Land clearing

I have rented heavy equipment within fifteen miles of Navarre and Pensacola for almost twenty years. The options are limited. I usually bring my one ton dump and bobcat when I am working on a commercial project. However, the ride is a killer with the bouncing around, and I am not in a position to do that anymore. So I am looking to bushhog about five acres which I did just five years ago after I had fully recovered from the lung removal. Well all the rental places do not have clearing equipment because folks tore it up. I have a couple of people who have tractors, but I prefer a skidster with foot controls and a brushcat attachement. Not having much luck.

Today I got a commercial mower and did some preliminary cutting to outline what I have to attack. Well the way my luck is going an hour into it I find a two foot by two foot by two hole that some trenching equipment dug when putting in a sewer line which had grown up with grass......pop.....I am stuck and I have no strength. I walk down the road a bit and find a construction guy working on utility poles and he immediately stops what he is doing hops in his truck and helps me get unstuck. He refused to take my ten bucks when I offered to buy him lunch, but I insisted that I am sick, weak, and old, and if he refuses to take my offer, I will feel like an invalid......he took the ten bucks....I was going to suggest a whataburger, but I figured he would get what he wanted. Good people and I do feel like an invalid now.

Here is my question. I was crazy in my younger years and did not give a rat's tail about snakes when I was out and about clearing. With the cooler weather, I thought the snakes were done for the season. I was wrong. Apparently that hole had a big old snake which almost got the guy as he was pushing the mower and I was driving. He clearly was scared to death at the close call. I will be working on clearing about two hours a day in early November, and will there be snakes or will they be hibernating with the cold? I will be around water and already see I have a gator slide, and I just do not need fighting snakes, gators, and no seeums as I attempt to clear. I will find out in April if the financing and concept plan will work with this property, and I am trying to tie up some loose ends......but that snake which I did not see surprised me.

2seaoat wrote:I have rented heavy equipment within fifteen miles of Navarre and Pensacola for almost twenty years.  The options are limited.  I usually bring my one ton dump and bobcat when I am working on a commercial project.  However, the ride is a killer with the bouncing around, and I am not in a position to do that anymore.  So I am looking to bushhog about five acres which I did just five years ago after I had fully recovered from the lung removal.  Well all the rental places do not have clearing equipment because folks tore it up.  I have a couple of people who have tractors, but I prefer a skidster with foot controls and a brushcat attachement.  Not having much luck.

Today I got a commercial mower and did some preliminary cutting to outline what I have to attack.  Well the way my luck is going an hour into it I find a two foot by two foot by two hole that some trenching equipment dug when putting in a sewer line which had grown up with grass......pop.....I am stuck and I have no strength.  I walk down the road a bit and find a construction guy working on utility poles and he immediately stops what he is doing hops in his truck and helps me get unstuck.  He refused to take my ten bucks when I offered to buy him lunch, but I insisted that I am sick, weak, and old, and if he refuses to take my offer, I will feel like an invalid......he took the ten bucks....I was going to suggest a whataburger, but I figured he would get what he wanted.  Good people and I do feel like an invalid now.

Here is my question.  I was crazy in my younger years and did not give a rat's tail about snakes when I was out and about clearing.  With the cooler weather, I thought the snakes were done for the season.  I was wrong.  Apparently that hole had a big old snake which almost got the guy as he was pushing the mower and I was driving.  He clearly was scared to death at the close call.  I will be working on clearing about two hours a day in early November, and will there be snakes or will they be hibernating with the cold?  I will be around water and already see I have a gator slide, and I just do not need fighting snakes, gators, and no seeums as I attempt to clear.  I will find out in April if the financing and concept plan will work with this property, and I am trying to tie up some loose ends......but that snake which I did not see surprised me.

We have a lot more snakes than ever before. Seems it got worse, in my area after the flooding a year ago. Had a rattlesnake come in the house through the pool bath door, just ahead of my daughter. We had a guy come right over and kill it. The next day I had the border flower bed dug up and concreted the area.

January and February are cold enough that I don't see any snakes....but I'm sure they are deep in the mulched areas.

Well it looks like I am going to have to bring my heavy boots down in November. I have some loafers which I use now because it is easier picking up my feet, but I need to do some clearing in early November, and will do most of it in December and January. I will only spend two weeks in Marco this year because of this project. I thought my brother having rattlesnakes coming in the house was a problem on Desert Mountain Az, but the look on this guys face when the snake lashed out at him was enough to make me cautious, and I have no use for snakes in houses......did you see the snake come in, or were you told that was the probable way it came in....?

