This morning, I was trying to get everything outdoors done before it got hot. I needed to check on my garden and check for anything that needed to be harvested. I got my first zucchini this morning!!! Then, while I was working on harvesting some beans, I knelt over and heard what sounded like a squeaky whimper. I had gotten a different pair of boots (used western boots) the day before, so I figured it was just the boots squeaking. However, when I stepped away, I noticed the ground was shaking just a little right where the sound was coming from (and the sound didn't move when my boot did). The hoe was right next to me, so I grabbed it and carefully/cautiously started pulling some straw away from the spot. What I discovered looked suspiciously like a baby mouse. It crawled back into the nest, though, and I didn't get a good look at it. I left it alone and went about my work, simply glad that I had finally happened upon something harmless, rather than a snake. 
Then, a little farther down the road, a great big toad jumped out of the row of beans.
I got a little angry with myself for being so jumpy.
I guess I was just expecting to see the blue racer snake that my husband claims is living in the corn rows.
I don't mean to question you, but are you sure that's a bull snake? It looks very different from the bull snakes that I've seen in northwest and north central kansas. The ones I have seen aren't so dark in color and, while they do have diamonds, their diamonds aren't quite so all-over, but are more contained to just their back (did that make any sense???) If it isn't a bull snake, I honestly have no idea what kind of snake it is, but it doesn't look like the bull snakes I've seen. Maybe it could just be the picture playing tricks on me too.
With bull snakes, you can often move them away from the yard by pushing them with a hoe or spraying them with cold water on a hot day (it sounds refreshing, but they really don't like it). I've been told that you can "weave" the snake's body between the tines of a pitchfork and carry it off that way, but that has never worked for us. Maybe we just get all of the non-cooperative snakes?!? Anyway, when we have shoo-ed snakes away in that way, very few of them have ever actually returned.
Then, a little farther down the road, a great big toad jumped out of the row of beans.
This morning my hubby saw a bull snake in the yard. He watched it, and would have let it go of it hadn't turned toward the chickens. We tried to care it away, but no luck. So he whacked it with a small board. Poor snake, but rhe chickies were kept safe.
I don't mean to question you, but are you sure that's a bull snake? It looks very different from the bull snakes that I've seen in northwest and north central kansas. The ones I have seen aren't so dark in color and, while they do have diamonds, their diamonds aren't quite so all-over, but are more contained to just their back (did that make any sense???) If it isn't a bull snake, I honestly have no idea what kind of snake it is, but it doesn't look like the bull snakes I've seen. Maybe it could just be the picture playing tricks on me too.
With bull snakes, you can often move them away from the yard by pushing them with a hoe or spraying them with cold water on a hot day (it sounds refreshing, but they really don't like it). I've been told that you can "weave" the snake's body between the tines of a pitchfork and carry it off that way, but that has never worked for us. Maybe we just get all of the non-cooperative snakes?!?
Anyway, when we have shoo-ed snakes away in that way, very few of them have ever actually returned.
