living in the country
Often there is an idyllic image that goes along with our family homestead.
Do you envision waking up every morning to the sweet sound of chickens crooning softly? Flowers meandering in perfectly neat rows, smiling pristinely for our cutting pleasure, while our vegetable garden produces enough to supply all our needs and some to share?
And yes, don’t forget the bounty of eggs that we gather every morning. My daughter skips sweetly down the path, basket in hand to gather them…oh so, Little House on the Prairie, don’t you think?
chicken eggs in bowl
AND THEN REALITY SETS IN….
The bubble has burst on our dream like state, and my quest for balancing  beauty and bedlam comes back to the front and center of every day living.

 
When my son went to water the chickens and grab our eggs for the day (moaning the whole time), rejoicing about the privilege we have to live in the country, he opened the chicken coop to this scene.
Some one besides our chickens decided to take up residence for awhile and he wasn’t content to just eat the grass…

AHHHHHH!!! Bedlam, I tell you, SHEER BEDLAM!
Yes, our friendly neighborhood black snake wanted in on our bounty. He told me a snake was in the coop and I ran to get a picture and WHILE I TOOK THE PICTURE he opened his mouth and went for the egg.
Nothing like needing a pacemaker before your first cup of morning coffee. 🙂
IMG_9905_opt
Snakes have an amazing capacity to unhinge their jaw so that they can eat things SO much bigger than what we’d imagine could fit in their mouth, and this black snake wanted my egg for breakfast.
Well, since I am all about doing the country living thing to its finest, the boys captured him (while I affirmed their manly-hood), but not before my prissy, won’t play sports and polishes her nails on a daily basis daughter got better acquainted with him.
find a snake in the woods
It never ceases to amaze me what some of our kids will and will not do…along with the fact that sometimes I can’t believe this IS my life (said from the mom who grew up in the city/suburbs).
Gotta love my Green Acres, Country Living girl!
country girl petting snake
On behalf of all snake lovers out there…black snakes really are good snakes. You never want to kill them because they keep away all the poisonous ones, but guess what we learned? You have to relocate them a mile away from your house or they will find their way back. Who knew that the Lord made these things so darn smart. My boys carried him a few acres away and the very next morning there he was again…eating my egg (they can digest one a day). The bad thing this time? We didn’t catch him.
Anyone want to gather my eggs this morning? 🙂