I know everything is bigger in Texas, but could we please have smaller spiders?

Tonight, I took Saga for a looong walk. We were out for about an hour and a half, enjoying the sunset and the (slightly) cooler temps as the sun went down.

 It's been a month since we've had rain, and things have turned their usual heat-baked brown.

Saga was doing his "power walk" down the trail on a loose rein, and I was admiring the deer, birds, and rabbits... until I almost got a face full of this:

Holy Giant Lichen Orb Weaver Spiders, Batman! 

Yes, I know it's a crappy iPhone picture, but I SWEAR, this thing was about an inch and a half across. That picture was taken from about five feet away, and that's how ginormous it was! I managed to duck at the last minute, and we avoided it, but I swear if I had run smack into that spider and had it ON me, I would not have been responsible for my actions.

 Here is a way better close up of a Giant Lichen Orb Weaver taken by somebody with a really expensive camera who was probably not trying to control a horse while taking a photo one-handed. Photo credit goes to this web site.

After that bit of excitement, I kept a sharp lookout for the buggers. I've never seen them before, but  saw probably half a dozen of them tonight in huge webs that span the width of the trials. Yeesh. I'm not sure whether to be glad that they were so big I could see them and avoid them, or totally freaked out that they were so big I could see them from 10 feet away.

In other news, the snake I found crossing the road last month was hanging out in the barn last night. I'm not sure where he disappeared to - he slithered off while I was running for the camera. I do hope he leaves a note as to his location, so he doesn't scare the ever-loving-crap out of me when I go out to feed. The neighbors might wonder if they hear screaming at 6 a.m., you know?

And now there are snakes!

I grew up in south Louisiana, land of venomous snakes. Water moccasins were the most common, and of course there were plenty of copperheads, and a few canebreak rattlesnakes thrown in for good measure. Despite this, I actually like snakes. I used to "babysit" my science teacher's pet king snake in middle school, and I had a rat snake for a couple of years. I also used to volunteer at the Nature and Science Center, in the herpetology area. So I can recognize venomous snakes pretty well, and I find the non-venemous ones pretty cool.

Quick note: Snakes are venomous, not poisonous. The best way to remember that is if you eat it and you die, it's poisonous. If it tries to eat you and you die, it's venomous. Also, all venomous snakes in North America, with the exception of coral snakes, are pit vipers. They have pronounced triangular heads, thick, flat bodies, and pupils that are slits instead of round (not that I recommend you getting close enough to see it!). So they are super easy to ID, even from a good distance.

So when I came across this big "stick" crawling across the road yesterday, I hopped out of the car to check it out:

Meet the new (harmless) neighbor! Click to enbiggen.

This guy is probably a Texas rat snake, or possibly a bull snake - their markings are quite similar, so it's hard to tell. However, given past experiences with this guy in our back pasture, and this guy in our shed, I'm hoping that it's the same snake and our house is part of his territory. Rat snakes eat rodents (yay!), are non-vemomous, and tend to stay away from people, so I'm really glad to have him as a neighbor. Having said that, I wouldn't try to pick him up or anything - snakes are very strong, and even the shyest wild snakes will bite in self-defense, so it's best to just let them go on their way.

Out of curiosity, now that y'all know there are scorpions AND snakes at my house, would you ever come visit if you just happened to be in the area?

Anyone?

ANYONE?

Maybe I should blog about cute bunnies instead?