really got the attention of my wife and daughter when I saw it slithering across the deck just outside the kitchen door.

It measured about 7 feet long, crossed the deck, then accessed a nearby hemlock tree via a branch that was about two feet from the end of the deck. It stretched over the open two feet, about 8 feet off the ground, then quickly slipped onto the branch, which dropped about a foot when the full weight of the black snake was on it. My daughter shot the photos with her phone.

Does that taste like chicken when it's grilled, Gary ?

Funny you should ask - we had lemon pepper chicken on the grill for supper tonight. When we lived out west, we had grilled rattlesnake and it was much better than chicken, firm, white meat and sweet tasting.

We had the same size snake here a couple years ago and it consumed a full grown rabbit while Carol and I watched and photographed the entire episode.

brings back memories of florida.

Poor bunny

I knew that there should be something scary going on within discussions on S-Z, but I couldn’t isolate myself any longer; and here we are – monsters in a backyard! Your life is tasty in many senses, Gary :-)

Thanks, my friend, Kabinopus. One of the things my wife always tells everyone is that being married to me has been anything but boring. There's always something new and exciting to see here at the Diamond Ranch, especially when it comes to wildlife. Today, my daughter and her husband will be coming for dinner, but before sitting down to eat, they will go hunting for wild mushrooms in the woods behind our home. Usually, we have several varieties growing nearby.

All the best,

Gary

So THAT'S the secret - wild mushrooms !!!

We have shiitake, oyster, and morel mushrooms growing behind the house, but there are more than a dozen other species available that I've never encountered. There are some poison mushrooms growing back in the woods as well, so you really have to know how to identify them when picking. The kids do this much better than me, so I leave the picking up to them.

Gary