Fox, Mink and Snakes….Oh MY God!

Living only a few minutes from the Mississippi (way up hill in our case) is most likely going to provide some wonderful fishing for my husband and maybe even me.

You can see Iowa from here!

Yet this will also mean something I didn’t count on…..rattle snakes. I was told by a neighbor that they occassionally make their way up to our area and to look for them basking in the sun in one of our flat fields-the one that I hoped to grow food on and have to cross to get to my crab apple trees.

All clear? You never know.

We visited Black Hawk Island  which is a part of the river just after that comment (in which the same man told us to not wander too far into the brush because there are predators just waiting to eat us there). I stuck to the shore. Sometimes, I wish I had a talent for nature writing so that I could describe things like this in an engaging way.

On some level, while I believed him about the predators in the state park,   I thought he was pulling my leg about rattlers so when one of the childrens friends was over visiting my daughter- I asked him. This boy was raised as a hunter  and as a hunter has a huge amount of knowledge regarding Midwestern wildlife and hazards. He confirmed that we could possibly have rattlers and advised me to find out about water moccasins too, but  didn’t think it was  likely that the  most deadly of rattlers, like Diamond Back were that far north,  yet said, “you never can tell, just keep your eyes wide open”. He proceeded to give me a first aid lesson should anybody  get bit. I always ignored “how to treat snake bites” in survival and first aid and even herbal manuals. Just didn’t think I would ever run into a poisonous one or a person who got bit (Plus I am very silly about snakes. Don’t like to talk about them much. Getting over it). I am adding the knowledge to my repertoire now  though.

Our neighbor with the chickens told us how something was attacking her chickens, leaving her to cleanup  headless carcasses. They set a trap with a dead fish and finally caught the culprit. They expected a fox but got a mink instead.We found one headless hen on our land so I get it.

We smell fox on our land. They smell like skunk but not as rank. We have not seen sight nor heard sound of the critter as of yet. We smell it mostly near our barn- and yet the neighbors ducks  chase her cats into that area every morning and come back alive. Hysterical site! I might not have to do anything about it as the neighbors are all after it. Poor thing. But I do understand the need to “be after it”. So much for being all kind to animals.

Garry went golfing with our real estate agent yesterday and got some tips about how to socially handle that oil spill. We are getting somewhere. I made him promise to call the local head honcho (I am not sure of the actual title) but he may not go that route after speaking to the agent. We have to pow wow when he gets back tomorrow.

I have warned him-Do not come back without Amish Kohlrabi!