Rattlesnake!

Tal and Anita were sitting on north side of the deck the other day when they thought the sprinklers were going on as they heard a quick chu chu chu chu chu by their feet. Low and behold about five feet from their feet a diamond back rattlesnake had slithered out from under the deck and was on its way across the lawn.

That brought everybody to the site in a hurry and before we knew it, dad had his dad’s gun in hand, had loaded it and fired as it had moved to the sagebrush outside the lawn. He hit it right through the neck on the first shot!

We were all pretty impressed, except for the rattlesnake, poor thing.  With all the kids wandering around on this 40 acres, he just had to go!  The snake of course kept moving slowly so he fired another shot but he was a gonner.

 

Dad took the snake to the pavillion where they had an immediate science lesson as they dissected it to figure out how rattlesnakes work. Saydi got a diagram of the insides of rattlesnakes on her Iphone and they learned a lot!  The reactions were everything from dry heaves to kids deciding to be veterinarians and doctors.

Too bad Aja wasn’t here to skin it and Jonah wasn’t here to barbecue it but the kids got a pretty good lesson in rattlesnake anatomy anyway. Watch Shawni’s blog for details on the dissection at 71toes.blogspot.com.

Of course our biggest concern was that there might be a nest under the deck but Cub said that they are solitary creatures in the summer and nest only in the winter in caves. So I guess we’ll live, but we’re researching what to do if someone gets bitten, just in case.

My dad would roll over in his grave if he knew this. Maybe he does. He always said the east side of the lake was full of rattlesnakes. He should know. He lived amongst these dry sagebrush hills on a homestead for three years when was a young father.

Makes for a day we’ll always remember!