New property owners again

[Ridgerunner]

Can't see it well enough to be sure but with that lighter colored belly it looks like a black racer. I've caught a couple of those eating eggs in the chicken coop and gave them to a friend a few miles away. She wants them to try to keep the rattlesnakes away. I'm not sure if racers will eat rattlesnakes but at least I have a place to release them instead of killing them.

What she really wants is a big king snake. I've seen a few black speckled kings but haven't caught any for her. Not sure I want to that much unless they are eating my eggs or baby chicks.

 

[thistlebloom]

Gopher snakes will kill rattlesnakes. We had both at our old place.

 

[dewdropsinwv]

Sounds like you guys have been very productive? Don't you love those days instead of the ones where you feel like all you did was spin your wheels all day?

Mary

At the rate we are making progress, I don't think it will take until Thanksgiving to be in there.

 

[dewdropsinwv]

Snakes Dont bother me, now spiders are another story!

@Ridgerunner it was a black snake. We have a lot of those around here... have to share the garden with them sometimes. Hope I don't get bit by one though. I try to keep my distance. DD wanted to keep it for a PET!!!!

 

[Smart Red]

Ah! That's my kind of DD you have there. Pet snakes are an in thing.

 

[Nyboy]

Red I rather a pet rock. Remember them.

 

[MontyJ]

Can't see it well enough to be sure but with that lighter colored belly it looks like a black racer. I've caught a couple of those eating eggs in the chicken coop and gave them to a friend a few miles away. She wants them to try to keep the rattlesnakes away. I'm not sure if racers will eat rattlesnakes but at least I have a place to release them instead of killing them.

What she really wants is a big king snake. I've seen a few black speckled kings but haven't caught any for her. Not sure I want to that much unless they are eating my eggs or baby chicks.

That's a Black Ratsnake in the pic. I could still see some of the juvenile pattern in it. I've found numerous shed skins over there, including under the floor. The largest I have found so far was well over 6' long. That one might have been an Eastern Black King Snake though, it's hard to tell from a shed skin because they look very similar.

DD wanted to hold it and keep it as a pet. Normally I would have caught it for her and let her hold it for a bit, but rat snakes can have a nasty temperament. This one most certainly would have bitten, because I believe it had just finished shedding. It's eyes had that milky look to them and it came right up to me after it got off the fence. It startled and changed direction very quickly when I tapped my boot on the ground.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There can be subtle differences in "black snakes". You sometimes have to be able to study them a bit to know which one is which. My first identification is poisonous or not-poisonous. After that its academic exactly what it is though king snakes are prized. Here the king snakes are usually speckled which makes it pretty easy to identify them. And long and slender with a thin head is easy to tell from thick and stubby with an arrow shaped head.

While a bite from a "black snake" is not venomous they often get infected. While they normally prefer to run they will often bite to protect themselves. I don't go out of my way to handle snakes, especially wild snakes, though lot of people really enjoy it.

 

[Nyboy]

Can Rat and black interbreed ? While very rare cotton mouths and copperheads can, offspring go for big bucks to collectors of snakes.

 

[MontyJ]

I don't know if they can interbreed or not Nyboy. I would imagine it would be very dangerous for the rat snake. A King Snake can, and will, kill and eat other snakes. I'm certain that this was a Black Rat snake. Like I said, I could see the remains of it's juvenile pattern. I don't how many times I've been told by people that they just killed a Copperhead, only to find that all they did was rid the world of a young Rat Snake.

Anyway, update time:

Yesterday I pulled the carpet from under the living room window on one side of the home. The damage was worse than I anticipated, and led to me having to finish taking out the remaining lower cabinet and existing bar. I replaced about 14 linear feet of floor along that wall, so that side is done. Now I only have one bad spot left, under the window on the opposite side of the living room. I was going to tackle that today, but that meant moving the rolls of carpet and linoleum along with everything else piled in the way. I have been worried about the lino rolls flattening out because there are no tubes in them. So, instead of moving them, I finished prepping the guest bathroom floor today and put the linoleum down in there, and out into the hallway. After all, we have a new bathtub coming any day now and the only place to store it is where it's going to be permanently. I think Dew may have got a pic or two. It looks really nice.
I then moved into the master bath and took the toilet out. I may have to replace the floor surrounding the toilet drain, but before I could make a decision, a storm moved in. It was too dark to work inside and I'm not subjecting my new generator to a direct downpour, so we called it quits for today.

In other news, I had a friend who is also an electrical contractor come over last night and take a look at the service entrance. It's URD, which isn't technically allowed in mobile homes anymore. The reason is kind of dumb. URD doesn't have a flame retardent jacket, so if exposed to flame, it will burn. I'm sorry, but if the service entrance cable is being exposed to flame, in a mobile home, you have much worse problems than if the wire jacket will burn.
Anyway, my friend called his friend the electrical inspector. The inspector said he would let it go, because he thinks it's a dumb code too. The cable is in conduit all the way from start to finish, and buried 24" underground. It's unlikely to come into contact with flame
So, that saved me about $1000 in a new service installation. Thank God above for the little things he does to make our lives just a bit better.
Tomorrow, I would like to get the other side of the living room done, and also the area around that toilet if I decide it needs it. Frankly, I'm leaning towards just doing it and getting it over with.
I'm hoping to get the laminate down in the kitchen by the end of the week too. I still have to get the poly finish on the rest of the upper cabinets so I can hang them and get them out of my wood shop so I can move the lowers in to finish them.