LOL...not laughing at you,but that is funny and the way you tell the story makes it even funnier! :)

Love the birthday theme and your idea of a "snake hunt",the kids had to have loved that! Would you mind if I steal your idea for my sons B-day?

It is your territory seedmama,don't let a little old snake bully you! I am betting you accidentally moved him on in with your potting soil,I bet you wont find any more indoors! :D

girlsgirl, please use any birthday idea I have. If you are referring specifically to the Indiana Jones theme, we can take it to conversations or private email and I will share all the things I did.

That is scarry! Not sure I would sleep very well. I hope it wasn't poisonous. I've got a question about the boiling water to sanitize. Do you just pour it in the soil? I've wondered how you can reuse the soil and still consider it sanitized. I usually just reuse it.

"Like I had either the time or the inclination to interview the snake." TOO FUNNY!!!! You are a hoot!!

Hope the scaries are going away. :O)

I found the technique in the FAQs. Link is below. When I was a kid my mom would sanitize soil in the over. Talk about stink! I later started doing it outside on the barbeque grill. Boiling water makes so much more sense.

I do it to kill critters and weed seeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Boiled water on potting mix

Although I like snakes, in the house is a NO-No for me too.

This summer when I went to turn off the pool filter in the poolhouse, I reached up for the switch and the electrical lines below me moved! One, big black snake twisted around the electrical lines and slithered into the services pipe. I still keep in the back of mind it may end up in the basement of the house because of the underground line pipes he went in.

I wanted to mention that heating soil over 200 degrees kills all the good stuff. To sterilize soil, heat your oven to 180 degrees, place soil in metal baking pan, cover with foil, put a meat thermometer in the soil and maintain the soil temp at 180 for 30 minutes, cool and use.

Skip the snake. Send me Harrison Ford!

I agree with Busylizzy. Snakes are fine, OUTSIDE. We had one that got into the crawlspace of our basement. I don't know how it got in or where it went after I squealed like a little girl when I saw it. That was 9 years ago. I haven't seen one again inside the house.

Is it possible one of the kids brought it in thinking it was one of the plastic snakes?

You know, bakemom, I dated a guy who looked a lot like Harrison Ford. Things didn't work out, but it ended well enough that he attended my wedding in full dress blues. Anyway, he used to tell me he wanted to be Indiana Jones at a kids birthday party. I tried to track him down, but ran into a fuzzy end. I must conclude he is off playing Col. Flagg in the desert right now and a response indicating his whereabouts would put him in harm's way. I hope he is well.

You let that one go? Arugh. Makes me think about our men's calendar project we never seem to finalize. Who wants to be Mr. July?

I agree..snakes belong OUTSIDE !! although...I was outside..and had "one of those stories"..

We use to live in fla where the rattlesnakes were all over..and we were in a park. My father, funny man that he is, kept lightly touching my leg under the picnic table..and telling me a snake was on my leg. Awhile later when we were playing another game of cards..I Yelled at my dad to just " QUIT IT, I ve had enough of the snake joke"..he just looked at me and said " I didnt do anything"..WELLLLLL.....I looked under the table..and lo and behold a snake had wrapped around my leg..and NOOO I didnt stop to think it could be a rattler..I jumped and screamed (not what I should of done !)..and still dont know what kind of snake it was...AND my father never teased me again about a snake on my leg !!! and noo, I am not normally afriad of them..just had too much teasing that day...LOL

BTW, nice to see you Buzzylizzy ! and Hi Angie ! I Know your son would LOVE the snake hunt idea !

Cracking up! This is a great story and one that you should write down. Thanks for the laugh! Nikki

seedmama I would absolutely LOVE to hear what else you did! Whatever way you want to discuss it is fine with me,I think others would like to hear your ideas too,so the conv. side is good for me! :)

Hi Kym! I was getting worried about you,it is sooooo good to "see" you!! Sent you an email! :)

Here is my snake story: I grew up in Kansas, the oldest of four girls. I am very much a tomboy(my poor mom!)and the closest thing to a son my dad would get. I followed him everywhere, what he would do I would try. He pulled a stump out of the front yard with the truck and I pulled the garage door off with my trike!! I was fearless. Well I grew up, got married, and moved out to the country. At this time we just had chickens, a few ducks, and one canada goose(another story). I was loosing my chicks at an alarming rate but could not find the culprit. My husband shot one egg-sucking possum and I shot a skunk. I didn't intend to, 'cause it's stupid to shoot a skunk in your front yard! But he ran right at me and I had no idea what his intentions were. The chicken coop was very secure and I just couldn't figure it out!! We came home from church and I could hear a ruckus in the coop so I ran out there and threw open the door to see a huge black snake had cornered a chick. He turned and was moving along the wall back to a crack in the floorboard. I was able to step on his tail before he got there though. As he turned around to bite me I grabbed his head, but I missed the back of his head and got his face instead!! So his mouth and eyes are in the palm of my hand and my fingers are touching the back part of his head! I'm rolling around on the coop floor trying to get ahold of the rest of him and he wraps himself up my arm and around my neck then half way back down my arm! Now I'm running to the house screamming for my husband, I knew if I let go of that face I was in trouble! When we got that snake unwound I held him out and his tail was dragging on the ground, I'm 5'5". We did let him go a few miles away across the turnpike. I saw him later squished in the road, I'm sure he was trying to get back to his chicken dinners!!
-B

Holy cats! My 22 year old son went nuts because we had some fruit flies in the kitchen. These snake stories are craaaaazy.

