Oklahoma Critters!!!

I really shouldn't be posting about all the "lovely" critters in Oklahoma, b/c it will make you all not want to come visit us, but its our life so I will share!!!

A few weeks ago on Saturday morning Byron and I were cleaning out our gutters. Our neighbors, Danny and Wanda, were watching the kids for us. We had finished scooping out most of the icky stuff out of the gutters. So I got off the roof and started cleaning up the area around the bottom of the gutters. At the Northeast corner of the house, we have a plant called monkey grass. Its a low to the ground spreading type of plant. Well, I heard a sound come from the grass. At first I didn't really think much of it, b/c we have some many critters in Oklahoma that make noise it usually doesn't bother me. I really thought it was a locust in there just moving its wings. For some reason I decided to take a peek to see what was making the noise. I was being very careful. I grabbed the ends of the grass and pulled the plant apart. I saw the middle part of a snake slithering around in the plant. I calmly backed away and told Byron we might have a rattlesnake in our flowerbeds. While he was climbing down from the roof, I ran to his truck to get a shovel. He grabbed the shovel and began pounding on the plant! I had picked up a rake and started pulling apart the plant in sections. Thankfully, the snake showed himself. Byron got him pretty good and then I pulled him the snake out with the rake and Byron finished him off by cutting him in half. Well, it wasn't a rattlesnake but a copperhead snake. Which both are poisonous snakes! I thought from the noise and his coloring it was a rattlesnake. It was a copperhead. His shape, length, and design of his body was definitely like a copperhead. I know it has my Heavenly Father warning me that something dangerous was around. I am so thankful that I was obedient to hear and didn't shrug it off. Our neighbors have killed several copperheads this summer, and last summer Danny was bitten by one of them on his foot. He was on crutches for a week and was really really sick. Needless to say, we are very careful when we got outside. We look everyone around and most of the time we wear shoes. They mostly appear in the summer during the end of June to August. It gets so hot that they come up to find water and shade. They are usually spotted in the early mornings or really late at night. Regardless of the time, you must always be on the look when you are around rocks. Thankfully, we don't have a lot of rocks or heavy loaded flowerbeds. They won't come around dogs! So our back yard is safe!

Last night we had a nice stingin' scorpion run across the living room floor! Jaycee, Jackson, and I had been in the floor playing games. Jackson was causing some trouble so I was going over to discipline him when Jaycee screams "BUG ON THE FLOOR"! I turned around and screamed "STINGING SCORPION DON'T MOVE"! Byron ran and grabbed a shoe and killed it! This is the first one that we have seen at the house. It was maybe 3 inches long. They hurt really bad though if you get stung by them! I hope that stinging scorpion was the last one for a very long time!!!