Well, yesterday, my wife, my friend Willie, someone we hired to help clear out the area and myself went to the property to clear out some of the overgrown stuff around the buildings. The individual we hired got a little lawn mower and opened up a path so my wife could walk up the trailer without having to walk in waist high grass. She is very short.
While we were doing that my friend Willie showed up with his tractor and bushhog to get some of the bigger stuff taken care of. In the meantime, he wanted to see the buildings and I was showing him the trailer and the surrounding structures. We were walking outside through a covered area towards this covered room between some barrels when I noticed something on the ground. I jumped back and my friend Willie almost had a heart attack. A big old Timber Rattle snake was less than 1 1/2 ft from my left foot, and my right foot was about to step right on it. Fortunately, I always look down when I'm in the woods and saw it before I took the step. Stepping on this big snake would have made it into a painful and interesting day. My wife said that she believes I have a Guardian Angel looking after me. I've had some close calls with snakes, but this one has been the closest I've come to stepping on one and potential getting bit.
My friend Willie (who hates, and it's petrified of them) had reached and had his hand on his Glock and was yelling at me to get out of the way so he could shoot it. Without a word, I reached out and picked up this baby size hoe and used it to hold the snake's head and proceeded to grab it. By this Willie is going bunkers and is yelling at me for grabbing the snake, and my wife had heard all the commotions and came out running just to see me holding the snake. She started yelling at me for holding the snake, and what I was planning on doing with it. When I said I was going to release it in the woods, they both went ballistic, and Willie was telling to drop it so he can shoot it.

So, I laughed and told him that I've had seen how bad of a shot he was, and the snake would probably laugh at both of us. BTW, I'm actually enjoying this fiasco, and after a bit, I decided to kill the snake. I believe a bit of persuasion from my wife, and something along the line of where I was planning on spending the night, probably made me change my mind.

BTW, you all remember from previous posts that I like snakes. I always had snakes as a kid and into my adult life, and I don't like killing them.
So, I killed the snake and proceeded to skinned it, and of course my wife (who is prettified of snakes too) was having a fit over me skinning the snake and what I was planning on doing with the skin, etc, etc. I told her it was the first kill of the property, and we need it to keep it as a good luck charm. I'm not sure she bought my BS, but she shook her head and went back into the safety of trailer.
We trimmed around the trailer, cut some trees, my friend Willie mowed with his Bush Hog, and we did a good dent on clearing out the area. Luckily without any further encounters of this type. My wife cleaned the trailer, and boy what a difference it did. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we do not have a timeline and plan on tackling one section at a time.
We met some of the neighbor including the one across the road, and as it turns out, his sister was the listing agent for the property (small world). They seem like a nice couple and hope to build a good friendship with them.
Here are some pictures of the encounter.
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