Life in the Country

Oh, the excitement of living out in the country.

I let the dogs outside and saw a snake. I put the dogs back inside and picked up my camera. I told daughter and her boyfriend there was a snake outside.

I thought keep the dogs inside would be a given.

Apparently not.

The dogs bolted outside as soon as the door were open, and here I am knelt down taking photos in a dress no less. The dogs got between me and the snake.

I grabbed one dog which yelped and backed up, toward the by now alarmed snake, and yelled at my daughter to grab the other dog.

Dinky our Pomeranian, must have thought it was a game, because she bounced around like a wind-up toy and avoided being picked up. She eventually stepped on the snake.

The snake, upset by the dogs and the yelling, bit her.

Don't worry, it was a gopher snake and nonvenomous. I checked the end of the snake's tale for a rattle, before I went to get my camera.

I grabbed Dinky and gave her to my daughter. We got the dogs back inside.

I picked up a garden tool and scooped the snake up and toss it out into the field. No harm came to the snake. I was gentle.

Dinky's bite was treated, she's okay.

Just another day in the county.

Water Woes

Water problems this year. It seems to happen ever two to three years when you live out in the country. The well either needs to be purged, dug deeper or bugs have gotten into the wires and something got fried. 

Unfortunately, this time it was all three.

 Our landlord decided, since the well needs to be dug deeper that it would be cheaper to have our holding tank hooked up to the nice deep-deep well that waters the almond orchard.

Of course, that might mean we'll be without water for a couple of days. I reassured my hubby that we've toughed it out before and we could do it again.

 I woke this morning to no water. I flushed the toilet with water from a bucket. Washed up with bottled water. And had a sandwich for brunch, and then brushed my teeth with more bottled water.

 Love-love the good well people who dug a trench to the back forty and got it all connected. It only took a day.

We have water again.

 With much belching of yucky mud, air and then white misty stuff, the water finally settled down to clear, cool water! Lovely, lovely water. I took a shower, which put me in a good mood for the rest of the day!