Sunday, June 13, 2010

Hiss


         Well, I made it.  Barely.  But more about that later.  Brody has wanted to go to the Snake Farm for years and even put it on his Summer To-Do list.  So what's a mom (who is terrified of snakes...have I mentioned that?) to do?  I took the boy and his equally terrified sister to the Snake Farm.
          This place has been around since my mom was growing up in the area.  She never took me as a kid 'cause she said it was dirty & gross (she was right!) and I was terrified of snakes and had NO desire to go.  Again, the things you do for your kids.
           It's just as you'd expect it.  You walk in and this is the first thing you see:
            Yeah, that about put me over the top and I'd only been there for 2 minutes. The worst part of this picture is that they were slithering around while I was taking the picture and even Brody was a little creeped out by the size of them.  Can you see it in his face?
            And then they are walls and walls of snakes in closed containers.  I let Brody wander around the room for a minute before I took a deep breath and stepped in.  

shake it off...shake it off.....

         I took a deep breath and launched into a teaching mode.  
"See the yellow & black one there?"
uh huh
"Remember this rhyme: "Red & Yellow kill a fellow, Yellow & Black, friend of Jack"
what's that got to do with snakes mom?
        They had a king snake (friendly) next to a coral snake (not friendly...AKA poisonous).   The king snake he is holding in the pic is a friend of Jack's.  And as we are going through this little lesson we hear the indistinguishable sound of a rattle.  I must have jumped back 10 feet....right into the opposite wall of snakes.  Apparently the rattlesnakes did not like my little lesson.  Time to go outside kids.
          The outdoors had lots of funny creatures that the baby loved staring at.  Like this warthog enjoying his lunch with the birdie on his back.
          Or the turkey that paced up and down while having a conversation with the peacock.
          Or this pig that was enjoying a roll in the mud. 
 I have never seen a pig do this before, so even I was amused.

And watch out for this incredibly scary creature:

Ok, just kidding. I was messing around on Manual with my camera and was totally impressed with this shot.  Although I have heard these things are poisonous, right mom?

But our biggest scare came with the King Scorpion.


Yes, the herpetologist (study of reptiles) was holding that enormous creature by his stinger.

        Now, I had prepared myself to see snakes, but definitely NOT scorpions and certainly not this close up.  But what we learned is that this big guy has a quarter of the potency of the tiny wood scorpions that we find all over our house.  Uh huh.  That means the sting of this guy would barely hurt.  Not compared to the hundreds we have roaming around my neighborhood.  Now that's comforting.



14 comments:

Kelly said...

You ARE a good mom! I don't know if I could have taken my kids to a snake farm! I am petrified... But, it's true...the things you do for your kids! Funny, my mom would never take us to the circus for the same reason...said it was too dirty! Now that I've taken my kids, I'm totally with her :)

Lyndsay said...

Yuck! My skin is crawling all the way in Florida. Thank goodness we don't have a Snake House anywhere close to us!!

Jen said...

Ok I have goosebumps now :) The scorpion thing has me freaked out. Are they all over Texas? Hubby still talks about moving down there. Can they kill you, or do they just hurt like heck?

Anonymous said...

okay all of the hair on my arms is standing on end! Please let there not be a place like this near my house!

Aimee said...

What a nice mom you are! When I was a kid we went to one of those nasty old snake farms along some texas highway. It was dirty and gross. I don't mind snakes really...it was just dirty and gross! This one looks much cleaner. :)

I'm fine with the snakes, but that scorpion would've creeped me out!

Miller Racing Family said...

Girl you are a better mom than I. We have taught Trey that a good snake is a dead snake. Of course he is like Brody, loves snakes.
I did love the pig rolling in the mud, that is more my type of animal.
Hope you all have a snake free day!

Connie said...

Oh my gosh...I barely made it through this post without passing out!

Jessica said...

HEEBIE JEEBIES

No can do. You're one brave mama!

Mom said...

Oh my gosh, do you really think a coral snake is friendly? That is just scarry. The man is holding a king snake.

Surrounded-By-Boys said...

What a trooper you are Mom! LOL
I like to look at snakes (sort of) on TV and such...but umm...when they crawl past me in the yard or whatnot...I'm all about the shovel!
I've always heard the rhyme "red on black friend of Jack, red on yellow kill a fellow".....either way--funny how we teach our youngin's that at a young age.....
My mama was so deathly afraid of snakes, she broke 3 ribs once jumping in the washing machine because a snake slithered past her in the garage....ROFLOL

McCrakensx4 said...

You are much braver than I! Snakes YUCK...scorpians...YUCK...all creepy crawly things...YUCK! Even your pictures made my shudder! Blogged over from Mimi's (He & Me +3)...nice to 'meet' you! And I jumped on as a follower!

jennykate77 said...

That gives me the heebie jeebies!!! I don't care if that big 'ol scorpion has a tenth of the potency...he's scary!!!! You're a brave momma to take a field trip to the snake farm. Props to you! Love the pic you took in manual mode! Good job!

Xazmin said...

I actually think snakes are really cool. I used to catch 'em when I was a kid!

But the scorpion triggered my gag reflex right away!

CSL said...

I'm not afraid of snakes, but you could NOT get me to go to a snake farm. I admire you greatly for sacrificing for your boy and doing this. My son will have to do without.... :)

Glad you are having a fun summer!

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