And I Thought The RATS Were Bad!!

 From the oven .... today we are in a heat wave they say.  I would probably agree.  At 6:00 it was 90 degrees and it didn't cool off until 7:00 pm.  It got all the way down to 106.  Basically that takes everything off the list.  You can't do anything in this heat, so let's work inside.

I started cleaning out cupboards and closets like a mad woman.  There was lots of stuff left by the previous owner that still lingered in the shadows.  Time for it to go.  My truck is now full of donations heading to our local Thrift Store.  The rest went in the trash can.

That's when my nightmares came to life.  I went out the side garage door, always with my eyes on the ground.  Once you've walked that path, there's not much reason to keep your eyes pealed.  WRONG!!  I walked right up to the door, about to step on the concrete step and I heard a loud hissing noise.

That's when I saw him strike at me and cross the large concrete step.  Oh the words that came out of my mouth.  I almost got struck by a HUGE RATTLESNAKE!!  He made a beeline for the cover of this step and I made a beeline for the shovel.  

He's a big one ... probably 4 feet long.  That's when it dawned on me he didn't have any rattles ... only a long thin tail.  Okay, it's probably a gopher snake, but way to scare the crap out of an old lady!!!

That black box is full of rat bait and I didn't want him going in there, so I grabbed my rake to pull it out from under the boards.  Boy was he mad as a hatter!!  He hissed and made noises I've never heard before.

This is what they look like, though mine was more white-ish.  Good guys ... but they look so much like rattlesnakes, they give me the heebie jeebies.  

With the rats running around, this is probably a good thing, so even though he still wanted to strike at me, I set up the game camera and left him alone.  Sadly, I didn't point it down far enough and he escaped to who knows where.  No videos ... RATS!!

Trouble now is, every time I open the door, my heart rate goes up as I stand there for five minutes making sure I don't see anything before stepping out.  Yes, my parents did a really good job of making me extremely fearful of snakes ... ANY snakes!!  

I've probably mentioned a few times when we were with the cattle in the mountains, I almost stepped on two, and had to ride my horse by several.  Horses don't like snakes!!  It was always scary!

So all you snake lovers will be happy I didn't kill it.  He better do his job though and get that darn rat that's roaming around.  

Now THIS is the kind of visitor I love to see in my back yard.  These guys came sauntering by in the morning.  Just look at those ears.  I think these are white-tailed deer since they have such huge ears.  The better to hear you with my dear!!

There were three of them snacking as they walked across the hill.  You have to be pretty quiet or they will run.  Lucky for me, my new door lock is silent and I can open it without scaring them off.

This is Mom ... and does she not look prego?  I'm pretty sure it's way too late in the season for this, but I could be wrong.  Yup I'm wrong.  It seems that most mule deer in Arizona give birth in July and August.  Looks like there's going to be another brother or sister in the family.

Can you see them?  To my surprise, all three laid down in the bushes and and had a snooze for about an hour.  

Since it was so hot outside, I worked on this weird quilt.  There were NO more trips to the trash can.  Several years ago they came out with this Australian patterned fabric.  It's crazy wild stuff, enough to make your eyes vibrate.  Don't ask me why I bought it because I don't know ... but it's high time I stitched it up.  

I'm seriously on edge from the snake encounter, but those sprinklers have become a pain in the patoo!!  It continues to leak unless I turn the main water valve off.  The critters won't have water unless I get on the stick and get it fixed.  Let's just hope that the YouTube video was correct in it's "how to fix it" description.  I'm off to Home Depot once again!!