Last night a certain husband didn’t get his full complement of  beauty rest because his lovely wife had an encounter with a snake just before 11 p.m. and by the time he ran to her rescue, and tried unsuccessfully to kill the snake, and then listened to said lovely wife jabber for at least 30 minutes because she was so hyped up . . well, let’s just say some folks are a grump when they don’t get enough sleep.

Sometimes around here, after we’ve finished up all our evening chores, especially after a night like last night, we’re both dragging our behinds to the house.  I often tell myself . . one foot in front of the other . . you can make it.  This evening Vince worked hard in the garden getting more old plants out and then he watered all the vines out front.

That’s the backstory.  Here’s the rest of the story.

When we moved here, Vince added several of the freeze proof faucets  . . 5 or 6 of them I think.  The first one he added was a bit of a learning experience. He should have secured the pipe in cement.  After almost two years of use, it was kinda wobbly. Vince has been meaning to fix it.  You know what they say about those good intentions.

Tonight the pipe snapped.  Water came bubbling up out of the ground. Thank goodness he was the one who turned the faucet off and it happened when he did it and not when I did it. It was right at dusk.  Vince said “Oh, no!  I don’t think I put a cut off valve to that faucet and turning it off means we have no water at the house.”  I said . . start digging!

Broken Water Line

He started digging and lucky for him . . he had put a cut off valve so he was able to cut off the water to this faucet and we still have water in the house and at all the other faucets.  That was lucky!

I told Vince . . after the snake last night and the water pipe tonight, I’m kinda excited to see what happens tomorrow night.  Vince didn’t seem nearly so excited about any of the recent happenings!  :)

Last night Vince had a meeting and was gone for several hours so I had a date with a girl friend.  Vince had told me he would be home around 9:30 p.m. so I planned to be home around 9 but he ended up getting home before I did.  We sat and chatted about our evenings and then he went to bed. It was about 10:30 when I started to go to bed and the thought occurred to me that both of us may have forgotten to put the chickens up.  What incompetent chicken parents we are!  I woke Vince up, which is never a fun thing to do, and said “Did you put the chickens up?”  He said “No, I figured you did!”  I had left home about 6 so it wasn’t nearly dark yet and the chickens weren’t in the coop yet.  My friend and I drank a bit of sangria and putting the chickens up was the last thing I was thinking about.  Don’t worry . . I wasn’t driving the car.  I was driving the RTV . . through the woods. It was a cool evening, and was getting a bit stormy with wind and some lightning in the distance as I was driving home.  It was such a neat ride in the dark.  Yes, the RTV has lights.

Back to the chickens . . at dusk, they all go into their respective coops and all I have to do is close and secure the doors to keep the critters out.  I told Vince “I’ll go close them up” so I grabbed my flashlight and out I went. I asked if he was going to come watch me and he said “No, I’ll listen for you to scream if something happens.”  Thanks a lot, dear!  When walking, I’m shining the flashlight on the ground, making sure I see where I’m stepping.

The doors have a cord on them, and a little pulley and I simply let the cord down to close the door or pull the cord to open the door.

Coop #1

Coop #1 – Everything went fine.  I closed the little door and locked it, then opened the big door and told them all goodnight. No problems there.

Coop #2

Coop #2 – Everything didn’t go so well.  Flashlight is shining on the ground.  I reach up to grab the cord and the “cord” moved.  I shined the light up and the “cord” was not a cord but a big black snake!  Thankfully it was the south end and not the biting end!

Notice that anywhere that Vince might be doing any work, there’s always a chair situated nearby?  :)

Windows

It was the right side I was fixing to close.  The big, black chicken snake was stretched all the way up over the top of the window and down the right side of the window and was trying to get in the window.  All the windows are covered with hardware cloth so he couldn’t get in but he sure could scare the you-know-what out of me!

OMG!  I went running back into the house.  ”Vince!  You have to come help me.  There’s a HUGE snake out there!”  He handled it better than I expected he would.  He got up, got another flashlight, got the snake gun.  Vince got him down with the forked hoe thing but the snake got away before we got him.

So . . he’s still out there somewhere and you can bet he will be back.  He knows where the chickens reside.   I’ve been out there several times today, armed and ready but I haven’t found him.  One thing for sure . . you can bet I won’t be out there after dark again any time soon.

Before you ask . . I had on flip flops!  :(

It’s so aggravating to have to to worry about snakes when I’m walking around, or when I’m reaching in the coop for eggs. But, that seems to be the way it has to be around here this time of year.

Crocus are such pretty little flowers.  The first time I ever grew them was when we lived in Kentucky.  I had them growing right by the steps leading up to the front porch.  Kentucky was my first time living where we got snow and, while we didn’t get nearly as much snow as some northern folks, after having lived my entire life not far from the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, anything less than about 45º was cold!

Seeing those little snow crocus poke their pretty heads through the snow each spring was my signal that winter was coming to an end and soon I could begin gardening again.  The saffron crocus, though just as pretty as the snow crocus, blooms in the fall.  Not only does it bloom, but it produces saffron . . one of the most expensive spices around.

Saffron Crocus

Saffron makes such a difference in recipes that call for it but I almost always leave it out because of the cost. Every now and then I’ll buy a little of it and then I’ll just too little of it because of the cost, and end up not even getting the saffron flavor.

For planting zones 6 through 9, saffron crocus is very easy to grow.  The saffron is easy to harvest .. no canning needed!  I purchased 50 bulbs from Eden Brothers (they’re on sale right now) and hopefully today will get those planted.

Maybe by Thanksgiving I’ll have a little bit of saffron to harvest!  The bulbs multiply like crazy and if what I’m thinking will happen does happen, they should spring into action about the time the grasshoppers are gone so I shouldn’t have too much problems with those horrible critters eating all my plants.  We’ll see . .