When I moved to the farm, my love for Summer turned to hate. I don't mind Spring but as soon as it starts getting hot and dry....I turn sour.
I always liked the heat when I was young - summer always involved long days in the pool, playing outside with my cousins and best of all...CHRISTMAS! Now I associate Summer with massive mosquitoes, millions of flies, bugs that hold your house at ransom with any light that you dare to turn on, dry wind, so much dust and most of all SNAKES.
I can usually handle all the other factors....but the snake population at the farm is just way too high for my liking. As I said to Mr H the other day.....'we live in a snake-infested oasis'. I love my cottage, my garden, my life here at the Cottage....but I really hate the snakes.
I remember vividly the year we moved to the farm and my SEVERE phobia with snakes or any kind of slithery amphibian. I remember speaking with Mr H's mum and asking her what the snakes were like on the farm and how many she would see per year....she reassured me and said that she would probably see at most FOUR per year. I was so relieved and then on the way back to the cottage after this lovely chat - we saw 2 sitting on the dam bank having a kiss....Day ONE of living on the farm - and we saw TWO snakes. That summer I stopped counting at 43 snakes....
Everyone was laughing at me that summer and I realised why! It is because I would wear my gumboots EVERYWHERE! There is a story that has been circulating about me for years of where my mother-in-law was bailed up by a snake at the back of her house. She called out for me to get the 'Twanger' (a long piece of metal pipe)....so I raced outside, grabbed the Twanger and in the meantime she was calling out to me 'WHAT IS TAKING YOU SO LONG??'.....but here I was trying to put my gumboots on! No way was I going anywhere near a snake without my trusty boots!!
There is another story of when Mr H's mum called frantically and said 'THERE IS A SNAKE IN THE HOUSE'!! So Mr H raced down there to find not only a snake in the house....it was on their kitchen table. Thankfully Mr H is pretty handy in the wildlife removal department and the snake was vacated from the homestead without anyone getting hurt!
After the flooding rains this Spring....the snakes are out in force. My dear neighbour is finding herself bailed up by big cranky brown snakes daily and Mr H is missing a few too many for his and my liking. At the dam close to our house, you can see the tracks from the snakes who are going over for a drink.....and there are enough tracks to bring shivers to your spine.
So it appears that I will have to put on the gumboots again and prepare myself for the 'Silly Snake Season'. Hopefully they will respect my wishes of staying out of my yard and away from my darling little Moo!
Otherwise it may be a very very long Summer....
