I encountered my first snake of the summer this evening.

[Ravenlost]

I'm not counting the very large rat snake I almost stepped on in the chicken pen this Spring. I actually haven't seen any snakes all summer except for the water snake in the pond, but I've only seen it twice and it was always on the far bank.

Today was a close encounter. I was down at the pond checking the minnow basket for the duck (I feed her minnows/fish every evening). Stepped on something in the grass and it took off. I bent over to see what it was (thought it was a lizard at first) and saw a little ring-necked snake about seven inches long. I don't think I've seen one of those in 20 years!

Sure glad I didn't encounter a relative of the snake my neighbor found last week. He killed a four foot long cottonmouth down at the diversion ditch behind our house...right where my hubby takes the dogs for a drink when they're out walking in the morning!!! Hubby said it was so big around you couldn't encircle it with both hands!

If I'd seen a cottonmouth that big I wouldn't be here now...I'd have died of a heart attack!

[GrannyG]

I hate snakes ! Just looking at their little beady eyes makes me twitch.

[alpacamom]

I think I'd have stroked if I stepped on one! I found a garter snake last week when I was mowing, but it was kinda little, then I found one that was quite a bit bigger when on the tractor in the south pasture a couple days later. We've seen it again a few more times since then. The boys thought it was pretty cool.

[Ravenlost]

If this one hadn't been so fast I would have caught it so hubby could see it when he got home from work.

My son once lost a little ring-necked snake in our house and we never did find it. I figured it escaped to the outside.