Brown Snake Season
I walked out into the dam paddock towards the trees to make sure the sheep were all okay and to take a closer head count and say hello. I was looking at the sheep and not the ground and then realised there was a brown snake moving in the same direction just ahead of me and to the left side about a metre away. I stopped moving forward and started walking backwards and let it continue on its way. That was pretty scary. It was quite long, maybe almost two metres. Because the grass is getting browner due of lack of rain, he was the same colour as the ground and not easily seen. I'm now carefully surveying the ground in front of me whenever I'm walking. I do hope the lambs aren't tempted to go too close to snakes. I hope the cows don't either, or the chickens or the kittens. The kittens were playing with a small foot long baby snake the other day. I think Steve ended up chopping it with the hatchet, so the kittens didn't get hurt. We've been quite lucky in the past three years. I've only actually seen one large black snake (I was in the car at the time). I've seen a few little baby foot long ones and heard lots of slithering noises in long grass, but that's all. Today was the closest I've been to a snake so far.