What We Don't Cover... (2)

Snakes

So I went into the bathroom cupboard only to find this.  I think he's been in the basement a while but he decided to pay a visit to the rest of us one day last week.

Not having snake wrangling equipment on hand I had to do it, well, by hand.  Using some handy broom handles I managed to get him out of the cupboard and onto the bathroom floor. 

He's a black snake about five feet long.  They aren't dangerous but they will bite - after I annoyed him enough he did try to strike at me.  But mostly he was interested in trying to get away.

We played "wrap your tail around the toilet water feed" for a while until he made a break for the vent and the basement.  I grabbed his tail and a tug of war ensued.

Damn if he wasn't strong and I couldn't pull him out of the vent.

He got away.

I have found a few snake skins over the years so I think he's the only one.

I suspect he earns his keep by eating the local vermin.

Chester

Next there was Chester.

Like the Fat Man (played by "Meatloaf") in Fight Club "Chester" showed up on the porch one afternoon.  He came up the gas road with "Blossom" who I was able to shoo away.

Chester installed himself behind a green Adirondack chair near the door.

The other dogs were not impressed with this but Chester wouldn't budge, bearing his teeth when they disturbed his otherwise silent vigil.

Like Tyler Durden in Fight Club we have house rules.  One of the rules is if you want to become a member of the household you have to do your time on the porch.  And Chester seemed to know what he was after.

That evening we went out - I figured he'd be gone when we got back.

No dice.

"Get the f*ck off my porch" as Tyler would say...

But Chester wouldn't budge.

The next morning he was still there, still in the same spot.

I went out to inspect the garden.  While I was out there Chester got up and headed off down the gas road in the opposite direction - never to return.

Pickles

We have a lot:

The Garden

Then:

 

And now:

Our garden always reminds me of the Peter Sellers movie "Being There."

Sellers plays a very simple gardener named Chance who is accidentally thrust into the position of notoriety when the owner of the estate he takes care of dies.  The press and Washington DC elite take his simple comments as profundity (some quotes here).