# I though it was cold 'nuff



## Wingnut (Aug 21, 2004)

I have been clear out cedar trees and making some post and burning the rest for the week. I was taking off and rolling up the old barbwire (to recycle and use again on the fence). 

Then a copperhead decided to makes its present known by striking me in the lower calf. Luckily for me I was wearing my MudDog Boots because of all the rain we have had down here lately. He struck at me twice before I realized I was standing on him or her. It did get up to 72 degrees here and when broke the world record for the reverse standing broad jump. 

So remember when your working the land even in December there still can be snake and other critters ready to you especially when you stand on them. mg:


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## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

Close call there good thing you had boots on.:hide:


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## Aaron357 (Oct 31, 2004)

So did the snake survive or did you send him to his afterlife?

My father is deathly afraid of snakes. He does not even like to see a picture of them in a magazine. 

My parents own a weekend cabin on 30 acres in central Missouri. If my mom finds a blacksnake, she will pick it up and move it where dad will not find it. If he sees any kind of snake, he will kill it or more likely have one of us kill it. My mom keeps them around because she knows that they keep away the poisonous snakes and the mice. Usually it is the woman that is afraid of snakes but not my mom.

It wasn't winter but my parents 100 pound lab got bit by a Copperhead over the summer. This one must have got by the Blacksnakes.

He was rooting around in a brush pile while my parents were working on something nearby. My mom said he suddenly yelped and jumped backwords. She knew something was wrong because he came straight to her and looked at her like he needed help. She saw a drop of blood on his snout and said she could almost watch his snout swell. She never saw the snake but asumed that is what it was. He would not let her touch it. He acted like it hurt to touch so she took him straight to the vet.

The vet confirmed it was a venemous snake bite and found the two puncture marks on his snout. He said it was probably a Copperhead. It is the predominant venemous snake in mid Missouri. There are some Cottonmouths and a few Rattlesnakes, but the Copperheads are much more common.

The vet gave Avery a couple of shots and sent them home with some pills to give him. He acted kinda sickly for about a week, but is fine now. He still roots around in the brush piles but goes in a lot more slowly now.


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## Chipmaker (Sep 16, 2003)

I can certainly relate to snakes and this time of year or all year for that matter as I live in Alabama which is full of copperheads and rattlers. I have had some close calls myself over the years, and as a kid growing up in PA was bitten by a copperhead........

Was struck at and missed by a nice huyge timber rattler about 10 years ago and I managed to do myself in with considerable damages all without his help & 2 days in a hospital and no snake bite to show for it.

Had another rattler hit my boot and bloused trouser leg (GI trouser cuffs in boot) one moning in November when I went to get in my truck to go to work....It was right at the back of the front wheel laying in the early morning darkness....

Few years back I hemed up a diamond back which was over 6 feet long on christmas day no less.....in the end the snake got away as the wife was too slow getting my snake stick and catch tool.....That snake would have been a super nice critter if your into keeping snakes.........I kept a timber rattler for over 4 years, named her after my stepmother as she ws just ike the snake exact same personality. You never knew what it was gonna do, strike or allow you to hold it........I eventually freed it.......as I try and catch and relocate all snakes if possible.

Them northerners don't know what their missing do they Wingnut?


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

Well here in the lower peninsula we have the "Michigan Rattler" which is rare, but around. We have a mess of water snakes that have attitude and then my favorite, the Puff Adder AKA blow snake..when alarmed they puff up like a Cobra on the warpath....My golden retriever Charlie makes short order of them. I personally don't harm them as I believe they are good for the environment....now the wife is a different story...she gets all geeked up when one slithers out from under a rock she has picked up.


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## Wingnut (Aug 21, 2004)

The snake might have survive, but after the snake took off and I got all the barbwire rolled up, I bush-hogged the area so there is no telling if he made it out a live.


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## arleyp (Sep 21, 2004)

*snake story*

here's a snake story for you. absolutely true.
Last summer a big 6' black snake( common here in Pa) crawled out of the woods by my house and started across my lawn. I used a stick and manuvered him back toward the woods. In an effort to speed him into the woods and to safety I stomped on the ground behind his tail to speed him up.
Here it gets good:
the snake curled up like a rattler, raised his tail and rattled it-just like a rattler- only at slightly less volume. The wife and I were astonished. My neighbor came over and we carefully checked it out and it was a black snake.
it was absolutely weird.
now- where's the d**n snow. The blowers on , everything is lubed,everybody near the great lakes has snow and what does central Pa get? rain-rats.


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