SNAKE!!

My wife and I are in our 2nd season of leading facilitated climbs at a Girl Scout camp. Yesterday we arrived to prepare for today's event. At the end of the day as we were relaxing in the grove, a group of girls about 30' away spotted a black snake. I HATE snakes of any kind. (Keep your lecture to your selves all you herpatoligists. I don't like them and that's that.). Anyways... I walked over to see this 5'er start climbing a huge oak that's 30' behind the one we use for our events here. No surprise to me to see it going up as I was well aware that they do this often. But the girls started asking if it would be in our tree. Of course I assured them that our tree was clean & clear, no fear.

Well. Guess who crashed the party this morning during our first group? Yup. Blackie. I heard something moving in the grass at the base of the tree and looked down to see him laying right there. Fortunately, I didn't do my usual dance and kept my cool. I told the girls to back away a little as it found a hole to crawl off to. They'll be talking about that for a long time I bet.

Ron

Your camp is probably over but if you want to get rid of a black rat snake grab it behind the head quickly, as their bite doesn't hurt and the only effect is it has an anti coagulant that will slowly bleed out, or just poke it with a stick wave your arms and stomp your feet and it will either coil up or run in fear

Well...like I said earlier...this guy does not like snakes. Ergo, I am not grabbing one any where. Only thing I'm grabbing for is my machete or a big sturdy stick to wrist shot it away. We have one more event there in a couple of weeks. I doubt we'll see it then. Too chilly most likely.