Snakes

Not my favorite topic of conversation. In fact, I am terrified of snakes. Even though we live out in the country, I have never seen a live snake at my house, although we did find a few snake skins last year.
I have taught the children "snake safety" (NEVER touch any kind of snake or even large worm, wear shoes, don't disturb areas where snakes might be living) and we have read several books about snakes. We have not studied specifically what kinds of snakes we have here in Southwest Arkansas. Saturday morning when Art was on his way down into what will be the chicken pen, he spotted a snake peeking up out of some landscaping timbers we have in the front yard. Not being able to identify what kind of snake it was, he decided to shoot first and ask questions later. He also treated the mate to this snake the same way. Come to find out, these snakes were the"good kind" (is there really any such thing?) and eat mice and other poisonous snakes. For those of you who live in Arkansas check out this website http://www.snakesofarkansas.com/ and click on the snake in the left margin. It gives a lot of good information including pictures, and whether they are harmful or not. It also shows what areas of the state the snakes are found in. If you do not live in Arkansas, try googling snakes and your state and see what you can come up with. Personally, I just hope we never have to see one again.