Follow-up:

I think we found out what kind of snake they are. After doing a bit of research, particularly involving a hissing snake, we found the following...

Gopher Snakes, Genus Pituophus

Found in a wide variety of habitat, including desert flats, coastal dunes, and coniferous forests, but preferring grasslands and open brush areas.

Non venoumous, 36-96 inches long (which means we first found a small one. Haven't told Anji yet how big they CAN get).

Slow moving, the gopher snake investigates burroes, rocky crevices, and even climbs trees in search of prey. Aduld snakes hunt rodents, small rabbits, birds, lizards, and even other snakes. Prey is killed by constriction, and suffocation.

Mostly diurnal, they can change their habits to be nocturnal, depending on environmental conditions (I don't think I will tell Anji this, either. She thinks they are only day loving, and since in this area, they likely are, we'll just leave it at that).

When alerted to danger, the snake coils up, and loudly hisses a warning, while vibrating its tail. (I did not notice the tail vibrating, but this is understandable, since the hiss was LOUD, and distracted me). The gopher snake can flatten it's head, and with the tail vibrating, and the hiss, it can resemble a rattlesnake, and has been known to frighten off potential predators, such as foxes and coyotes.

I did know it wasn't a rattlesnake, but after being startled by the hiss, I can understand why a smaller predator might be given pause. At any rate, Anji will be pleased to know it is non-venomous.

My wife says not only am I evil, I am the spawn of Satan...

Happy Monday, everybody.

It was an interesting weekend. Saturday AM, we got dresses in medieval garb, and went to an SCA event in Provo, called Melee Madness. Lots of fun. Entered a thrown weapons competition, and got the 2nd highest score. Lost to the Kingdom Thrown weapons champion by only five points, after making him work for the victory. I was feeling pretty good about that. Richard shot a little archery, and Christian decided he wanted to give it a try. He got a bullseye on his third shot. Did pretty good, and seems a bit of a natural, so I am going to have to get him some gear, as well.

Well, on to the reason why I am now know as T.S.O.S...

Yesterday, after spending the cooler morning hours cutting wood, I was reading from the Ensign (an LDS church magazine) in the shade. Anji decided to join me, cause she had a bit of sewing she wanted to do. She brought her chair into the same shade area, and had just sat down when she saw a snake... a big one... slither past her chair. Now, big is relative. It wasn't a python or anything, but was about three feet long. That's a darn sight bigger than the little garter snakes we've seen so far.

It had apparantly gone right through our campsite, and was slowly making its way east. Anji had almost stepped on it. My first though was rattlesnake, but it didn't have any pattern I recognized, and there were no rattles.

Me, wanting to encourage it on its way out of the area, touched it on its tail, to make it speed up. It didn't. It immediately coiled up, and HISSED at me. Louder than a cat. I was a bit startled at that, needless to say, so I backed off, and I and the snake eyed each other for some time. Anji called the kids over, so they could see the snake, but kept them at a good distance. The boys thought it was really cool, Caitlyn was a bit less interested, and CeNedra didn't like it much.

Well, after about 5 minutes or so of the snake watching me, it slowly headed into a bushy area near a tree, right in the middle of our camp area. It didn't come out. I watched where it went, could see it sitting in there, and again, tried to encourage it to move along, this time with Richard's walking stick (I can learn). It HISSED again, and refused to0 move.

Alright. Fine. I moved my chair, so I could watch it, and continued to read. After about 15 minutes, Anji told me it was coiling around the tree. Watching the snake, we were astounded to see it CLIMBING the tree. Over the next 4-5 minutes, it climbed right up that big tree, and disappeared into the branches, about 20 feet up. Cool! I knew there are snakes that go up trees, pythons and such, but I didn't know the snakes around here did.

Anji is not happy. Not only does she have to worry about snakes on the ground, but now they are above, as well. My jokes about death from above and such really did little to ease her mind.

Well, I had to take CeNedra up to Orem for a meeting in preparation for the hand cart trek that she and Richard will be taking this week, so we left. Anji had a short grocery list for me, so I went to fill that, and while I was in Harmons, I saw, on an end cap, a small, toy snake...

Can you see why I am called evil?

Of course, I bought the snake.

CeNedra said I should put it on Anji's pillow, while she was sleeping, so she would see it when she woke up.

Apparantly, evil runs in the family. However, since I am also interested in surviving to a ripe old age, I knew better than that. I explained to CeNedra that I was going to put it in the ice chest, with the groceries, so that when she opened it to put away the groceries, she would see it then. She would recognize almost immediately that it was a toy snake, but the expression and reaction that first split second would be well worth it. I knew she would hit me... several times... but some things are just worth it.

Well, apparantly while we were gone, they found another one. Bigger. this one was a bit farther from camp, but much more aggressive, and louder. A mated pair, perhaps? In addition, Richard, who was reading in the shade, re-discovered the fiorst one, when it dropped out of the tree, landing only a foot or two away from where he was sitting. He announced, rather drily, "Hey, mom! I found the other snake again."

It was in this context in which Anji opened the ice chest, and saw the toy snake.

I had to take 4 ibuprofen for the pain in my shoulder.

Some things are just worth it.

Here are a few pictures of where we are now, in Spanish Fork Canyon

How do, everybody. Sorry for the lack of update, but have been extremely busy, what with the end of school, and all that. Also, didn't really register that we wouldn't have any access to internet, or even phone, while up in the mountains. Still a product of my times, I guess. :-)

All rightie then. We packed everything into the van and trailer, and left the back yard of our friend on May 28. We went to an SCA event in the mountains near Ogden, UT. Beautiful site. We had a great time while there. CeNedra suited up in full armor for the first time (more on that later), Anji taught a class on tablet weaving, I supervised youth combat, and the Kids enjoyed themselves doing that, as well as other activities. I have a few pictures from that event.

On Monday morning, the 31st of May, we packed up from that event, and headed to the site we will be for the next couple weeks, which is up diamond fork , in Spanish Fork Canyon. Another beautiful site. We did get rained on, but no problem with wet stuff, since the kids have learned to not let anything touch the walls of the tent durig the rain.