Monday, January 28, 2008

Tales of the Intrepid Snake Hunter

Well after my heart has finally stopped beating like it is going to jump out of my rib cage.

I thought you would all be interested to know our news...

This is our 3rd summer in this house and I have never even seen a snake in our yard or heard the birds doing their snake alert chirping. So imagine my surprise.

I opened the door from the kitchen to the laundry and heard something move in among a few things over on the far side of the room. Now we do get the odd tiny lizard but it sounded a bit bigger than that so I decided to investigate, I thought it may just be a mouse or something. I grabbed the broom and gave the bag and the rolled up rug that was on the floor a good wack and nothing happened.

I grabbed the bag (Marcus's football training bag) and flipped it over and nothing happened.

I almost left it at that but thought I had better just check under the rug. I had already moved it about a bit with the broom but grabbed an edge and picked it up. Well didn't my head spin when a Brown Snake thudded onto the floor. Thank goodness I had been leaning towards it and not standing right next to it.

You can just imagine how quickly I jumped backwards into the kitchen. Shut the door, grabbed the tea towels and rammed them against the bottom of the door and ran to the phone to call my in-laws who live 100m across the paddock. Marcus is usually up there working and he usually has lunch up there but he was out right then. So Bev and Ian came across to help.

Poor Bev, all I could say when she answered the phone was "There is a snake in my laundry... it's Bec"

I paced around the house until they came, bringing shovel and morale boosting smiles. It took us nearly half an hour to find it as first we had to get everything off the floor of the laundry and it had hidden itself behind the washing machine. So Ian hunted it out and pinned it down with the broom. I then held the broom while he bashed it on the head with the shovel.

Now for those who may go cross at the cruely please don't bother. Come and see me when you've been bitten by and Eastern Brown Snake and then we'll talk. I have never been bitten and don't ever want to but we live 1/2 hr from the nearest hospital and it would be touch and go for and adult but it Sam got bitten it would probably be fatal much quicker.

I don't know how long it had been in there and I am still scratching my head trying to figure out exactly how it got in there. I have plugged up the 2 possible places.

I am still thanking the fact that I obviously have some kind of 6th sense and hadn't let Sam into the Laundry to play with the shoes today as I often do when I am in the kitchen. I think I got in while I was over at the in laws having a cup of tea this morning and then when I got back I was making some soup to stock up the freezer and for some reason had kept Sam in the kitchen with me, he was in the Laundry when Marcus's Dad came to deliver our post but I took him out when I went. He usually plays over where it was and ohh.... I just can't believe our good luck.

Enough. I am still feeling a bit panicky just talking about it.

Bec

Saturday, January 12, 2008

New Years News

Well it has been ages since I updated my blog, bit things have been sooooo... busy. Christmas and New Year have come and gone. It really felt strange this year. I was so busy leading up to christmas that it didn't even feel like christmas. Sam didn't really understand what was going on but he had a lovely time among all the paper. He got some lovely presents from the family and Marcus and I didn't do too badly either. I got the final Harry Potter book which was all I wanted and I have already read it 2 times. I loved it!!!!

I have been madly making soap as the Gift shop in Town has said that they will buy it off me. I don't know how it will sell but I have been making a few extra batches just in case. It takes them 4-6 weeks to cure and I would hate to run out. If it doesn't sell we will always use it and it makes a great present. I am still sticking to 4 simplish recipes. I don't want to be too adventurous when I don't have the time. The 4 recipes that I use are easy enough but make lovely soap.
I have been managing to fit some sewing in in short spurts. I have done a couple of dolls quilts as presents for 2 little girs (Gemma & Andrea) that turned 1 and 3 in December. I am still working on another really big difficult project that I can't tell you about yet. I have made a trial run of a dress that I will be making to wear to my brothers wedding in June also.




I am pretty organised for our bit trip to the USA. All our flights are booked and our accommodation so I don't have to worry about that.

Here also are some photo's of Sam. It has been so hot here lately, we don't have Aircon so I have had to let him run around in his birthday suit. He still does these funny headstands too. We call them his "Yoga moves Downwards Dog". I can't believe that he is 9 months old already.