Ahhhhhhh!!!

Whenever my brother-in-law is out of town, we take care of the "farm" at his house that is just across the dirt road from us. Basically, it involves feeding Blackie, the black lab, and her 5 week old puppies (Shadow and Oreo, recently named by the boys), as well as the number of hens, roosters and ducks that live there also. When David is gone for a long time, we water his fruit trees, plants and rose bushes. With the recent death of my father-in-law, he has been out of the country for about 3 weeks now, and we have been dedicated to keeping everything in order at his house. This morning, after feeding the animals, Jonathan and I headed over to the pump house shed where the hose is connected. I opened the door and banged on the wall just to make some noise in case of an intruder. I made a quick scan, and took a step into the little dark shed. I stopped quickly...I saw movement about a foot away from me. Visible, but hiding under a shovel was the thickest snake I have ever seen up close and personal! I believe the snake was about 2-3 inches thick, and it was growing by the second! My first instinct was to run like the scared chicken that I am. I saw that the snake wasn't leaving, so I called Josh over to see it before we evacuated the premises. We watched as it slithered out of sight, deeper into the shed. I called Luis from my brother-in-law's yard, and informed him of what I saw. I explained to him that I would be relieving myself of my gardening duties as of that moment. Luis, our brave and fearless leader, told me that his brother would have to check it out when he came back from Mexico, and for me to not go in to the shed again. Then, when I told him what color the snake was, he said it was probably a water snake or maybe a cotton mouth. Great. Needless to say, nothing was watered today. Tomorrow's not looking good, either. I guess I better start praying for more rain!