Fall's Surprises

The cats get locked up in the basement sometimes. We keep the door shut when there is no one down there, so that there are no accidental falls down the stairs. There's no litter box in the basement, so when I am home without Hubby and I cannot hear the cat meowing through the door and they "gotta go", they do their business on the floor. It happens. Oh well. I clean it up and spray some bleach on the concrete and it's forgotten. I went down to do the laundry today and I saw BC the cat pawing around something and a quick glance told me it was a nice swirl of poop. After loading the washer, I grabbed the paper towels and the bleach. A step closer and **GASP!!** It was a nice swirl of snake! OMG! OMG! OMG! O! M! G! I dropped the paper towels and the bleach and quickly looked around for something I could use to catch it with. I spotted the wood stove shovel and thought at 3 feet, that it was too short and I didn't want Mr. Snake to jump and bite me. I have no idea what kind of snake it is, and I don't want to find out the hard way that it bites and it's poisonous! I spot my pile of dirty laundry and see a pillow case. *bingo!* I see on TV all the time the snake wranglers using pillow cases! I quickly run and grab one and think twice about using my pretty flowered vintage one, drop that and grab the bag that the girls flannel Cinderella sheets came in. Priorities, right?

Shooing BC aside, he has the snake's tail under his paw and the snake is still curled into a coil, I drop the open end onto the snake, carefully lift under it and ta-dah!! The snake is in the bag! I was quite proud of myself. Wait til I tell Hubby when he gets home! I think to myself. I consider saving it and waiting until he gets home to dispose of it, or take it out into the woods and let him go. I choose the latter and walked out to the far edge of our property. The girls followed me half way until I threatened them with, "The snake might jump and bite you when he sees you!" Of course I remembered to take my camera along so I could take a picture and look up the markings and figure out what kind of snake it is. It looks like it was a young one, less than 2 feet long, thank goodness! Oldest asked me if it was a rattler and I was more than happy to say it wasn't! If you know what kind of snake this is, please let me know.

I realize with the cooler weather, the snakes are looking for someplace warm to hibernate. Hopefully we won't see anymore snakes in the house. After I sent Mr. Snake on his way, the girls wanted to go and see the wild grapes we have growing in the front yard. This is what we found:

They never got this big before and I am thrilled to see so many grapes!! I looked them up and they are edible and so I tasted them and they are sweet!! They are only a little bigger than 1/4 inch, but they pack some flavor!! I'm thinking of grape jelly! Or maybe grape juice! Mmmmm! Too late today to make some, but when I take my day off on Wednesday, I think we will be picking some grapes and try to make something with them. Maybe a little bit of both, juice and jelly. They are made almost the same way, but the juice sits for 24 hours and then you ladle the top off and can. The jelly is made with pectin and sugars and simmered then canned. I'll see how many grapes we get and go from there. I see a tutorial in my future!

Hope you all had a good weekend, the next time I post will be Wednesday! Have a good week!