Its amazing how nature finds ways to adapt, survive and thrive..

I absolutely love snakes. An that Brooks King snake was gorgeous. An yes I'm female and being raised on an Indiana dairy farm, I grew up not with poisonous snakes but loved teasing the hog nose snakes till they spit their insides out. But that was just a kid thing lol I love rat, ribbon, kirtland, and Garter snakes most of all. Then I moved to MS and learned a whole new way to handle snakes since most I came across was poisonous. I remember having to find a copperhead in a house for a woman and it wasn't just 1, it was a whole mess. In 3 kitchen drawers, 4 baby copperhead. But mama was smart, she was coiled up in the vent hood above the stove. Keeping warm by a lightbulb. Once I got them caught, I released them an the family argued with me, ran right behind me an killed each one. I was so mad I could have spit fire. Now I'm back in Indiana an the DNR whom I worked for, for many years, seems to think we have copperhead, rattlers, cottonmouth, an some other poisonous snake. It gets way too cold for those in northern Indiana! I also remember when I was 6 we'd moved off 1 farm into another and there was multiple nests of hognose that hatched in the sand by the house. We gathered a mess and took to the woods, and saved maybe 10 and skinned them, lined with a pipe cleaner, filled with pipe tobacco and soaked in linseed oil. Coiled them around wood on a base and sold them at the county fair. All proceeds went to keep the fishing pit open for the kids to catch fish to put in tanks. The salamanders though, I'd go down to the ditch and catch the yellow spotted ones and keep a couple in a bucket until many found out. How you ask? I used the milk bucket and that wasn't cool😂 I miss my childhood. From birdshining at night to help put food on the table, doves, pigeon, were our many meal go to meat, to hunting a young groundhog for a Thanksgiving meal, rabbits when in season. We were called hillbilly but sorry, we were just farmers who hunt, trapped, an so much more. Now I'm old and just love watch guys like these. It brings back so many good times growing up. The UTV y'all headed out into the water with, we had those too. Never take those heavy suckers in soft fields unless you have a winch on the front an you're close to trees😂 Best times crossing water an people looking at you like huh? City folk just don't know how fun country life can be😊 My son an I are talking about getting a snake but only if we could get a corn snake. Until then, no pets. We lost 2 indoor cats 1 from old age, 1 from a uncaring vet. So I'll just keep enjoying wildlife from my windows.