"CELEBRATE THE SNAKE" and Gold one and Gold 2

I knew I liked Betty, my small business advisor, the first time I met her, but today I really know why.

We are getting ready to offer the cabin for overnight stays soon and discussing marketing and the last few days Blake, the black snake has been hanging out inside.  The other day I went to the cabin to use the bathroom and there was Blake behind the toilet.  I had to wait for him to go back down his hole. When a friend came over Sunday to hangout at the cabin and focus on some paperwork, she met Blake on the landing.  I had told her she might see him so she was not totally freaked out.  Yesterday, I googled "snake in the cabin" and had some hilarious reading.

So this morning at our meeting, I told Betty about my dilemma. When Betty said, "celebrate the snake", I was quite relieved.  She gave me some great ideas about how to incorporate Blake into the whole package; educating the visitors about the importance of Black Snakes in a country setting.  Then, she started to get really silly.  She suggested that we have a prize for anyone who had a snake siting and could get a picture of Blake.  The reward she suggested was to have them come up to the house and show us the picture and have a glass of Black Snake Mead.  Then we could go down and put Blake out.  There is a place, about an hour south of us called The Black Snake Meadery.  http://www.blacksnakemead.com/index.php?pr=Home_Page  Sounds like a great place to visit and I would not have heard of it if Blake hadn't be calling at the cabin.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and had thousands of ideas running through my brain.  Amongst them was a recollection that snakes avoid rough surfaces so my idea was to go around to all the tiny holes and put sandpaper around them.  Easier than patching them all.  I guess more research is necessary but we all agreed that snakes are better than mice.

In other animal news, we have two new animals on the farm (more than that but two that we brought to the farm).  Gold one and Gold 2.  They are two comet fish that live in the new water trough.  There was a frog in there the other day but I think it has moved on.  Anyway, the water surface seems clean and nice but the water is a little green.  I will put some barley in it to clear it up.

This morning on my way to the barn, I walked by the peach tree as usual and checked to see if they were ripe.  What I noticed first was that most were missing.  I picked the last 8 peaches but found at least three times that many pits under the tree.  All in one night.  I am not pointing any fingers but I was quite disappointed.  What can one do.  We have an abundance of wild life these days and a  skink (blue tailed lizard) hanging out in the fiber shed.  At least I haven't seen Blake in the fiber shed lately.