It's official..........the walk from Ash Fork to Kingman along the old route 66 started this morning, which is also Mike's birthday. It's about 130 miles and they plan on about 2 weeks to complete the walk. I hope they meet a lot of generous folks along the way, that will appreciate what Mike is doing for the Wounded Warriors and open their hearts and wallets, to a wonderful gentle man that is always thinking of others. Over the years Mike and Zeke have walked in Arizona and also in Colorado to raise donations for different organizations. Because of Mike's health this will probably be the last walk. Please like and share their facebook page, we'd like for Mike and Zeke's walk to reach as many people as possible in the next 2 weeks.
Things around here have been exciting this morning. I was in the feed room fixing my feed pans for tonight and John comes in to get me to help get a baby rattler out of the hay barn. Quite frankly I was happy doing my pans, really didn't need anymore entertainment, but "duty calls".....!!!
John said he was coiled up asleep beside an overturned bucket in the loose hay. Sure enough, coiled up about the size of a hamburger pattie. I told John to walk softly and maybe we could use a rake to "rake" him into a hay bucket. Obviously walking softly means something different to John than to me, maybe it's his lack of Indian blood....!!! LOL As he tramps into the hay barn the little snake woke up and went under, either the bucket he was beside, the bucket beside that one..........or.......our hopeful choice, out the side of the hay barn. We stood there for a minute deciding what plan B was. I used the rake to turn over one of the buckets, nothing happened. John decided he'd turn over the other one and told me to go outside and see if the snake came out. When he turned the bucket over, the snake plopped out of the edge of the bucket. I ran back in the barn, grabbed the rake a just barely managed to start rolling him around in the loose hay and straw with the rake to keep him from going under some of the other junk piled up in there. I'm yelling for John to get a bucket and for some reason he's standing there fascinated with watching me "play" with this snake. Jeesh...!!! My inner sailor came out, language wise, which seemed to get his attention, he grabbed a hay bucket, and in went the snake. Poor little thing probably wondered what in the world happened to his little world. John put him in one of the piles of tree trimmings we leave for the little critters to have for shelter. He wasn't much more than a foot long, had one little tiny button on his tail, which means he had nothing to rattle, even if he wanted to.
That is the first snake we've seen on the property this year, but does bring up a burning question? Where is his brothers and sisters? Did momma live bear them in the hay barn? If so, where are the rest of them? According to John's info book, there can be as many as 23 babies born, 9-14 inches long, born in the late summer. Hmmmm........... sounds like he is pretty new to the world. John says he's going to be pretty careful in the hay barn for awhile.
I go back to doing feed pans, came in to water my tomatoes on the courtyard and there is a little mouse running around bouncing off the courtyard walls. I tried to get him out the courtyard gate, but he kept going back to the tomatoes..........hmmmm...........me thinks I know where the bite spots on some of the tomatoes are coming from. He acted like he knew where he belonged, he just didn't want to get a bath. I've been soaking the tomatoes, but now that it's cooled off a little I was going back to spraying them. Guess he didn't like it....!!!
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