Good Morning, Snakes!

I wasn’t upset in the slightest about the two giant, earth shaking rolls of thunder that pealed out at 2 and 3 am, respectively. I said “Good Morning, Snakes!” and rolled over and went back to sleep, grinning into my pillow.

I don’t remember where I heard the story that thunder wakes up snakes, but I know it has to do with the fact that big storms that produce thunder are a sign that the weather is warming up.  Maybe the thundering snow last week was the first alarm, and the snakes hit the snooze button?

One way or another, I’m pleased. We have a few black snakes that live in our backyard, and at least one of them is over 6 feet long from some of the skins we’ve found.  I’m always pleased when I see them in the yard sunning themselves on the stone wall, as our rodent problems disappear once the snakes appear.

Here’s a few links of interest:

• • I have had people ask me why I distrust large corporations, as if my choices are knee-jerk reactions to popular liberal culture, and my answer is the same each time.  Sometimes paranoia is completely justified. Some of my family members’ health concerns have been directly connected to DDT exposure, but they were told it was safe.  My grandfather died from lung fibrosis, and he used to be in the Navy and worked scraping asbestos out of naval ships – it was perfectly safe, he was told.  I don’t have a lot of trust for corporate-funded science.

• • I am a bit on edge and fiery after my post the other day about the Hominy Creek Fuel Oil Spill, and all of the pollution in North Carolina (not to mention West Virginia, the multiple towns dealing with well explosions, fracking pollution, the pipelines being built, etc etc etc).  And thank goodness, our governor Pat McCrory is being subpoenaed for his connections with Duke energy – let’s hope that actually goes somewhere.  Duke isn’t hurting for money, so stockholders like McCrory are raking it in.

In happier springtime-is-pending news, I’m washing out yogurt containers to prepare for seedling season! We are also going to go purchase our greenhouse building supplies for converting our trampoline frame.  Eric and I have made up our own plans of how to make this building magic happen, and so I’ll post pictures of our process and experience as we go.