Early Stroll

It was 8am when I looked out and saw these two teens walking in the rain down the muddy road in front of the cabin. They looked a bit confused or lost while munching on green grass. Folks - it is December 2 and there should be snow!

These two young doe and their mother passed by the other morning at a high speed gallop down the road in front and another recent morning I looked out through the bathroom window and watched the three wandering on the bank behind the cabin. I called the Mister in to see and he spotted a small buck trailing behind. 

Yes, hunting season has begun. Buck season goes on for two weeks and doe season starts next Saturday. Venison meat meals fed our family well in the years past and we understand the reason for this season. No, it is not to hang big antlers on the wall. It really is to feed the family, especially here in our area. 

The photos are of the two but I see no differences in size or weight so I think they are last year twins and their mother is probably with a boyfriend.  About a week ago I saw a buck in the field beside our road which I truly thought was a longhorn steer. It really took me a few seconds to realize it was a buck. He was HUGE! His horns were shaped out and up just like a steer. 

Photos taken through cabin front windows.

Photos taken through cabin side window (2 panes and screen)

click on image to view larger

WHY?

Why do people hate snakes so much?  When I was a kid, my brother and I would go looking for them. Of course, we knew the ones with the wedge shape heads and eyes with pupils that went upwards were the "bad" snakes, but we went anyway knowing the dangers. I love the feel of snakeskin on a live snake. It is NOT slimy - it is SILKY. The beauty of each scale is also marvelous, as is the entire coloring and patterning. Their little pink, red or black forked tongues slipping in and out of their mouths are so delicate. Have you ever examined a snake as closely? I'll bet not. 

When my kids were in their summertime exploration mindset, I gave them each a plastic bucket and told them to hunt for snakes and catch a couple and to pick them up, with a stick if they were afraid to touch them, and put them in their pails and bring them to me to see. Once in a while, they would be lucky, as I told them just where to look and what to look for before picking them up. Now, I guess I was actually giving them a challenge, but then, in my mind, I was just sending them out on a nature hunting adventure.

None of us will ever forget the time one of the snake finders gave their youngest sister a small garter snake in her playpen. She was about 1 1/2 years old.  That child picked it up, and then BIT into it! Right in the middle! She made a face and then looked to see what she had done. It was a totally unexpected event and everyone who was watching her "play" with her first snake was shocked. We never killed our catches and "look and release" was the  result after thorough inspection.

One time, as an adult, I was in a field picking wildflowers when I looked down and saw that my feet were placed right next to a coiled up snake. I looked closely and determined it to be of the poisonous variety and stood very still while calling my husband to get his gun and come and shoot it. He did. To our dismay and great horror, we had killed a plain ol'e watersnake with the body markings of a copperhead, and her encapsulated babies had been blown out, still in their sacs and wiggling, all around us. There were many. How ashamed we were. The lake watersnakes are nonvenomous and are important to our environment. 

Why do people hate snakes? They are awesome creatures in countless ways. I think many people are uninformed of so much nature gives us.