Black Racer

It was a banner day here!

First, I had to rescue and relocate a snake. Fat Fred found the snake in the yard. Fat Fred is my big orange cat. Anyhow he found a snake, and was chasing it. For fun. Cats are like that.

But once the snake was on the patio it just coiled up and quit running. So Fred lost interest in it. He sucks at hunting. Fatso has never had to hunt anything in his life. So I picked up the snake, rescuing it. Then I put it in a box and relocated it.

Most people here are retarded. So they do not know how to do the most simple thing. Like for example, how to identify common snakes. Is the snake poisonous? Well you should know that! Maybe it is. Maybe it is not. And lets say you get bit. Can you identify the snake that got you? Because if it is poisonous, knowing what bit you helps the doctors give you the RIGHT anti venom.

This is the snake I had to capture and relocate. Well not this snake, but one just like it. I stole this photo off the internet. What you see here is a very common black racer.

The adult racer is a slender, satiny snake, plain black or slate gray with a white or gray chin and throat. Maximum length is about 70 inches, but most are 36-60 inches long. Persons otherwise familiar with snakes are often "stumped" by young black racers, which are colored very differently form the adults. For a year after hatching, racers are slate gray with regular rusty brown blotches running down the back. Black racers shouldn't be mistaken for the threatened eastern indigo snakes, which also are large, shiny and black. Indigos are much heavier, have a rusty or red chin and throat, and are much more local in distribution.

In South Florida, there are only snakes you have to be able to identify. And the black racer is not one of them. If you know the coral snake, eastern diamondback rattlesnake, pygmy rattlesnake, and cottonmouth water moccasin then you are on the right track. These are the toxic critters. Therefore once you learn these 4, you can assume that anything else is not poisonous. If you live in North Florida, then you have to add the copperhead and timber rattlesnake to the list.

I also managed to create the litter sticks! I got some wooden poles from Home Depot. Each pole is 4.5 feet long. Then I drilled a hole in one end of each pole. Not too deep, maybe 3/4 inch to 1 inch. The holes were large enough so that the head of a nail would fit inside it. After that it was simple. Dampen the hole, insert a 3 1/2 inch nail head first into the hole, then fill the hole with Gorilla Glue. The glue turns to foam on contact with the water, and then hardens into this plastic like stuff.

Now I have a litter spear. I can stab the litter with the nail on a stick, then pick up the litter without having to bend over. I made 4 such devices. They will all fit in a boat floor locker so that the sticks can be stowed out of the way. If I can beach the boat then I will use one stick. My crew will use two more. The fourth stick is going to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.