Thursday, May 17, 2007

There's a WHAT in my wall?!?

So, Shane has begun our kitchen/dining room remodeling project. For the last several days, he has come home after work and has been ripping out panelling, walls, studs, carpet....and then putting up studs for new walls....etc.

Yesterday, he was taking out a piece of panelling from one of the exterior walls in our back room (the one that is being used for storage right now) and all of a sudden, I hear...."Oh boy....I'm scared! I'm scared!" in this weird voice that Shane doesn't use very often. I didn't really know WHAT was going on, but thought he was joking or something....so I went around the corner and asked him what was wrong. Of course, who follows me? Colin, with Cameron right behind him. (Ethan was in my arms.)

When I get to Shane, he had this horrified look on his face, and I immediately knew at that point that something was REALLY wrong. I said to him, "What's the matter?" And he said, "Get the kids back!" I looked around the corner into the back room, and looked up (in the direction that he was already looking) to find what was almost the unthinkable--a SNAKE had made it's home in our wall!!

No, I am not kidding.

We apparently have been housing a giant (by my terms, anyway) snake inside our wall for who knows how long! He was just sitting up there, all comfy cozy, right on top of the insulation in the wall, not seemingly bothered at all that we had just torn into his home.

Talk about grossed out.

Neither one of us knew WHAT on earth to do. I ran down with the boys and put them in their room, and told them not to come out until I said that it was okay...and then proceeded to call animal control (however, it was past their hours, and I got the answering machine, with a message saying they do not pick up stray animals after hours. Great.)

I had no clue what to do from there, so I called across the street to my neighbor, hoping that she would be able to tell me who to call. Instead, she says to me, "Tom's afraid of snakes....I'll be right over." She proceeded to grab some gardening tools, and came right over to help with the process of getting rid of this snake. She said that it was a black king snake, and not poisonous, but it could still bite.


So, for the next several minutes, she and Shane devised a plan, and they were able to get the snake onto the ground. Sherry held the snake down with a garden hoe while Shane chopped it's head off (or tried--apparently, snake skin is pretty thick and tough.)

He never got the head really off, however. Once the snake was "dead", Sherry picked it up and carried it into the field behind our house to dispose of it, saying an animal would eat it in the next couple of days.

After a few minutes, Sherry left, and Shane went to check on the snake...to find it still very much alive. So, he really did chop the head off of it that time, and then measured (as you can see in the photos.) It was over 4 ft. long, without the head!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??

I mean, seriously, I never would have thought in a million years that something like that would happen! But, that's our story of our most eventful remodeling incident to date!!

8 comments:

Karie said...

ok that is absolutely horrifying. I don't know what I would have done, probably ran out of the house, yuck!!!!!!!! At least you got it out. How on earth did it get in there and I wonder if it went out to eat. Anyways... I am done thinking about that already.

Schwartz's said...

A Black Mamba! Shane Shane Shane. I have to say I am a little disappointed in you. I thought you would have remembered your training a little better from the Schwartz snake eradication acadamey. I am proud of the beheading though. Our snake count is up to 3 around here.

Anonymous said...

ok ummmm... I am now grossed out for the rest of the day! Shane called us the other night to tell us and I have been waiting for this post but the pics just made me a bit nautious. I can't stand snakes. I grew up next to a field so we had gardener snakes all the time and once in our house but my parents refused to tell us until a few years later.(thank goodness or I would have moved out)augh! hopefully that snake doesn't have other little snakes around in there somewhere! have fun finding more!!!! Aauugghhhh!!!!

Devin said...

To my two sisters-in-law: I KNOW!! I was freaking out too, obviously. I have video of the whole thing too--I will show you both when I see you in a couple weeks. You think you are grossed out now...just wait until you see the video!! :-) Love you both!

Lori Rushing said...

OK, there is no way that I would have gotten that thing out of the house. We would have had to call someone else to do it since we both hate snakes. Let's hope that you don't find any more!!! Thanks for sharing, my co-workers loved it. Lori

The Boe's ~ said...

Yes, that was an absolute terrifying situation, glad Shane was there and what a hero, your neighbor :)
I couldn't believe how long it was, oh my....I would've had this baby for sure if I was the one to find it :) Thanks for sharing, makes for a great blog story :)

Dora said...

GROSS! I am deathly afraid or snakes, mice and bats! so far we have had bats and mice in our house...( we live in the country) and both times while I was pregnant or with a newborn! my husband Roger works second shift and was gone a couple of times (this has happened a couple of times with a bat) so I called my dad and I was crawling on the floor to get out the back door.. I left it there and drove to my parents home till Roger got there.. if I found a snake, I don't know what I would have done.. it looks huge in the pictures, my skin was crawling just looking at it... yuck.. I am glad that you found it.. I can't believe it was living in the wall!

The Colorado Carrs said...

Hi..my name is JEssica and I am Heather's cousin. Sometimes I check out her links and such so I was browsing and saw your snake!!! Oh my.....good thing your boys are so very cute!! Glad that snake is out!