Snakesssssssssss

Saw humungous King Snake in the garden day before yesterday and I hope he's out trolling for rattlers 'cause DH killed a rattler along our drive yesterday afternoon. Small....3 rattles, hoping it's not got any brothers and sisters lurking around. All it takes is one and I start watching every step I take for several months.

Yep, and I would be wearing my boots, too. Our neighbor across the street seems to get all the rattlers - very unfortunate because they have a wee girl to watch, and a horse and donkey. There dog was bitten recently and the vet bill was awful. Too bad there isn't something you can feed the King to keep it around!

I've only seen one here and it was a baby (just a bud on the tail) - it slithered off, thank goodness, and I didn't see it again.

maybe thats why the king is hanging around.. he knows theres little rattlers around to snack on.. and where theres one little rattler u can bet theres more.. be careful

Oh I'd love to find a king snake around here to ward off the rattlers. We are doing a lot of work in the back and I'm always wearing me' boots!

BTW - I think I mentioned that I really liked Bonsall and I finally got DH to look at houses in Fallbrook/Bonsall today. WooHoo! We didn't find anything, but it's a start. We need more space for plants, and maybe something like a shop for DH, but really for plants. lol

(Edited for spelling.)





This message was edited Jul 7, 2007 11:23 PM

We don't see a lot of rattlers at our place...one last year and one this year. In the 20-some years before that, none, but our several neighbors each got maybe one. It can vary, a friend who lives up behind Pala Mesa gets them quite often. Like everywhere else, I'm sure, the microclimates can make a difference also...this is the first year we actually got frost on our property and we weren't really bothered by this last winter's freezes. A friend who lives a couple of miles away is in a frost pocket and has a totally different winter experience than we do. We live in the Winterwarm area, perhaps that describes it well.

Congratulations, TL. Hope you find something that suits you soon.

TL, We could use more DG people around here!

Thanks y'all! I'm happy to hear you don't have as many snakes in that area as we do here in Scripps. We passed Winterwarm while looking and I saw the Fallbrook Winery. They have great wine. I had tried to find them last year but I didn't have a map at the time and never made it.

You are right about the microclimates. One place we looked at had a great pond. I never thought about it at the time, but guess that means it would have colder winters since it was down in a valley. I'm on a hill now and didn't lose any plants in the big freeze where some close neighbors in the lower areas did.

LOL...Fallbrook Winery is our backyard! It used to be Culbertson's, then later Fallbrook Winery bought the land and started up there again, now have added the 15 acres behind us and are planting more vines there. It will be interesting to see how it all develops. They demo'd the wonderful old adobe at the top of the hill and are now building something new there, so I'm wondering if that's going to be residence or a more commercial addition. That's my favorite view...looking out over the Gird Valley toward Palomar. From the high points along this side of town looking toward Palomar you can see the snow on Palomar in the winter.
Our property gently slopes to the south and is cooler down at the back, our neighbor used to say there was an 8 degree difference between his house and the swale at the back. Check out what's growing on the places you look at and you may be able to tell what got hit by freeze last year.

...gently slopes to the south and is cooler down at the back...vineyard view...Palamar snow! Oh, that all sounds SOOOO nice!

I heard about the old adobe. I guess they tried to restore it, but couldn't. Good point about checking out what is growing. What is your typical coldest temp (not counting last year)?

We had a sad snake occurrence this morning. DH was inspecting some large rocks for use in the waterfall he's adding to the pond. He tipped a rock to check out the underside of it and there was a small snake under it - not a rattler - so he gently put it back. Just then he saw another tail scoot off to the side, so evidently it was a good snake home. When we went back later, the poor fella was dead - we think he must have moved slightly so the rock squished him. We really felt bad about it. :-(

Weather...we didn't have any plants on our southwest slope in January, so I'm not sure if they would have fared differently. I had damaged ones on both the west and east sides of the house. We are towards the bottom of a not too gently sloped hill in the river valley. I know the temp got down to at least 28, but I'm not sure if that was the lowest or not. This is our fourth year here and it had never been nearly that cold before. We have a near constant breeze here, and I often wonder what effect that has on the temps. Sure helps in the summer - we don't have a/c.

K