Tumblin' snakes

Dear Editor,

Spring is close when geese in Vs fly north, bugs and spiders are out and an old wive's tale that snakes soon follow.

So, enjoy the outdoors, but watch your step. Here are the top snake stories told to me at the store last year.

1. A lady near McCook was picking peppers and got what she thought was a sting from a bee. Nope, it was a single fang from a little rattler. Rattlers crawl into bushes. I have seen rattlers of 6 to 12 inches in tumble weeds as they roll along. Now you know how a rattler can easily be brought into town from many miles out in the country.

2. A float operator told of driving a county road within an hour or so of the ditches being mowed. He sees snakes all the time in the fields, but in his 20 years he'd had never seen so many in just a mile of road. The snakes, rattlers, copperheads, bull snakes and others he couldn't ID from 6 inches to well over 6 feet long had crawled out on the road just north of McCook.

More than a hundred, and he without a camera for proof. I killed an 8-foot coach whip snake last year myself, gardening and panning for gold in the creeks flowing into the Republican River.

3. A farmer told of his tractor breaking down. After getting parts and parking at the edge of the field, he walked to the tractor. As he got there, he realized he had forgotten a tool, so back to the pickup. As he walked back, he saw the step he had left, and plainly he had stepped right over a large rattler sunning himself. He said a half-step off and he would have landed on the land mine. Lucky he didn't get bit, anyway.

He did make it a good snake!

Bill Donze,

McCook