Pond, Pipe, and Python

Python got your attention, huh? 

Well, we don't have pythons out here in the boondocks, but we do have snakes. My hub says we see about one snake each week during the summer, and this last week I have seen at least five. I guess that should get me through July without it being necessary to see anymore.

One reason we have seen so many is the weather. Besides being warm and humid, we have had rain. The lawn grass is a beautiful green and growing like mad. That means mowing (attacking the weeds for me) and snakes in the tall grass.

Another reason for snakes is the swallow nest packed with four babies up high on top of the veranda pillar. Experience has shown that snakes will do whatever they can to get at those young, juicy ones. Even scare the wits out of me while weeding the mulched flower beds out front! 

And still another reason the snakes are active is that we lowered the pond depth this week in search for a lost drain pipe. If you have been following my blog for long, you may remember that we have the 1/2 grand pond that the government messed around with for about five years. Well, they made such a mess of the drainage pipe work (and more, but I have written enough about that) that during the winter part of the pipe went missing. You guessed it! In the pond!

So this week we started searching for the pipe. We have had so much rain the last month that it became necessary to either search for the pipe regulator or make a new one. After the gov't man came out (finally!!!) and left without doing anything to correct this situation, we opened the faucet and started draining the pond to search for the pipe.

Friday my hub got out the rowboat and scratched around in the pond near the main drainage pipe hoping to dig up the lost "snuffle" pipe. He just stirred up mud and duckweed. No sign of the smaller pipe! So he gave up in the heat, and shut off the drain.  The next plan was to just try to guess the size of the lost pipe and try to construct a new one. 

So last evening while on the way out to photograph the whole pipe construction while the water is low, our Flip had an encounter with the python/water snake on the bank of the pond. No bites, just lots of tail flapping (from the snake), pouncing (from the beagle), and screaming (from me!!!). But we made it to the levee and the exposed pipes.

As I was walking back towards some blackberry picking and then home, Hub shouted, "I see the pipe!" And, yes, indeed you could see the circle end just under the water. A little off course from where he thought it might be located, but visible, at least. That was at 8:15 pm last night! Dusk, in other words.

So he has had all night to plan the next attack to rescue the delinquent "snuffle" thingy. 

Hope the snakes haven't had the same idea.

(To Be Continued)