again. I'm certain that this particular snake was really enjoying the bounty of little rabbits living out here.

Unrelated to that time, I was out doing a topo survey of a strip of county road that was slated to be widened and improved out to a 4 lane divided highway. I was on the rod and took a shot. Over the radio I told the instrument operator, "This is an empty beer bottle." Without pause, he asked, "What kind?" So I told him, "Bud Light". We got a little chuckle and just left it at that. Jump forward to a couple weeks later when the office crews were finally drawing the topography. I get a call while I'm out in the field from the drafter working on the topo. "Hey Syd, that empty Bud Light bottle you shot, was is 12 ounces or 32?" So I told him it was a 32 ounce bottle. We got another good chuckle out of that. Jump forward several months when I'm looking at the CAD files of the improvement plans setting up the staking. I see the "bottle shot" in the topo drawing and zoom in on it. I can see this little speck of line work. So I keep zooming in. I got zoomed in quite a ways and then I see, carefully drawn, a 32 ounce Bud Light bottle. Best joke ever.

skwyd, post: 369287, member: 6874 wrote: ... I never saw the head, but the whole snake was at least 7 feet long..

Working in the Oklahoma Panhandle (Baja, OK as we call it) one can find, IF ONE HAD THE DESIRE, rather large western rattlesnakes. One evening were driving back and about a quarter of mile ahead of the truck we saw a huge fat rattlesnake crossing the road. He looked like a firehose stretched across there. By the time his nose was at the solid stripe on the right, his tail had just barely cleared the center skip. That's 13.5' between stripes...I'm guessing he was 11.5' to 12' long.

We stopped and tried to see where he went, but nobody would get out of the van. I would have, but I was driving and my hands were full of steering wheel....:whistle:

Alaska's got no snakes (poisonous or not). No ticks (mostly), no fleas, no poisonous arachnids, no chiggers, no noseeums. Just a mosquito or two, in the summer.

And that is just alright by me.

there is a couple of days in early spring in the deep South (think upper Gulf Coast) when the snakes come out. Cutting line, I have seen non poisonous snakes overhead and waist high (some falling out while cutting and scaring stuff our of you) with the mocassins and diamondbacks on the ground. Yes, diamondbacks let you know when you are getting close but they are not louder than you cutting line. Since wintering over in the ground, the rattlers and mocassins are mostly lethargic and don't know to get out of the way.

OK. Time to gross everybody out. BTW, it's fine to sound like a six year old saying, "eeewwwwww...."

A Harris, post: 369206, member: 81 wrote: For a major lawsuit, was sent out to locate an ancient road that a land owner was not allowing other land owners access to get to their property.
The road actually was a connecting road that left the original road from Jefferson to Linden and connected Bera to Kellyville.

The land owner had brought in every dead animal he could gather and spread along the 3500å± ft road.
Office manager had a fit when my notes showed the location of cows, dogs, cats, possums and rats spread out everywhere.
The smell was most foul and we practically had to fend off buzzards and there were dozens of them everywhere.
Some of the smaller things were gone but a fur wad remained.
Almost lost the chainmen when a live possum crawled around inside one cow poking its head out snarling and hissing as they passed.
One of the most bizarre jobs ever.
<img src=""" " border="0" alt="Gagging" title="Gagging" />

That is one of the funniest damn things I have ever heard. :-):-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D

Frank Willis, post: 369412, member: 472 wrote: That is one of the funniest damn things I have ever heard. :-):-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D

I know guys like this ..........

We live near a river, that gets out of town canoers. A favorite stunt is to use dark zip ties, to tie rubber snakes, on the overhanging limbs. Especially good, If part of the limb is in the water, making it shake a little.
Have camera ready...

Cue the dueling banjo music ...

I live in the same general area as Mr. Schrock does, very rare to see any snake except for the occasional garter snake and once every tenth blue moon, a red racer or whatever they're called (black with single red stripe down the middle). Only seen one or two of those in my life and that was MANY years ago.