My Friends

Have you ever considered the many meanings to the word friend? There is your best friend, just a friend, and a special "friend".

Many of you know how much I love the garter snakes that we have around our house during the summer. Well we have had a good sized one this year that was probably 2 feet long and at least 1/2 inches around. He liked to hang out under our deck stairs and by the water spicket... I would look over the deck railing any time I had to go in the yard. It was getting so bad that I was about ready to enroll my friend in the relocation program. I talked to several people about that and then the strangest thing happened... when I decided it was time for him to go, we couldn't find him. I was okay with that. In fact I was really happy about that. I could now go out and hang my laundry on the retractable clothesline in peace and not wonder if I was going to hang up an shirt with a snake in it or even better take it in the house with me! :-O

So yesterday I was going to go out to the garden to raid the cucumbers and I saw a new "friend" only this time it is just a little one. It's only about 6 inches long. Encounter number 1.

Today I was walking out to hang the clothes out for the day and it was after lunch.. I plopped the laundry basket on the ground and then something moved and I squealed! Zach came out and wanted to know what was wrong and in the process I saw another little friend! I squealed again. Zach came down and wanted to see. He told me "Mom you shouldn't be scared of them. You should just say 'Hi, could you eat our bad bugs please?'" So I guess I should learn to make peace with my new "friends" and ask them to eat our bad bugs!