How 'bout bats? My DH brought me an injured red bat last month, we had her(or him) for a couple of weeks, then she started flying again so we had to let her go:-(
I was sad, I secretly wanted to keep her!!
{{gwi:437891}}
She was soooo soft!
-B

Bats are cool! I love them and wish I had them. Yours is so sweet. We build a bat house, but here in the city next to a golf course our chances were slim. Never happened.

Brandy, I'm sitting here laughing at the vision of you in that chicken coopand running out with it wrapped all around you. Shooting the skunk on your front lawn is a corker too. Did it release its odiferous spray upon its demise?

You guys are too much.

Two years in a row I've found a baby bat on the sidewalk near a huge evergreen at top of driveway. Last year the baby couldn't/wouldn't fly so we picked it up with sheet of paper. Put it under the tree hoping mama would find and feed it if they care for grounded babies like birds do. This year the poor little baby was dead on the sidewalk when I found it. There must be bats somewhere nearby but can't figure out where. How would a baby get so far from the woods it they're back there? I sure as heck would love to have some bats around for garden insect control.

I sure am glad I've always been a city girl. Though when I was a kid there were the pigeons and rats...

And my friend had a rat come up in her toilet.

Karen

3 yrs in a row we've had a snake sneak up the toilet or sink in our bathroom. the first time my oldest daughter was in the shower and when she was getting out saw it and jumped and fell out of the shower and broke the toilet tank. the 2nd one was just sitting there my son just hauled it out. the 3rd one, my youngest daughter found a snake on her pillow on her bed. she went to grab it thinkin her brother had put a rubber one on it. she screamed a scream you could hear around the world!! I also caught my cat trying to get in the window with one. I havent seen very many this year. I'm glad i didnt have to wrestle one though. (creepy shivers from head to toe as i think about it)
Tanya

Tanya.. I'm going to be scared to go to the bathroom or bed now! haha.. snakes scare me but I'm getting better. I have "snake boots" now that I wear outside.

I've never found one in my house, but when I was younger and lived at home I opened my eyes one morning and saw something move by my closet. It was a little snake and I screamed and my mom had to come get it.

I have goosebumps now just remembering that snake in the house incident.

I can imagine your daughter's terror.. lucky just the toilet tank was broken. I think I might have torn the walls down getting out of there! haha!

OK - a rather old post, but I have to contribute. When my husband and I were on our honeymoon in Belize, I noticed a dark brown lump in the toilet of our thatch roof hut (hotel room). I decided to be "nice" and not say anything and let him just flush, as he was coming in right after I brushed my hair. Well, two minutes later, as he's in the bathroom, I hear this yell!!! Turns out the brown lump was a toad that jumped up and hit him on the heinie as he sat on the "throne"! We have laughed over that one for years!

Seeee so the -15 temp this morning isn't so bad when you consider we don't have any poisonous snakes OR spiders here...LOL

Where are you dirtbert? The moon? I hear it's cold there

What fun reading this has been,to funny.

You do know i hope, that if you find a bat during the day,and it is not very active, it could have rabies,a big problem with bats.

We love our bats,they have made a sleeping room under the eves of our porch,you can hear them during the day chirping,we had a big snake during the summer,it had a rattle on the end,not knowing our snakes,my hubby killed it,only to find out it was a rat snake,they eat mice and other rodants,the rattle is harmless.We really felt bad for killing it,i guess we need to study up on our snakes.

Good stories every one.
Carol

I hear ya dirtbert! Zone 5a has it's advantages! It's worth putting up with those coyotes and skunks, as long as we don't have to deal with poisonous spiders and snakes!

No not the moon, Minnesota.
We had a heatwave today though, hit almost 20 I think. Wahoo get out the sunscreen!

Yah, I hear ya dirtbert, I live just across da pond. And on a 20 degree day we have people out swimming in da bay, don't cha know. eh???
Seriously though Minnesota is beautiful, went there on vacation, It was when we were kids and lived in Kansas. It was July and we almost froze our arses off in Gull Lake then we went to Bemidji and saw the statue of Paul or maybe it was just Babe.....oh those were the days my friend....

Oh, newbie in nj-I was lucky enough that the "stray bullet" got that skunk right between the eyes!! He didn't have a chance to spray, Thank You Jesus!! But I must confess that it was blind luck or the hand of God 'cause my eyes were closed!!LOL!!

-B