The nights are getting longer
It’s really and truly Fall now – I picked the blackberries today. Just a couple of pounds. We’re short of freezer space.
When I was a kid, I hated it when Mother announced she was making a blackberry cobbler. It meant I was going to have to go pick blackberries and that’s where the rattlesnakes were.
I’m sure you know this, but for the sake of them in the back, there are no vegetarian snakes. Snakes it the little creatures who eat the fruit and a blackberry bramble is their favorite place.
To be fair, the rattlesnakes we get in Middle Tennessee are mountain rattlers – short and fat and shy. In all my years on that farm I only ever saw one, and it was sunning itself in the front yard. My boyfriend shot it and my mother the proto-hippie made us cook it and eat it.
But I’m sure I’ve told that story.
I saw a cottonmouth in the pond once, too. It was swimming with about six inches of its body stuck up out of the water, like the cobra on King Tut’s hat. Creepy.
But hoo my dad had some stories about aggressive copperheads in the mountains!
Posted: September 7th, 2022 under personal.
Comments: 16
Comments
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: September 7, 2022, 7:42 pm
Only snake I ever popped was a cotton mouth on the porch of the east Texas house. Seen 2_snakes out there, a copperhead who was encouraged to leave, and the cotton mouth who made it clear it wasn’t leaving.
Our sawtooth blackberries and dewberries fruited way back in May on the property there. I missed the ripe blackberries by a couple weeks, and only got about 2 pints of dewberries.
Thanks for the snake warning. I won’t tell the boss lady though, she’s death against snakey critters of any sort and East Texas is gonna be a problem for her till she gets over it.
Comment from Surly Ermine
Time: September 7, 2022, 7:49 pm
Sweas eats rattle snakes….badass!
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 7, 2022, 8:34 pm
At the time, rattlesnake was the most expensive commercially farmed meat in the country. It was a bit of a fad. And my mother was one of those “if you kill it, you have to eat it” types.
To be fair, she had some, too. It was actually good, if you could get over what it was. It reminded me of lobster more than anything – slightly translucent when cooked.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: September 7, 2022, 10:06 pm
“I’m sure you know this, but for the sake of them in the back, there are no vegetarian snakes. “
Wait just a durn minute! You mean when the Snake in The Garden Of Eden tempted Eve to take a bite of The Apple®️ he hadn’t even tasted it himself?
Damn!
Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: September 8, 2022, 12:04 am
I am anonymous!
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: September 8, 2022, 12:49 am
Side bar / tech note: If you have forgotten to fill in your name and E-mail before hitting the Submit button, as I have done more than once, if you edit your comment (you’ve got 5 minutes) you can then fill in those fields (but not Website). When you save the edit, your comment will still say Anonymous but if you refresh the page your name will appear. In other words, it SEEMS like the edit didn’t “take” but actually it did.
Comment from Harbqll
Time: September 8, 2022, 4:27 am
I usually just lurk on this blog, but I just wanted to say: I first found you in IIRC 2007. My first child was on the way and I’d just got an acceptance letter to med school. You were still in the States, planning your move to the UK.
And here we all are 15 years later. I still read you 2-3 days a week. I rarely comment but a lot of the names here are like favorite book characters to me, in a weird sort of way.
I don’t know, I don’t really have a point or anything. Just wanted to say, thanks for the laughs, all my imaginary friends who live in my computer.
Comment from peacelovewoodstock
Time: September 8, 2022, 12:00 pm
When we first moved to WV, some of the locals took pleasure in exaggerating the number and size of rattlesnakes in the area. A yard service guy claimed that they launch themselves at him when he is cutting grass on his rider mower.
On the other hand, there is a rock den about two miles from us where Steve Irwin (RIP) did a documentary on timber rattlers about 15 years ago … he had no problem finding, or handling them https://youtu.be/3MIiEAiO_S0
Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: September 8, 2022, 12:19 pm
Bad Day at Balmoral: Queen Elizabeth is under medical supervision and the family is gathering…
Comment from RushBabe
Time: September 8, 2022, 2:55 pm
Another chat board is saying HRH has passed.
Comment from dissent555
Time: September 8, 2022, 4:18 pm
The Return of the King?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 8, 2022, 4:28 pm
They haven’t announced she’s passed. Guesses are they’ll do it at 6pm. This is going to be very, very bad mojo for this country just before what looks to be a very, very bad winter.
Harbqll! You went to med school with a new baby in tow? That is some kind of badass and I’m terribly jealous. I always wanted to go to med school, but I was too weak on the sciences.
Instead, I collect microscopes 🙂
Comment from Drew458
Time: September 8, 2022, 5:24 pm
“Family Rushing To Queen Elizabeth’s side. Doctors Concerned For Her Health”
Hope things work out OK, but she is a very old lady, 96. She met with Liz Truss, the new PM, Tuesday, but reports say she was too tired to host a virtual Privy Council meeting last night.
Comment from Drew458
Time: September 8, 2022, 5:33 pm
The Queen is Dead. Long live the King.
Comment from BullDawgGuy
Time: September 8, 2022, 5:40 pm
Will there be a Deadpool tomorrow are will we take a week off to mourn England’s Loss.
Comment from ExpressoBold
Time: September 8, 2022, 6:21 pm
We should show respect for Queen Elizabeth II by carrying on with our Celebrity Dead Pool Duties, as she would have wished and appreciated in life.
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