Playing Snakes and Ladders

Snake season has almost ended - hopefully they will be all tucked up nice and warm in their holes very soon and I won't have to see them for another 6 months. I have never been fond of snakes, in-fact I have always been verging on the side of being ophidiophobic. Over the last 6 months of living on the farm this has lessoned but even seeing a photo of a snake makes me a little anxious.


They say you gain phobias from childhood experiences. I believe after living in New Zealand - where there are no snakes - and then moving to Singapore, my parents were, rightly, overly cautious about us kids coming across snakes. I have no childhood memories to back this hypothesis up but it seems to be the only logical explanation for my compulsion to soil my nappies whenever I see, or think, a snake is close to me. I've heard the stories of family members coming across snakes in Sembawang, Singapore, but can only remember the zoo experience with a snake. I seem to be happy holding the tail of the snake but I feel my older sister, Dale, was much wiser with her emotions. Perhaps compared to the shame of later wearing a pinkish safari suit the snake was a breeze.

In 2007 Myles and I paid a visit to the Snake zoo in Bangkok and I was, not so, pleasantly surprised to have a snake wrapped around my neck. A couple of locals came up behind me while I was talking to Myles. Naturally Myles didn't say anything until I felt a huge weight on my shoulders and the local saying "take photo". I believe my comment to Myles was something like...


"Take the f$#ken photo" while struggling to breathe. So the smile in the photo is really a sham.


Upon arriving at the farm I spent a good 2 weeks cutting down trees and shrubs in the hope the snakes wouldn't come near the house.Nature doesn't listen to reason though...


I believe Myles and I spotted Vera, green tree snake, early in the piece. Myles, knowing my dislike of snakes, told me to stay away from the garage because there was a snake. I just had to have a look and saw Vera moving along the driveway. She stopped once I was spotted so I yelled at her to get off my property - and she did - later to return.


While my brother and I were moving some logs we came across a Red Belly Black, one of the most poisonous snakes. I relocated it because it was living near the house.


2 weeks ago a 9ft python knocked a couple of glass jars of the balcony on it's way to find food. Fritz was quick brought inside as he is a good meal size.


And finally, on the weekend Myles investigated the reason for the sensor light coming on at night. He came back inside a little whiter than normal and announced that there was a snake in the garage and a snake wrapped around the sensor light. He then got a torch and invited me to look - because I had asked what sort of snakes they were and he couldn't tell. Both snakes had partially hid by the time I got down. But we think one was the 9ft python that had come onto our deck a couple of weeks ago and the other looked like it had a small head but no body colouring could be seen.


The garage was cleaned out the next morning with no snakes thankfully found. We also ripped down the front door tin sheeting, as several snakes have been spotted traveling along it. After wobbling around on ladders there is clear sheeting replacing the old tin - hopefully the snakes are afraid of heights so will not want to look down while they travel along it.