The Unwelcomed Guest

We have been very busy getting ready for our move, which is the reason I have not been blogging. I have gotten questions about the move and will try to give the information now.

We have not found a house yet, but we should see a home that we think will work this week since it is not due on the market for a few more days. It is a cottage that seems to fit our needs and the agent thinks is perfect for us. She will call us a few days before it goes on the market so we get first crack at it. Unfortunately, it is about 3 hours away from where we live now, so we will have to change our church home. We will miss our "kids" so much, but have been blessed that some have stayed here over the summer and we are still able to see them until our move. It is also a good time to change schools since David will have to move to high school anyway.

I have been working hard at trying to get the basement packed and everything brought upstairs before David’s summer vacation from school begins. Today is his last full day of school and then he has three half days before he is a high schooler. I don’t want his whole summer about packing and unpacking.

So last night I went downstairs to do a little more work after David went to bed. As I walked down the hall I thought David was playing a trick on me. There was a long black snake lying on the floor and it was so still I knew it had to be a toy. I still wasn’t sure since at one time he had a snake that looked like it but David couldn’t find it for years.

When I got a photography background to bring back up I saw the “toy’s” head and upper body crawling up the wall. This was NOT a toy. The stairs were on the opposite side of the snake and I didn’t want to yell for Rich since I knew David wasn’t yet asleep. So I got something to place between me and the snake and s-l-o-w-l-y made my way past him.

I got upstairs and told Rich I needed his help—that there was a snake in the basement. I think I sounded calmer then I felt since he asked me “a snake?”

My brave husband took a shovel and I grabbed a box so we could try to get the snake out of the house without killing it—my husband’s idea, since my attitude is that the snake had invaded my territory so he deserved to die. I know they always say never kill a black snake because they’re “good snakes.” Is there such as good think as a good snake? Yes, I know they kill rodents but since Roger, our pet rabbit, is a rodent I wasn’t going to let the snake stay. I also didn’t want to reach into a box and get bit.

I grabbed a camera and took a picture before we tried the box trick—it didn’t work. Then we did the shovel trick, you know the one where you whack him into as many pieces as it takes to kill him. That trick worked, of course that way did create a fair amount of blood. We left the snake on the basement floor until this morning so that David could see it. We were very lucky that David fell asleep during the killing of the intruder.

I checked online to see what we could do to prevent any more of his family visiting our home and found that moth balls drive them away, which I can understand. So in order to protect Roger I have placed moth balls at the bottom of the basement steps, at the top and outside all the doors. I am very glad so much of the work downstairs has already been done, since I will be on the lookout for more unwelcome guests.