Last summer, I told you a funny story. Well, sorta funny. I was working in that little camper I bought last spring. Remember? The one that fell apart when I got to Colorado? Yeah…that was an expensive lesson. Anyway, I was working in the camper and Mr. FixIt was spraying around the house foundation for ants. We had a horrible time with ants last year.

I told Mr. FixIt I’d be done soon and then we’d put the steak on the grill for supper. I heard him yelling so I stuck my head out the door.

“We’re you saying something?”

“Steak!”

“Yes, honey…steak. We’re having steak for supper.”

“No…Steak!”

“Steak?”

“STEAK!!!”

I climbed down out of the camper and started walking toward him. “Well, for crying out loud, sweetheart…if you want it now, go start the grill!”

“Look! SNAKE!!!”

Hokey Smokes!

“Where???”

“It was right here…but now I don’t see it.

“What kind of snake?”

“I think it was a copperhead!”

Great…poisonous. I have to say…I’m 67 years old and I have never seen a poisonous snake to my knowledge, but a snake is a snake. So let’s get this one.

We walked around the corner of the house where he saw the snake and it was indeed gone. However, there was this hole…in the side of the house…where the old door was before they boarded it up when they converted the garage into the family room. A hole! In MY house…where a snake has taken up residence as I sit a few feet away on the sofa!

Every since then, when I walk around the corner of the house, I look for that snake. The generator is sitting over there. I imagine the snake is hiding under the tarp that covers it to keep the rain and road dust off. I picture it reaching out and biting me every time I walk by. Every. Single. Time. I avoid that corner of the house as often as possible.

Until Tuesday. I had to refill the hummingbird feeder that hangs out in front of the kitchen window. So, I had to walk past…the hole. And there…on the sidewalk…in front of the hole…was a snake skin. 

The creature has grown!

It has shed its skin because it is getting bigger. Wonderful. 

I went in and said, “Ummmm, would you mind coming out here for a moment?”

Mr. FixIt dutifully plodded along after me.

“Look.”

I pointed, accusingly. As if somehow it was his fault he hadn’t filled that hole about a hundred years ago.

“There’s nothing that says that snake was actually IN that hole.”

Oh, yeah?

I reached down and picked it up, gave it a little tug…and…it was stuck on something INSIDE the hole!

My brain started racing. Was is hung up on a nail or a board? Or…was it still attached to the snake???

Oy.

I have no idea…and I’m not getting down in there to find out. I was thinking I could dust the area around the hole with flour and then I could see if the creature is going in and out. Or, I could take a sledgehammer to the wall and see if there’s a whole nest of vipers in there.

Or, I can avoid that side of the house for the rest of my life. I’m not usually afraid of snakes, but when I don’t know if it’s poisonous or not…AND I don’t know if there is some passageway between that hole and the interior where I sit…I am, how shall I say? Uneasy.

So, I’ll turn my attention to the other critters of the Ponderosa that I caught sight of this week.

A tiny little toad and a beautiful dragonfly with windowpane wings. And we’ll just leave the snake for another day.

❤️

“In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.” (Ok…I know they’re talking about wine here, but still…)

Proverbs 23:32 NIV