My Hero!

He may not be able to leap over tall buildings (but he can hop a live electric fence with the best of 'em!).  He doesn't have super hero strength (though the doc says he's got the strongest stomach muscles of anyone she's ever checked... all due to years of scooping feed everyday).  He doesn't wrestle wild gators and stick his head in their mouth (instead, he works with livestock day in and day out, sometimes sticking his hand where only farmers are willing to stick their hands!).  No, he's not the world's idea of a hero, but he's MY hero...and here's just one reason why:

Yesterday (Thursday), I heard Josh coming in on the back porch just as I was finishing up lunch. He almost always steps in right at 12:00, to the minute.  Very shortly after I heard the storm door shut behind him, I heard a very uncertain "Honey?".  Then a little more forceful "Honey!?". 

It wasn't a scared "Honey"; I've heard some of those, mostly when Josh would agree to change a diaper, only to discover there had been a few pebbles dropped in it. 

It wasn't an embarrassed or annoyed "Honey";  I've heard a few of those too, mostly when I've pulled a prank - putting a plastic snake in a funny place or turning the lights off when he's showering.

 And it wasn't a get-here-this-minute-I'm-hurt-and-need-help "Honey"; there's been a couple of those since we've been married, too, involving a serious burn and a gash on his head.

No, this was a very uncertain, come-here-right-now-something's-not-right "Honey!".

So I stop whatever it was I was doing, wipe my hands on a kitchen towel and open the door to see what was the matter.  He was looking behind the door with a look of unbelief on his face and instructs me to look there as well.  And when I do, I see a rather large ....**insert dramatic music here...dum dum duuuuummm**.... snake!  And it wasn't no little thing either!  It had presumably crawled up the basement stairs as it warmed up and came out of hibernation.  I love my beautiful old farm house!  We have done some work to many of the rooms on the inside and also did some work on the outside, so it really is lovely.  But there isn't much you can do to an old farmhouse basement; its dark, wet, musty, and just what I imagine little critters like snakes, spiders and mice love to imagine as their dream home.  Its just part of old farmhouse country life.  BUT.... I draw the line at the bottom of the basement stairs.  If they want to live down there, fine - I'm certainly not going to go looking for them.  But down there is where they've got to stay!

Anyway...  I was given instructions once again, this time to keep an eye on the snake while Josh goes to get a scoop shovel to remove the said snake from the premises.  The snake was still covered in cobwebs, curled around a Pepsi bottle and wasn't moving an inch so, much to the dismay of my parents and elementary school teachers, I disobeyed the instructions I was given and went for the camera instead.  (I KNEW he wasn't moving anywhere!)  I got back to the porch just in time to snap a shot before Josh took Little Snakey out to, um...., well...., let's just say the snake is resting in a much better place where no mean farmers with scoop shovels can ever bother him again.



Meet Little Snakey.  (Can anyone tell from the picture what kind he is? We know nothing about snakes, so we were clueless.)




Bye bye, Snakey.

 I'm not afraid of snakes, but I'm all for it if someone else will take care of them for me.  Josh is my scoop shovel armed snake removal expert HERO!