Goodbye Mr. Copperhead

[WV Sawmiller]

Remember this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wne0Q3ZnjU

[WhitePineJunky]

OK, since we are into the 'totally true and unadorned' stories now, I'll share one.
 When we bought this house 35 or so year ago the pine beetles had just finished cruising our road and left some hulking standing carcasses in their path. I had two topped on my front lawn out by the road by a climbing friend and I took car of the rest. My neighbor across the road (may he rest in Peace) asked his good buddy and former neighbor who was a logger to come drop two of his that were right on the road edge next to the power and phone lines. Pretty big trees but fairly easy for a very experienced cutter. Now I know the neighbor is deathly afraid on ANY snakes and dispatched all he came across. Turns out, the logger fella was even worse.
 So on the morning of the job, the logger is out there and the neighbor is there to monitor traffic and safety. He is standing 25' from the stump and watching to make sue there are no signs on lean toward the high lines. So the logger begins cutting and puts in his face notch then swigs around to do the back cut. As he get a couple of inches in and is bent over as we all do, this huge black snake decides to bail out of the tree and land right across his neck but because he is bent over, the snake drapes down on both sides of his neck and when he stands up, half the snake is hanging down over each shoulder. Well the saw is now idling still in the back cut, the logger is jumping around and spinning like a ballerina trying to swing this snake off, the neighbor has abandoned his traffic safety responsibilities completely and is backing up and laughing at the girly sounds coming out of this rough burly loggers mouth along with some salty word, all in a high soprano voice. Finally the loggers stumbles on a rock and grabs a small tree to keep his feet, this move throws off the delicate snake balancing setup and the snake flies off his right shoulder, into the duff and gone in the blink of an eye. The neighbor needed several minutes to regain his wits, the logger was ticked off that no 'help' was offered as he did his 'anti-snake dance' and really didn't want to finish the tree off. but you can't leave a tree like that, so after a VERY careful inspection with binoculars, he dropped that one and the next one and was done.
 Now as I got to know my neighbor over the years he loved to retell that story with vivid descriptions of the vocal sounds and 'the dance'. He never related how much he feared snakes, I found that out years later.

I think 9.9/10 people would have reacted the same way OGH 😆 I know I would have freaked out even mid back cut even if dangerous to stop would have probably did the anti snake dance !

[Don P]

When we lived in the capitol city while Michelle went to moo U we couldn't have a dog, so we had a mouser which seemed to be ok with everyone, except the rodents  . I'm not a cat person so I trained it by the magic flying fur carpet method, and we named it Abduhl. Since we were in and out all day I made a cat entrance box in one of the windows with 2 curtain flaps for airlocks/doors. It was at eye level outside but Abduhl could jump up to the perch and come and go. At various times, I came home to 4 cats stretched out on the sofas having a cat party. I managed to grab 2 and introduce them to the wonders of flight. Then there was the live woodpecker Abduhl brought in and proceeded to run the walls trying to recapture. And then he came in with a live black snake. I was in stitches. Michelle had the snake in one hand and Abduhl in the other and was whipping and scolding the cat with the snake all the way out the kitchen door  . I really didn't expect it but that was a good cat. It travelled with us tree planting and building. Would walk on a leash, pretty much thought it was a little dog  .

[SwampDonkey]

Go easy on me Don. I have a stent in each uretor and they feel like they might exit prematurely.

[Old Greenhorn]

OK Don, you win. The picture of Michelle whacking the cat with the snake was more than I could bear. My stomach is aching right now.

[Don P]

We were working on the old farmhouse at the museum. I had just reframed the kitchen roof and tied it all back to the main house. I arrive the next morning, climb the ladder underneath and begin tying up loose ends. Something moved out of the corner of my eye, a big rat snake is coming out of the old upper floor space and sliding over the ceiling joists coming for a visit. I notice he's blind, he picked up on the vibration or my heat. I bravely scurry down. The director, my boss, shows up about then and inquires what I'm looking up at. "That big snake". She says "I'm afraid of ladders, if you hold it I'll get him". She climbs up 15' in the air and unwinds this guy that didn't want to come down, and goes over and relocates it. I sheepishly return to work. After lunch the brave snake mover is gone on some errand and the 1st snake's mate is sliding over the joists coming for a visit. I try to knock it off and it gets mad and is trying to slither back into the house framing... I'm not having this every day. We battled our way down 2 stories and I finally dispatched it trying to slither under a part of the slab.  She comes back about the time I'm launching it over the back fence with a shovel.  She asks "what was that?". "I was relocating another one". 

[SwampDonkey]

A new way to unwind at the end of a work day.

[Southside]

@Wudman got a front row view of a similar encounter one day when a very stubborn black snake kept trying to get into the brooder room that had 400 birds in it.  Thing would not leave and made its way into the rafters, too much stuff on the ground to get a ladder in place so I shimmied up the shelving and tried to get it, that didn't work so Jeff passed me my M18 chainsaw - looked like a modern day version of a lopsided dual with me holding that thing straight out and triggering it but I was successful and there was only a slight nick on a rafter and some unique staining pattern when it was all said and done.