I bet she will move along once she gets warmed up. I have no ID, but she is a fatty, huh?

It's a Blotched Water Snake. They are a harmless, nonvenomous water snake. They do tend to get defensive when cornered so its lunging behavior is pretty typical. One way you might try to get it to move is to tap it once with a broom handle and then back a very long ways away or leave and come back so it thinks you have left. Usually they will move after disturbed but often only after they perceive that the immediate threat has left. I think over 2 feet (say 30 inches) is a very good size estimate. Usually people do let fear vastly overestimate the size of snake, but I think yours is a very accurate guess as this looks like a fat bodied snake in the 2 foot plus range.

Thanks pk and Wayne, you're right, we finally have an ID! Blotched water snake...I have read all about it and yeah, she's a good snake but her lunging at me made me very squeamish now, no gardening for a while. :P I wish I could keep it away though, isn't this their birthing time? I really don't want little ones around, so I need to find a good way to repel the snakes overall. Any suggestions?

How cool! Just shoo her away when you are out there. She`ll keep down your rodent population.
We`re not lucky enough to have snakes.
Tally Ho!

Hmm I'm not sure if it's good to say, you have snakes, and it'll take care of the rodent problem. I'd want neither one! :-)

Umm, think I'll keep my Rough green snake in my greenhouse, looked way less scary than that one. And friendlier too. I watched it drink water, never had seen that before, it's jaws were actually moving and had little ripples going down its sides. I never thought much about how snakes drink.

I'd let her stay and work around her until she moves. My former next door neighbor went crazy when she found a common garden snake and could scream for someone to come kill it. She insisted they were poisonous and kept telling me about all the horrible snakes. After several rounds of this, she called my son and husband to come help her one weekend. They looked and told her it was a harmless garden snake, not a water moccasin and didn't kill it.

Fast forward -- they sold the house, and the next owners did nothing for the house or yard. Two or three years later, that couple divorced and sold the house. The new couple who bought the house spent month getting rid of rats. Creeped us both out. I had seen one occasionally at my bird feeder, but I had no idea a colony was living in their attic.

Keep the snake. Give her peace and she will reward you with a lack of nastier pests.

I agree! I try to leave my local rat snakes alone so they can do their work. Some idiots in the neighborhood kill them thinking they are rattlers, but I know the difference!

I wouldn't think snakes would be programmed to give birth just as the weather is getting colder, more likely in late spring or summer.

She's a beauty!