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What weird animals have been in your shop


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On ‎3‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 10:34 PM, ThomasPowers said:

A lot of the snakes around here are Rattlesnakes; so at least they tend to give fair warning---or announce their suicidal intent...

Yeah, most.....I had one that was under a piece of tin that i lifted up. I was in about a 4 foot hole, and it was at about neck/chest level. as soon as i saw it under i dropped the tin back down, thank goodness it didn't strike. It didn't even rattle until its head was just about off, but it was so much a rattle, but a buzz. now he's above my bed. Funny thing, is that i was moving the tin, so that NEXT time there wouldn't be a spot for one to hide. funny how things happen like that. You make an effort to prevent something from happening in the future, but it happens in the present.

                                                                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

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I make rasptle snakes from farrier's rasps and thread bottle caps on the tail to make a "rattle".  I remember thinking one night "That sounds a lot like one of my rasptle snakes"  !!!!!!! Nice to know how accurate I'm making them but I will never recover the years I lost right then....

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On ‎13‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 2:30 PM, SLAG said:

Marc 1,

Could you please add the inland taipans, (a.k.a. fierce snakes), and coastal taipans, (a.k.a. eastern taipans),  and the king brown snake (a.k.a. Mulga) to your list.

Australia has some of the most poisonous and fascinating venomous animals on the planet.

I have been a student & enthusiast of them for many years.

SLAG.

(non-venomous).

Hi SLAG,

We've had some whopper taipans up here - the best 8'4" .  Despite the name, our King Brown (Mulga) snakes which you mention really belong to the black snake family. They grow longer than the common (eastern) brown snake but if I had to be bitten by one of them (ugg!) I would choose the king. A lot of people confuse the two and usually opt for it being a king brown , as that sounds more dramatic than common brown. And while we're adding to the list, don't forget those nasty little death adders. Short, stumpy little b...s with a strike like lightning and superb camouflage.

And hey, nice to know someone on the other side of the world enthuses over our animals.

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I had a European colleague visiting out here when I worked for NRAO on the ALMA project. (Radio Astronomy).  He was hyperventilating just from the possibility of our scorpions, black widow spiders and rattlesnakes, he must have been a city boy!

Don't think we could get him out to Australia...

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Had some excitement today. Ran across a fat ole copperhead, and a pretty good sized cotton mouth. Been a while since I've had the pleasure of crossing paths with either type. Just been rattlers and the usual water snakes, rat snakes, and the other non vinimouse snakes. 

                                                       Littleblacksmith 

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I was cleaning up UPS batteries and cables in an electrical shack at a school/ophanage in Haiti. Had my back to the door most of the time but often seen movememt out of the corner of an eye from the local workman, students etc.  One watcher stayed quit a while and seemed  rather interested so I turned around to look. Casually sittting  up on it's haunches  was an opossum sized rat.  It finally grew bored and sauntered off.  

     Didn't want to throw tools or anything at the rodent as they could bounce and short out a battery rack. 

On August 26, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Dean1017 said:

Just started seeing armadillos up this way over the past few years - which is a new thing for us this far north.

Have spooked him/her a couple of times when I've gone out there late at night.

Used to have a groundhog - 'Gus' - who had made himself a place under part of the slab...he moved on after a few years.

Always a big 'ol blacksnake or two out there and I'm with several other guys on here - I don't mind them as they take care of any mice or other vermin.

https://www.google.ca/amp/amp.livescience.com/52792-armadillos-leprosy-bacteria-spreading-southern-us.html

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  • 2 weeks later...

This little fellow turned up today. A bandy bandy. They are only mildly venomous and don't grow big enough to cause problems. Only posting because it's an interesting and easily identifiable snake.

 

DSC_7683.JPG

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wow, that is a beautiful snake.

                                                                                                                        Littleblacksmith

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48 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said:

wow, that is a beautiful snake.

                                                                                                                        Littleblacksmith

it would be more beautiful minus the head. :ph34r:

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41 minutes ago, Tubalcain2 said:

it would be more beautiful minus the head. :ph34r:

yeah, the most beautiful thing about it is that it is a picture....I wouldn't want to come across it, even with it being only "mildly venomous". I prefer to keep my distance, preferable the length of a shovel handle.

                                                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

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Frosty,

Shame on you, Frosty! Give the little fella some slack.

Can't you settle for some barbeque chicken, instead?

For all we know the serpent may be on the Australia endangered species list.

Please make proper enquiries before you chow down!

Concerned Citizen,

SLAG.

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It IS a proper inquiry and long LONG before I chowed down on one. I'm NOT having it for dinner I'm just wondering if they ARE good to eat. I'm sure Aus would tell me if it's endangered or tastes like old socks marinated in a barn gutter.

It could be the wrong season to eat now too. Unless it's a survival situation one should never just dive in and eat a thing. I mean really Rattlesnake tastes different in the spring than the summer or fall, depends on what they're eating.

Frosty The Lucky.

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I *have* reservations, grave ones, about some of the folks here's cooking...

But I have some rattlesnake in my freezer right now.  It's a darwinian dish: poisonous snakes that hang around my house and strike at me tend not to reproduce...ones out in the desert that just give a warning and leave; shoot I'll applaud their vermin  Vichyssoise!

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6 hours ago, Frosty said:

Thanks for the pic Aus, it's a dandy, bandy bandy. How do they taste?

Frosty The Lucky.

Couldn't say, Frosty. You'd have to be desperate to barbecue a snake. We have plenty to choose from though. Mate of mine made a stew out of a big goanna, but it was pretty revolting. There's a roadhouse not far from here that makes croc-burgers, but I've never tried one.

And the bandy bandy is not endangered. Would be if some of those fellows with shovels had their way! :angry:

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Aus,

Alligator meat is used for cooking in Cajun cuisine.

I think that shovels should be only sold to Australian fellows with a permit. (& a psychiatric interview should be part of the requirement for said permit).

SLAG.

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Gator is GOOD. Alligator Etoufee is delicious but so is a good Jumbalaya or . . . most anything spicy. It really lends itself well to spices and it's flavor doesn't get buried. Halibut is like that too it can take a heavy spice load and still taste unmistakably like halibut. 

I'd love to try Croc and compare it with Gator. Just because they look similar doesn't mean they taste the same even close. One is fresh water the other salt water or some are. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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We have both freshwater and saltwater crocs around here. The salties are the ones to worry about. A lot of controversy here over the abundance of estuarine crocodiles and a lot of folks calling for a cull. A couple of people have been eaten recently and walkers regularly have dogs snatched as they walk along the beach. Some say we should invite overseas hunters here and charge them ferocious amounts of money to shoot a big salty. The Greens say leave them alone, but I doubt they would say that if the crocs were on the Gold Coast and not up here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, i go out of town for a week and come back to see this.... i relocated it very carefully with gloves on to about 3ft away in a separate spot in the smithy... hopefully the robin wont abandon the eggs. If she does, the nest may just end up in a plexiglass box filled with polyurethane sitting on a shelf in the living room. Also found another nest in the frame rails of the 4x4 samurai...

20170416_155931.jpg

20170416_155937.jpg

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