Copied from a comment on the previous entry:
"I was wondering while looking through the photos, don't you have to worry about rattle snakes out there in the desert?"
No. The snakes know it is still winter (and many of you would agree, I know), and they are hibernating, or at least cold enough not to move around. Well, let me do some research... tick tock tick tock tick tock... Okay, here ya go. All of the info I saw on snakes says that they come out of hibernation after the last frost. Oh. Heh, heh, we don't have frost around here too often... Well, let me think about this.... okay, here's a good theory: The area where we were hiking is a couple or three thousand feet higher in elevation from where we live, so it is cooler there, and the nights are still cold. So we are safe, right?
We have hiked around here for over four years, and we have yet to see or hear a live snake. We have not even seen a dead one. Most of them are timid and will get out of the way when they hear/sense someone coming. We do have one aggressive variety, the dreaded Mohave Green Rattlesnake (no, that is not one in the photo -- that one is rubber, ha ha!), but locally, every time someone has been bitten the So the answer is, at this time of year we are about 99.5% safe from snakebites. We don't start hiking until about November, and we don't hike into April. But we probably could. There are plenty of poor ol' homeless fellows, real Louis L'Amour types, who sleep in the desert year 'round. I'm sure a few of them have had a snake or two curl up in their bedrolls at night.
Eeeek! But us, we're safe. Right? Right, Cherryblossoms? We're safe?
Oh, I loved this post! Poor Karen (bakerswife) was bit by a rattlesnake in AZ one vacation, and 8 years later she is still affected by it. She almost died, and it was a snake that, when he(she?) bit didn't even give her any venom. But the bite was enough to swell her leg. So...DO folks live from rattler bites if they don't receive anti-venom? Ooooh, I'd love to let somebody get bit in one of my stories, but it needs to be believable. After reading Karen's 4-part saga of her rattlesnake "adventure" I sort of gave up on the idea that anybody back in the 1880s could get bit by a rattler and live. Do you know anything to the contrary?
ReplyDeleteAnd regarding my practice template--"Way out there" means it's just not your usual kind of "homey-homeschool" sort of blog design, if you know what I mean? I think if I made the header narrower it might help. It's growing on me. Thanks for your input. I'm rather insecure in my artistic abilities and I don't want to turn potential readers off by my not-norm HSB design. I'm going to make a second proto-type template at Suzy'sPractice2 sometime--maybe with a retro 50s theme and sepia pics and stuff. That might be interesting. Ah! I just need more TIME to do it!
Oh, and I loved the experiment you guys did to make Dad a believer!
LOL, thanks for answering my question. I'll stop worrying about you all now - at least about the snake thing. I highly dislike snakes - even our harmless garden snakes up here - one of the first ones I saw on our property, I ran to the garage and grabbed an ax and just kept hacking like an ax murderer - no more snake. Now whenever the girls see a snake that ask, "mom, should I go get the ax?" lol
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