a big splash

Our yard is possibly the leafiest yard on the block. Since we are fairly new homeowners, the rake I had wasn't going to cut it for today's work. Clyde and I ran out this morning to buy a couple of rakes. I was very anxious to get the yard looking better. I suited up for work and went to raking. Josh and Jacob came out to lend a helping hand. Their job was to rake up the scragglers that were left behind. They did a good job. The boys had loads of leaf fun while jumping into the pile. Josh asked if I was going to jump in and Jacob said, "No, because she'd make a big splash." Really?!While we were raking, a neighbor came by to introduce herself and then the girls came out to help out. (They were supposed to be cleaning their room, so they couldn't come out with us @ first.) Once we said our goodbyes, we went back to work. I continued to rake and rake. Then I got out our saw to saw down a bunch of the scrawny trees and limbs that were dangling. I think I impressed the boys with the sawing. I was scooping up more leaves when I heard Jacob yell, "There's a snake!!" Sure enough there was a snake just inches away from where I just was on my hands and knees sawing away. I had Josh get the saw back out of the garage. At first I thought that the baby snake was dead, but once I prodded it to check if it was dead, it coiled up and opened its mouth. That was enough for me and I began to hack @ it and saw it up. Jacob was not happy with me. He wanted the snake as a pet. Too late! :)

p.s. When I went to upload the photos I got a few surprises...especially the one with me and the saw hacking the snake to pieces. I mean really, I was killing a snake...who would have time to say, "hey take a picture of me killing the snake!" Libby had been playing with the camera and got a few unexpected shots.