The snake incident

Song of the day: “Just can’t get enough” by the Black Eyed Peas. Who’d have thunk that I’d ever have one of theirs in my head, but there you have it. Not a bad song either, and that is surely something that I had never expected either.

So first off, there was the snake incident yesterday afternoon, which I just have to blab about first. Seriously, I was walking down the stairs of the garden pit and was distracted by a moving leaf on my left, when suddenly I see something slither against the glass of the green house. I freeze, eyes snapping towards the movement as this big-ass snake slides in a lazy slow-mo between the door and post crossing the doorway one foot ahead of me, only to slide further inside and under one of the tables. I backed off, calling Sitabah to “friggin’-not-go-in-there” and stay right with me as I bound back up the stairs.
“Big Brother!!!” I called, immediately adding, “Sitabah, Knight, get your butts up here right now. Big Brother!!!”
“What? Did you see a snake or something?” I heard him call from the higher path as I field one dog after the next wanting to go down into the greenhouse. “Yeah!” I call back. “A friggin’ big one too. I’m going to call grandpa, the dogs are going crazy.”
So while big brother headed down into the pit wielding a broom no less, I called for grandpa to come down, while I tried (several times without success, until I wedged a couple of chairs in front of the opening) to keep the dogs away.
“Shit!”
“What is it?” I peer at big brother, keeping a wary eye on the stairs from fear there’s another lurking in there somewhere. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“What. I mean it, if you get bit, you catch it, THEN I’ll drive you to the nearest emergency room.”
“Nah. It just bit at the stick. Grandpa here yet?” he asked, carefully dragging stuff from under the table where the snake is hiding.
He was, of course, and together they tried to get the effing snake in a bucket. They couldn’t, seeing as the big fat one slithered up on the planter and then through a crack in the glass, bringing it into the pit.
Grandpa and big brother went right along with it, digging through empty pots with shovels and broom until finally finding the bugger curled under one of the multi-pots, hissing and lashing out.
Luckily they did finally manage to get it in the bucket and we set it out into its natural habitat (some 5 effing miles away from us) this very morning. *sigh* I hate snakes. Seriously, I was jumpy the rest of the day, and this morning still. Lizards made me jump, locusts made me swear and Sitabah’s tail hitting my shin freaked me out. Heck, I even dreamed about the serpents. Aaaargh.

But okay, I got ahead of myself. Yesterday was a little out of the ordinary. The majority of the morning, right after unloading the first load concrete beams that we finally got our hands on, (they were so heavy it took two people to carry them btw) we worked in the carport to create this rather nice standard for mom. Since her bags/purses are doing rather well on the market, she asked if we could make something where she can display them properly. It worked out splendidly, if I do say so myself, and it took us only four hours to make it. Big and red, with oak wood. It could stand in a shop easy, so that is nice.

After that and the snake incident, there was of course yard stuff to do, followed by working on the in-between project again, which is about ready to go for a test run. Yay. It took ages though, not to mention that this new kind of thing was incredibly annoying to do. Sometimes it almost seems as if publishers have these rules just to freak us out. Hah.
But of course that is just annoyance talking seeing as I am well aware that if you have to read eight hours a day the text better be legible and formal. You’ll go bonkers otherwise.

But anyway, after that exhausting venture we went out to get the second batch of beams which were a bitch to get into the car. We managed, though and got home with me falling asleep in the passenger seat. I was so tired, I was actually nauseous when I got home and went to bed. Such a pity that we could only get those beams late at night, but what the hey, they were incredibly cheap, and for that reason I don’t mind sacrificing sleep for a bit.

So this morning we had to unload again, for the last time luckily. The brace of beams we’d made worked well, meaning that we didn’t wreck the folded back couch this time. Hah. And afterwards I headed down into the yard to water the seedlings.

As soon as Dani arrived the four of us started working on the wall, meaning that we added another layer, two stones that now officially reach seven feet. Yay. It’s gorgeous, if you must know, and I can’t wait for it to be done so I can start posting photos of the entire process. It’ll be beautiful, and I am even looking forward to getting started on the new septic tank, which will take some serious effort, but which will work a lot better than the old one.

Amri's swelling is finally going down, meaning that the bursting skin helped some. He doesn't appear to be feeling bad, so all is well in that corner.
The reason I've been mentioning the new pup Bakti so little, is because little brother is carefully keeping him secluded from the rest of the dogs. The poor thing had some stress related issues, and since Parvo can really hit hard in such instances they decided to keep him away from the other dogs (ergo us too, hah) until he's a bit stronger.

Well, that’s about it for today. I have a book to write and maybe another half hour to go before I need to go back to work. Guess I’ll get to it now.