Blog I don’t like snakes

Photo by Dean Scholten on Unsplash

I really don’t like snakes. I really didn’t like that starting several years ago, at least once each season, one would find its way into the house. Every time proved to be a unique experience. I never wished to repeat any of those experiences.

Somewhere along the line, I found out snakes hate salt. It stings their skin. I tried it out the back door one year. There is a fissure between the house and the sidewalk. I knew snakes hid down that crack. I poured salt all along that fissure. The snakes slithered out in both directions as fast as they could. After that, I used salt in front of our doorways and any place that I thought they might even try to enter.

(I also learned salt is a problem for pesky insects. The salt becomes more effective when mixed with Borax and pepper. Then without adding deadly sprays to your house, a simple mixture in the right places depletes the house of many creatures you didn’t invite inside and do not want dwelling in your house.)

This year the day before Mother’s Day, I got a post from my daughter. She asked if I’d received her flowers. I said, “not yet.”

Then I went outside to check if something had been left. A box leaned against the house. My flowers! Curled around the box was, you guessed it, a snake. When I screamed for Keith, the snake slithered off into the grass.

While Keith picked up the box, opened it, and prepared the flowers for display on the table, I grabbed the salt. There is now a wide white band of it across the front door. Next, I duplicated that salt band outside the kitchen door leading to the garage. I do not want a snake in my house. Not this year. Not ever.

The red roses are beautiful, and I look up from my laptop to take in the sight of them on the dining room table. I am enjoying my flowers. I only wish I also didn’t flashback to a box at the front door greeting me with a 15-inch snake. At least it wasn’t poisonous. At least it crawled away not toward me and the open door. I appreciate the flowers and am grateful that, so far, there is no snake in the house.

© 2022 Carolyn R Scheidies

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Blog Bio Snakes, summer and surprises

I have had quite a history with snakes. I am not talking about snakes in our front and back yard. I am talking about adventures with snakes that somehow manage to sneak into our house and surprise me at the most inopportune times.

I’ve dealt with a huge sake inside the front door and half under the baseboard that looked about ready to deliver who knows how many wiggly baby snakes. I screamed. The only person I could think of in the vicinity was our pastor at his office at the church. I called.

Pastor Dave came with a rake and had that snake out and dispatched before I could take a breath. That was the beginning of my adventure. My contractor brother had his crew fill in the crack between the sidewalk and the front of the house. Nothing coming in that way!

One year a snake suddenly appeared out of the baseboard in the kitchen and slithered behind the refrigerator. I knew snakes hate salt. Out the back door, I’d I poured salt down the opening between the sidewalk and the house and had snakes escaping right and left.

I used that knowledge by opening the garage door (next to the refrigerator) and pouring salt on the kitchen floor to keep the snake out of the rest of the house while giving it a way out. Never saw that snake again.

I had a snake walk me down the hall at night. I sensed I was not alone. When I flipped on the light, there was this little, almost, cute baby snake looking up at me. Eventually, my fear dwindled and I‘d had enough.

Because of my limitations, I keep what I call “helper hooks” around the house. They help me reach, dress and pick things up. Finally, I found one more reptile just inside the front door.

This time I noticed one of my hooks hanging up nearby. My mind flashed to the place I’d been with my family many years earlier in the Black Hills where they handled snakes with hooks. After managing to open the front door, I grabbed my hook, hooked that snake, and threw it outside. I felt a sense of satisfaction.

For a while, I thought I’d seen the end of snakes entering our house. I stopped checking out corners and the doors. All was well. Not quite. So much has happened this year, I really didn’t need one more thing. But, we can’t always control circumstances.

We’ve been pretty much staying home and self-distancing until lately. Instead of shopping, we ordered groceries to be delivered. That morning I saw the vehicle pull up and headed to the door to open it so the delivery person could bring our groceries inside.

Oh no! There was a snake right inside the door—again. I was startled. I screamed for Keith. Even using a cane he responded quickly and, using his cane, had that snake out the door by the time the lady got to the door with our order.

Is my adventure beginning all over again? I hope not, but I am pouring salt around the places these creatures may sneak in. I really don’t like snakes, but considering everything else going on, snakes in the house is, by comparison, creepy, but not earth-shaking.

They aren’t poisonous snakes after all. Besides, I am reminded that they, as are we, God’s creations and whatever snakes are in my house or life, I can be thankful that He’s got this.

© 2020 Carolyn R Scheidies
Published in Kearney Hub 6/22/2020 as Snakes don’t shake me up anymore
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