This evening I was going to wire brush a couple of rasptlesnakes to see if I could sell them at the event this weekend.  However as I was running the extension cord over to the outlet on the front porch i heard a sound in the high grass very much like what my rasptlesnakes make when the bottle caps on their tail are shaken just right...yup 32" 7 button fat and sassy rattlesnake and I nearly stepped on it in the tall grass.  After making a mental note to discuss with the landlord's handyman the possibility of keeping the grass mowed if he was going to water it so much  and a brief but successful battle against micturition without disrobing first I decided that "We just didn't suit as neighbors."  

It's now in the freezer because my loving wife's first comment was "did you save the meat?..."  If I had not heard the faint rattle I would have stepped on it and now be at the ER regretting not being able to forge at the Day of the Cowboy.  Sent a picture of the guts to our daughters asking them to guess who's mother wanted the snake that nearly bit me butchered.

Protect your hearing!

Tasty

kinda small

 

Edited July 24, 201511 yr by ThomasPowers
stray picture

Mmmmmmm, world's longest filets and darned yummy depending on what they're eating.

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty; glad to see you are alright. I was afraid that me posting a picture might have shocked you so badly that medical help would be necessary...

That is what you call a good snake.

No I'd prefer more snakes out there eating the local rodents that can bear bubonic plague.  My landlord OK'd the demise of this one but asked me to be careful not to injure non-poisonous varieties. I was just upset with it sharing living quarters with me---if the yard had been kept mowed I would have probably just relocated it with the Tsar's blessing. (May the good Lord Bless and keep the Tsar----Far away from us!)

Of course catching (and surviving) bubonic plague would give me mad cred with the medieval reenactment group....

Edited July 24, 201511 yr by ThomasPowers

Frosty; glad to see you are alright. I was afraid that me posting a picture might have shocked you so badly that medical help would be necessary...

No worries, the lighting and lack of focus eased the shock enough Deb only had to sock me in the chest a couple times.

I just realized I forgot to mention how glad I am you didn't find it the hard way. I've been in Alaska so long I forget about poisonous snakes when visiting down south. I've about freaked my sister out more than once by just stepping into the brush after sunset.

Fortunately we don't have rats either so I can live without snakes. Try and avoid all that cred with the medieval crowd okay? I hear the pustules tend to mar the finish.

Frosty The Lucky.

I'm old enough that a "distressed finish" and "patina" is all I can hope for.  According to my land lord our "enclave" in the edge of the desert killed 28 rattlers last year; something they didn't mention when I was looking it over prior to renting. (but was expecting due to location)...May have to make some snake guards to wear with my shorts.

The real point is that if I had ruined my hearing when I was younger I'd be in a world of hurt right now and due to me being an insulin dependent diabetic I could have even ended up improving my pirate impression---something I would rather  forgo until I'm 111 or older...

Just dont screw it up like the locals here do, resembles chicken fryed rubber tire, insted of the tasy treat I know and love

I agree, I wore hearing protection when drilling and had pretty darned good hearing till I got birch slapped so my early warning system isn't what it used to be. I hope the dogs let me know if a bear comes around, they sure warn us of moose and stray dogs and the moose are the really dangerous critters around here. Well, if we ignore people texting and driving about 3' from the vehicle in front of them.

Charles we used to filet them and wrap it around a stick to do a smoky roast over the camp fire. It's easy to see it get flaky and done. Good grub so long as they aren't eating bugs, scorpions taste really REALLY bad and make snake taste bad.

Frosty The Lucky.

True enugh, thow tosted grashoper isn't so good.

True enugh, thow tosted grashoper isn't so good.

You 'need' peri-peri with steamed 'sky-prawns'  so you keep the texture but have a whole new realm of flavor.

 

You 'need' peri-peri with steamed 'sky-prawns'  so you keep the texture but have a whole new realm of flavor.

 

Looked up Peri Peri and will have a gander in the hot sauce section of the market. I'm always up for new flavors. Within reason of course.

Frosty The Lucky.

Looked up Peri Peri and will have a gander in the hot sauce section of the market. I'm always up for new flavors. Within reason of course.

Frosty The Lucky.

Walmart sells Nandos sauces and they are really good! They have a large variety, they are also great with chicken hearts/ livers.

Cool, I'll check out Wally World for some Nandos. I don't eat innards though, call me squeamish I don't care.

I need to go to Wally World anyway I just found out they carry Roman meal bread and am hoping they carry the hot cereal. It was my hands down favorite hot cereal as a kid and haven't seen it on store shelves in longer than I can remember.

Nandos, here I come.

Frosty The Lucky.

Innerds can be fine eating!

 I don't eat innards though, call me squeamish I don't care.

Nandos, here I come.

Frosty The Lucky.

   I'm not so keen but some folk here have 'talkie- talkies ' that's chicken heads and feet, that way you can skip the innards!

You know Ian, sometimes I'm glad I live on the opposite side of the planet. Of course then I recall certain Alaskan Native "delicacies" and chicken heads and feet don't sound so bad.

Night before last Deb and I had KFC chicken for dinner and I made chicken pot pies from the left overs last night. I mixed up a short batch of your yogurt flour pan bread mix and used it for the crust. I worked it too long, probably because I didn't have as much yogurt as I thought so the baked pie crust came out a little tough. It was darned tasty though and will get a retry probably as pan bread though.

Frosty The Lucky.

My hay dealer has a SA kid working for him, refused to give me the name of the stuff but alowed you role it out thin like a tortilla.

Perhaps it was Karma for my "good snake" comment, I got stung by a bark scorpion on Friday.  I guess that was my official welcome to Phoenix.  For the first 16 hours it felt like I had a red hot railroad spike driven through my hand.  My whole body went numb except for the pain.  At the ER they filled me up with Percocets and that did nothing for the pain. Here it is two days later and my hand is still numb.  My wife went out Friday night with a black light and got 16 of the little monsters, and another 10 last night.  I am taking it easy dreaming up an appropriate flame thrower. 

Edited July 27, 201510 yr by LawnJockey

My experiance growing up was that bark scorpians where rather rare, but the yellow desertscorpians were very common. Bark scorpians hide, IE under bark, much like the recluse spiders. They are also dark, brownish/ greenish color, wile the dert scorpian looks like a common "stinging" scorpian on steroids. Watch out for the blackwidows as well. Terable stomach cramps for a healthy adult. 

You would have been beter off with Gabbapentan and motrin, lol. 

By the way, dont screw around with the gila monsters, if you get bit you will probbably get a hefty fine. As 99.99% of bites are from jack waggons screwwing with them

Benadryl, spray and capsules will go a long way to easing bites, the toxins trigger allergic reactions and lord help you if you ARE allergic.

I'm thinking an Assalt gun might be just the sporting scorpion killer. It's the pump action air gun that shoots table salt as a fly swatter. A friend has one and it's a hoot to shoot. Shooting flies that aren't airborne is most unsporting, old chap. They have something like a 3' range.

Frosty The Lucky

If I remember their is a nerotoxin component as well, Jerry. As a evil child I ran a scorpian fighting ring. They are canablistic...

The little guy was a bark scorpion, I got a picture of him.  What happened is I was putting the railing back on my flat trailer after unloading some equipment.  It was jaming so I picked up a chunk of wood and gave it a wack.  I got stung on the second wack.  The scorpion was hiding in a crack in the chunk of wood.  The shock of the second bow killed him but not before he let me know he was there.