Spinybacked Orb Weaver? Playing With My New Toy

Please have patience with me while, I am learning how use my new camera.  This little spider drove me to distraction yesterday, because no matter what I did to get her into focus -- with the winds -- she was always just a blur.  Really, I was getting quiet angry with my inability to steady the shot.

 GRRRRRR!

So out of frustration 30 to 40 shots later; I promptly went back inside the house to tend to 'MILDRED' our Thanksgiving center piece.  Mildred gave me some peace of mind because as you can see; she was quiet the lovely little hen and we thanked her for providing for our family meal.

I just don't know about ya'll but, when I get something stuck in my head to accomplish.  I just can not rest until I figure it out ---- back outside I went.  This time I met with some success as you can see.  Let me introduce you to the Spinybacked Orb Weaver or as Saenz called her,  The Thorn Spider.

The little lovelies (less than a 1/4 inch in size) come in different colors like red, orange and this yellow; nature's way of saying, "I Don't Taste Good."  Each night the orbweaver  builds a new web which are large and can be found between two tree limbs, or buildings, or just plain in your face.  The female usually hangs upside down in the middle of her web and awaits the familiar web vibrations of dinner being served. 

Hope all of you are having a lovely weekend with your families.  Tonight we will be decorating our first live Christmas tree in 14 years.  I am super stoked to be restarting this lovely tradition for our boys and will take pictures of our fun maybe tomorrow.  I will leave you with a lovely sunset photo from yesterday. 

Please those of you in this winter storm's path please stay safe, warm, and dry because it is coming your way in a few days.  We are supposed to have a hard freeze tonight so, the rest of our day will be spent preparing our garden, animals, and water pipes.

A THANKFUL Lifetime in an hour

 

May your Thanksgiving feel as warm and wonderful as ours.  May you find the happiness deserved in the friends and family around you.  Just remember to give thanks for all that you have in your slices of heaven.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

From Our Family to Yours

Mal, Gil, Lisa, Saenz, Zephyr,

Sonic, Banjo, and a cast of 1000s.

Aphonopelma hentzi

I was about to take the neighbor girl back to her house for the evening when I saw this moving across our yard atop the grass.  I dashed back inside the house, went up the stairs to retrieve the camera while; Faith kept watch.

I brought the boys, Lisa and Sarah back outside with me.  I took a few shots with my camera as Lisa was looking for a bucket.  We found out from our encounter these creatures can move like greased lightening.

We managed to get this beauty inside a bucket. And found out, spiders can climb smooth surfaces. 

___I was really shocked! _____ 

Which was kinda freaky but, okay I kept tapping the bucket to keep it inside; hoping Lisa would find a lid. 

Guess what,  grand daughter Sarah kicked the bucket over (I COULD HAVE KILLED HER....LOL it was the first one on the farm.) and it ran under my farm truck: up into the engine -- curses!  Much to my chagrin because; I would have kept it a few weeks for observation and teaching moments with the boys.  (NOPE, I am not afraid of spiders either.)

My best guestimation is this was a male on his way to hunt for female since it is the begining of summer.  He was rather large about 3-4 inches across.  Either way, he was our first one and I hope to find more now that I have look up what their burrows look like.  Note to self, get some boots and thick gloves for:


Tarantula Roundup,  I just know there are some Mexican Red Knees around here.

Did you know males tarantulas can live several years but, the females can survive for a couple decades?

I tried to rescue this Rat Snake

I found this four foot snake wrapped in the netting to keep chickens away from plants we did not want them to consume. This year alone, my husband I have rescued 7 snakes in the last 2 months. We have been fortunate none of them have been venomous.

This male, rat snake did really well at first. I was cutting it out, while sitting on a milk crate in front of it. Worst dang time of the day as well it was super hot. Animal feeding time, LOL.

So hubby goes off to feed the animals in and I am carefully cutting it out and concentrating on not cutting the snake. I did turn its tail over to see if it was male or female -- skinny tail, small opening for size -- male is my guess.

At one point, I guess I either caused the snake pain or scared it because it not only struck at me but, it hissed like no one business. Here is the funny part...........

I (snake wrangler extraordinaire) actually was startled enough to fall over backwards on the milk crate I had been sitting on because I was not expecting it to get pizzy.

Now mind you, I had touched it with no problems just not next to the head. When I almost had it cut free, I stopped to get a towel -- so that I could clip the netting without getting bit.

I have been bitten by a hand-raised California kingsnake, I had as a pet. Their teeth are needle sharp and sting like crazy. So this wild snake would have some serious JU JU in its mouth and I was not interested in a samonella soaked wound. When I came back out, the terrified snake had seriously wrapped itself to tight inside the netting that it would have taken surgical tools to get it free.
My husband then decided to put this snake out of its misery because the netting was wrapped so tightly around it that it would not be able to digest food or would get hung up some where on the ground. He beheaded it -- humanely. We were both upset by this event since these beautiful animals keep the rodent population down around our home.

I think it's time for me to find a herpatologist so, I can be trained to better handle these wild animals. I would hate to have to kill another one. Worse to think is a venomous snake being caught in netting so close to where our boys play in the yard.

SHUDDER SHUDDER....

Thoughts from inside the coop....

For the record, that is Zephyr touching the snake's tail with my husband holding it down with a tool. Mind you the snake's head was too far away to reach Zephyr's hand.

Great Plains Rat Snake

DOUBLE CLICK to see up close:

Hubby found this snake caught in the deer netting that protects our front porch. This one was approximately 4 feet long and had apparently just fed. He thought he had a copperhead because it was snippy and hissing at him.

After I confirmed it was not poisonous (copperhead bands are more around the body and not blothes plus this snake was too big); I cut the deer netting to free the snake. One thing we need to get is long work gloves because again since I am not a professional snake handler. I do not want to hold a wild snake where it can bite my fore arms readily. Unfortunately I left deer netting wrapped around it's body because hubby wanted to kill it for snapping at him. Poor thing was way stressed out, I would have bitten the hand that protects me.

Next project, get the deer netting secured to bottom of the porch and not the crawl space. I then found the snake in our Mountain Laurel tree so, I snapped some pictures of its head to make sure of the species.





















Thoughts from inside the coop.....