2seaoat wrote:Well it looks like I am going to have to bring my heavy boots down in November.  I have some loafers which I use now because it is easier picking up my feet, but I need to do some clearing in early November, and will do most of it in December and January.  I will only spend two weeks in Marco this year because of this project.  I thought my brother having rattlesnakes coming in the house was a problem on Desert Mountain Az, but the look on this guys face when the snake lashed out at him was enough to make me cautious, and I have no use for snakes in houses......did you see the snake come in, or were you told that was the probable way it came in....?

My daughter opened the door and turned around to get her towel....when she turned back she screamed and said a snake went in the house. I ran in the sliding glass door and closed off the bedroom door attached to the pool bath. I called my son and he sent 2 of his workers over to kill the snake. When they arrived I was almost hysterical. After searching the bath, bedroom, and closet they said they couldn't find a snake. I wouldn't go any closer than the kitchen......out of the corner of my eye I saw a snake slither through the kitcken. If I had to bet my life on it I would have guessed the snake was 6 feet long and as big around as a pool noodle...the blood curdling scream alerted the guys and all my neighbors a snake was in my house. The guys came in and killed the snake with a knife.

The snake was 3 feet long and it had a rattle.

I used to handle snakes as a kid. I got bit by a gartner snake which drew blood, but they are harmless and foolishly we had put the snake in a big pickle jar and had put it on the shelf by the window. When I reached in it bit me and drew the blood, but it did not take me long to figure out that the snake was fighting for its life with the hot sun, and we moved to a cooler place. I was in sixth grade and did not have a fear of snakes. However, a snake in the house is bothersome. My brother gets big rattlesnakes and scorps in the house frequently. When all four of my grandkids were visiting my mother they were up at my brother's and I was cautious and kept my eyes open in the house and outside. In Illinois in the western part of the state you will get timber rattlesnake but it is rare......there are no other poisonous snakes in northern Il so you kind of relax. As a kid fishing ponds in Al the moccasins were so thick my Aunt and Uncle a couple times just called off the fishing. I would change my landscaping around the house and put a collar of concrete near doors.

2seaoat wrote:I used to handle snakes as a kid.  I got bit by a gartner snake which drew blood, but they are harmless and foolishly we had put the snake in a big pickle jar and had put it on the shelf by the window.   When I reached in it bit me and drew the blood, but it did not take me long to figure out that the snake was fighting for its life with the hot sun, and we moved to a cooler place.  I was in sixth grade and did not have a fear of snakes.  However, a snake in the house is bothersome.  My brother gets big rattlesnakes and scorps in the house frequently.  When all four of my grandkids were visiting my mother they were up at my brother's and I was cautious and kept my eyes open in the house and outside.   In Illinois in the western part of the state you will get timber rattlesnake but it is rare......there are no other poisonous snakes in northern Il so you kind of relax.  As a kid fishing ponds in Al the moccasins were so thick my Aunt and Uncle a couple times just called off the fishing.  I would change my landscaping around the house and put a collar of concrete near doors.

I did.

I have a horrible fear of snakes. You have no idea how many snake bite victims come in and the family brings the snake in still alive. We can identify a dead snake.

Joanimaroni wrote:

2seaoat wrote:I used to handle snakes as a kid.  I got bit by a gartner snake which drew blood, but they are harmless and foolishly we had put the snake in a big pickle jar and had put it on the shelf by the window.   When I reached in it bit me and drew the blood, but it did not take me long to figure out that the snake was fighting for its life with the hot sun, and we moved to a cooler place.  I was in sixth grade and did not have a fear of snakes.  However, a snake in the house is bothersome.  My brother gets big rattlesnakes and scorps in the house frequently.  When all four of my grandkids were visiting my mother they were up at my brother's and I was cautious and kept my eyes open in the house and outside.   In Illinois in the western part of the state you will get timber rattlesnake but it is rare......there are no other poisonous snakes in northern Il so you kind of relax.  As a kid fishing ponds in Al the moccasins were so thick my Aunt and Uncle a couple times just called off the fishing.  I would change my landscaping around the house and put a collar of concrete near doors.

I did.

I have a horrible fear of snakes.  You have no idea how many snake bite victims come in and the family brings the snake in still alive.  We can identify a dead snake.

Why kill the poor snake?

As a kid growing up in houston I often handled the non poisonous snakes... but knew the difference between those and the ones we saw when we went west. After my grand parents retired in fwb on choctawhatche bay we visited and I saw a beautiful colorful snake I thght was a racer hybrid. I grabbed it quickly and ran up to the house. Well you should've seen every bodies faces... lol. My grandfather walked me to the water and had me their it in the water. That's when I learned that red, black, yellow rhyme.

My mother as a young girl was at an easter egg hunt when she reached down an saw a colorful snake which she almost picked up with the egg....she too learned the “yellow touching red: you're dead. Red touching black: safe for Jack. Red against yellow can kill a fellow.”