Today as I lounged about, refraining from putting Explorer up on stands (again) to further impose upon it's wiring harnesses, I instead thought about things of a stupid nature done in another era of my life. I'll illustrate: Before we built this monument to madness, I spent about a month between classes at UNLV gathering colorful sandstone rocks from washes around Red Rock Canyon, west of Las Vegas, which is now a State Park, then, wide open wilderness (1973). We were planning to have the custom home built, but I requested our contractor to provide a footing capable of supporting rock veneer, which I would do myself. The area in the back yard to-be was a huge pile of rocks! During that time, we lived in an apartment on N. Jones Blvd., my wife commuting by car to her job at the Stardust Beauty Salon. One afternoon, in a gravelly wash with my truck, I stopped to examine some spectacularly purple rocks, then heard it: the sizzle of rattles! A medium size rattlesnake was coiled, looking at me, from without striking distance. I had a shovel, but instead of leaving it alone, or killing it, I endeavored to catch it. Stooopid! I held it's head down in the sand with the flat blade, grasping it just behind to prevent getting bit. The strength in those squirming coils was amazing! Put it in a box I had in the truck,. took it to the apartment, put it in the bathtub, from which it showed it could not escape. My wife got home, and I happily showed her my prize! Second big mistake! The reptile was released in the desert that evening! Displeased wife, I had for awhile......... The block pillars in the pic out by the road were surrounded by rockwork, topped by large, wooden capstans I turned on my lathe, painted black to look like iron, each pillar spanned to the next by a heavy chain. Seeable below. There's the old Ford pickup, modern 289 engine powered, which hauled back all that rock. Yes, that's snow on them there mountains. Below the see-through fireplace and woodbin in the L.R., Christmastime, one of the girls who worked with my wife pictured. I sure loved that rock. To live those times through again would surely be done differently, if I had known then, what I know now.......
For about a year, I lived in a house trailer outside of Corona, California. It was on the grounds, and belonged to a horse boarding stable, and I was able to live there with rent and utilities paid as long as I made sure that the gates were closed at 10:00 pm since that was the closing time. From time to time, there were a few other things he'd ask me to do but my only contractual obligation was to close the gates at 10:00 pm. Having someone living on the grounds added to the security, I'm sure, but I wasn't there as a security guard. Anyhow, although the trailer was heated by electricity, there was a wood pile stacked up against the trailer to the left of the door, and a rattlesnake lived in the wood pile. I always watched out for it but I never saw the rattlesnake. I often carried a walking stick since I enjoyed hiking in the canyons behind the boarding stables, and I could hit the top of the wood pile and the snake would rattle. That would always impress my friends. I'd walk out, strike the wood pile with the stick, and tell the snake to keep an eye on things for me, and the snake would rattle in response. There were a lot of rattlesnakes in the canyons though. On any warm day, I'd be able to see rattlesnakes while hiking, and it was a good thing to watch out for them. BTW, @Frank Sanoica, that's a beautiful house. This is me in the canyons near Corona. It's not a clear picture because it's old and was taken with 110 film, which doesn't age well. You can't see it clearly in the photo but there is a cave behind me. The cave was filled to the brim with honeycomb. Also unclear is that I have a full beard. Until it turned gray, my beard was always dark while my hair was blond.
There are still a lot of rattlesnakes in the canyon areas in CA., also other places too. Some are coming near houses. My one friend that I posted a pic of her dead snake near or in her garage has seen 5 this year. My daughter has seen a couple around here.
In MO, there were many Copperheads, venomous, but not as dangerously so as rattlers. I walked our road daily to the old abandoned 1-room schoolhouse 1/2 mile to the east every day, and maybe two or three times a week I'd see a Copperhead sunning itself on the road. Those I left alone. One evening, almost dusk, my wife accompanied me. Getting back to our front gate, she stopped me, saying something was moving in the flowers alongside the gate. Of course, this being around 2008, at 66 I was already pretty deef, hearing no sound. I stopped, scrutinizing: the Copperhead was only about two feet from my unprotected ankles! As always, I had my pistol in my waistband, cautioned Deb to step back, the road was gravel, the snake almost onto the concrete walk, and a ricochet, even if I could hit the snake, might cost me a wife, too. Snake stopped, motionless, I aimed just behind it's head, fired one round, which produced violent contortions, but no further movement forward. It was a fairly large one. The Crows and ants had a feast, it's death not for nothing, I justified. We never killed a non-dangerous snake, except once, a Blacksnake threatening the mother Phoebe bird's nest.