Creating a Lake

[patrick_g]

Spiveyman, There are, of course, differing degrees of tree huggerness. I, for one, do not have callouses on my chest from tightly embracing barked flora.

When in doubt, err on the side of safety. Rats carry disease agents and they too constitute a hazard to humans. Rats and mice are the majority hosts of ticks in the nymph stage and ticks are terrible spreaders of disease. Mosquitoes are the single most deadly disease carrier as regards human deaths. Mosquitoes can breed in a tiny little puddle and produce thousands of offspring in just a few days. Discarded tires are mosquito factories. If we are safety conscious we should try to rid ourselves of mosquito breeding grounds.

Insect born disease is less spectacular than snake bite but accounts for more deaths and disease by far than poisonous snakes. If you want youngsters to be safe in your area you need to consider the other threats also.

Of course draining a ditch, picking up old tires, or swatting a mosquito doesn't make for a good subject of macho posturing or doesn't make a very good Kodak moment as a picture of a dead snake but cold be as or more important in the long run.

Pat

We get much more emotional over snakes but they aren't the only danger to humans

 

[Spiveyman]

Patrick, Very good points there. As far as snakes go, my problem is ignorance, not being able to positively identify the good ones from the bad ones - by bad I mean poisonous. When I was a kid I caught a little round eye'd snake in the wood pile and kept it for a pet until I went to camp and my mom got rid of it. I think snakes are cool, but I knew that one was "safe." As varmits go I'd put rats way higher on my "need to kill" list, and probably mosquito's higher still. I get bit by mosquito's EVERY time I go out side, I've never seen a rat... well, ever come to think of it. And only seen a few snakes in my life, most of which were probably not poisonous. So bring back the DDT, whipe those suckers out. That eagle egg deal was a farse anyway right? The place where snakes trump mosquitos and rats are the thread of imminent death as opposed to a nasty drawn out death, and not being able to tell what is what. They need signs on their back, like all purple snakes are evil, all pink one's are OK. Either that or I just need to study up on them to figure out which kinds to make boots out of and which to leave alone.

 

[wushaw]

Funny thing about you guys bringing up snakes.

Friday night, I was laying out my air hose, to do some work Saturday morning, and noticed this guy on my side porch. It was just about dark out, but luckily I spoted him far enough away not to sceam too loudly!!

We're pretty sure it's a cotton mouth, but then, every black snake with a white mouth is a cotton mouth to me.

Anybody know for sure?

Eddie

I can't belive I missed this snake picture

Eddie you have killed the notorious Texas rat snake, very viscious to mices and rats.
He/she must have sniffed out a mouse/rat scent.
You have mieces and you will have more snakes unless you get rid of the mieces.

 

[patrick_g]

All this talk about snakes is attracting them! MY wife dragged me away from an important activity to look at a snake a couple feet up the side of the house. It was able to climb by using the mortar joints of the brick! It was about 14 inches long and two toned brown, just a baby as the adults are 30-40 inches. When I got really close to use my foor for a yardstick (its big but not really that big, my foot that is) the snake was terrified and went into hyperdrive trying to wriggle across the porch slab to get away from me. One day he may be eating rodents but he is a tad small for that now.

According to her snake ID book it is a Prarie something or other, harmless to people. It had none of the characteristics that make poisonous ID.

Pat

 

[RobJ]

Good point, perhaps more aptly put, Rob is at the top of the predator chain at his place. This is also a position I hold on mine, though I do tend to leave things alone that I don't expect will bother my 3 year old. If there's a doubt though, I don't have a problem taking care of the situation.

Correct, wonder of Patrick has eaten squirrel? IE Rat with fuzzy tail.

Many forget the X-Y factor. So far my wife can handle the small brown scorpians we see around the place, mostly dead because I posion, some alive. But if it becomes a habit of seeing 4' rat snakes every weekend she's up then that's not good for me either!! Heaven forbid if a snake ever made it in the house.

 

[wushaw]

RobJ, your in Houston....when I lived in Humble, Cleveland and New Caney I found more snakes in that area than anywhere else I have lived, I found one coral snake and several copper heads in Humble, rat snakes in Clevland and Copper heads, rough green snakes and rat snakes, Hog nose both western and eastern variteys in New Caney and most were in the yard.

The Houston area is just chock full of snakes of many different spieces.

 

[CTW]

Hey Eddie,

Sorry if I missed it earlier in the thread, but did you install a windmill to pump what into your lake?

 

[EddieWalker]

CTW,

No windmill. I thought about it, and looked into it, but for the money, I just didn't see the advantage to it. They are thousands of dollars to buy, plus the price of digging a well deep made it hard to justify considering how much water I'd get, versus what I lose to evaporation and what it costs in gasoline to just pump it in from the creek.

Once it started raining, my lake filled up really quick. When I'm done with the changes I'm making to my land with roads and pastures, I'll increase my watershed quite a bit. That will give me even more water when it rains.

As it is, I spent half a year not being able to mow below the spillway due to the constant flow of water out of the lake. Right now, I need to get my 6inch pipe overflow operating and then build a cement dam across the earthen spillway to get as much water through the pipe as I can.

The cement dam will only be about two to 4 inches high, but it's goint to be level and profide my foundation for my bridge across the spillway.

Eddie

 

[patrick_g]

Correct, wonder of Patrick has eaten squirrel? IE Rat with fuzzy tail.

Many forget the X-Y factor. So far my wife can handle the small brown scorpians we see around the place, mostly dead because I posion, some alive. But if it becomes a habit of seeing 4' rat snakes every weekend she's up then that's not good for me either!! Heaven forbid if a snake ever made it in the house.

Rob, I haven't shot any squirrels lately but have eaten plenty of them in previous years. The only wild animals I have harvested in last 10 years is bunny rabits, cotton tails who were eating my wifes lettuce and such. Boy, the young ones about 3/4 to 7/8 grown are tender and tasty.

We have red squirrels that get run over around here all the time (not too bright even with natural selection at work) as well as Bob White quail and bull frogs all of which I used to hunt for food but none of these are in sufficient quantity on my land to harvest, just barely enough to listen to and watch.

Too bad I don't care for raccoon as there is a considerable surplus of those. I have eaten rattlesnake but never tried any other species. At Chinese buffet I have been known to call one of the entrees rat on a stick (probably isn't rat.)

Pat

 

[Bird]

Pat, did you skin out the squirrels' heads and cook them, too? One little bite of meat on each cheek, then open the skull to get the brains. I've read in recent years that such a practice has had dire health consequences in some cases, but it was common practice when I was a kid.

I've eaten barbecued racoon on several occasions and found it quite tasty, but the first time was when I was teenager, and my Mother found the aroma of it cooking to be repulsive and said she'd never cook another one.

And as for the Chinese buffets, that's currently mine and my wife's favorite place to eat out, but I really don't care much for the texture of octopus and squid; kind of like chewing rubber.