This is the scene that greeted me when I went to the hen house today.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brFh6HSgYtQ&hl=en]

Okay, so Harrison Ford wasn’t there and the hen house isn’t that far underground and there was not guy in a turban with a torch. To be fair, there was only one snake but he was big – probably between 6 and 7 feet long – and ugly and creepy and crawly. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I share Indy’s enthusiasm for snakes. I really, really, really can’t stand the critters. They give me the creeps, the serious heebie-jeebies, even the ones behind glass at the zoo. Now don’t give me a herpetology lecture on how beneficial snakes are. I know all that stuff but I still can’t bring myself to like the creepy critters. Especially when they are coiled up around my eggs.

So my dilemma is this. How do I get the snake away from my sweet little chickens without getting bit in the process? Have I mentioned how much I hate snakes? i don’t really want to kill Mr. Snake. I just want him to find a new home. So, I did what any normal person would do in the situation. I called my hubby and grabbed the hoe and shovel. My hubby gave me loads of valuable advice like “Pick him up and throw him in the woods.” Yeah, right! Me, pick up a snake that is mad because I interrupted his dinner. I am beginning to wonder if he has taken out any insurance policies on me lately. Then he started the interrogation.
“What kind of snake is it?” Now in my book there are only two classifications of snakes – living and dead. I only like the latter and this one was the former.
“Does it have a triangular head” Really! Aren’t all snake head triangular to some degree.
“What color is it?” Miscellaneous snake color. All blotchy and brown and snaky. Green snakes I recognize, coral and scarlet snakes I recognize but all other snakes fall into the broad category of “snakes that could be rattlesnakes for all I know.”

No, I don’t know why I called my hubby except for the fact that I wanted a little adult moral support. Next time I will call my mom.

So after much steeling of nerves, I managed to scare the snake (and myself) enough that he left the hen house. Hopefully, his little snaky brain will remember me and my shovel and hoe and will look for lunch somewhere else tomorrow.

Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?