Snake on the Cukes

 I took a little garden walk to see how things were shaping up.

This is one of the first years we have decent sized peaches,

although I still have little to no hope of eating any.

The raccoon have stolen and half eaten several, the 

remains scattered beneath the tree.  Bugs are making their

way to the fruit too but still, it's nice to see at least the start of fruit.

I quickly snapped this shot just as the butterfly was 

landing on the zinnias over at the big garden.  

We use cattle panels to attach any plant that can grow

vertically to save room and keep things orderly.  

I have cucumbers, beans, a volunteer cherry

tomato (that is tending to vine) plus THIS!

Is it a volunteer squash or 

ANOTHER CATTLE PANEL PUMPKIN!!

I really don't know at this point but I"ll keep watch.

As I was keeping watch over this long cucumber,

I saw something unusual but didn't capture it on camera.

I must have been one of the pantyhose ties, similar to

the one pictured here, that allows a little wiggle room

as the plants mature.

But the one I saw was curled around the cucumber vines.

It had little dark bow ties running down its back,

and it had eyes.

My pantyhose don't have eyes.

Copperhead baby!

Great.  A baby copperhead is just as bad, 

if not worse, than a copperhead mama or papa.

They don't usually kill you in Missouri although we

just had a recent case where a man died, being bitten

several times. He went into anaphylactic shock.

Mostly, you need to get treatment and will be real sick.

It isn't unusual for us to have copperheads

but they are not typically wound around my cucumber vines.

They like to sun on our retaining wall blocks

so we just move them back into the woods, if possible.

I'll have to be extra careful as I gather my harvest.

I will poke around with a stick first.

 

On the brighter side, I have my little side garden that

has the beginning of a cuke!  

Adorable.