More Life on the Ranch

4/24/09 - 6th Day - Preparation of the Sabbath. Midday. Danielle and I had to run to town this morning, and as we were driving on our dirt county road, we came upon a kingsnake on the road. Kingsnakes are good for your property because they will eat rattlesnakes and keep the venomous snakes away. So we decided to catch it and bring it to our land. Danielle is really an old-hand when it comes to serpent handling. She actually owned a kingsnake before we got married and I made her get rid of it. Later, when we were gloriously poor and living in West Texas, my whole family (children and all) went out twice a day to catch snakes. A local snake buyer would buy our snakes for the pet trade and he paid us good money for them. We could get $10-$15 for a hognose snake and up to $20 for a kingsnake. So we caught hundreds of snakes over several years, and many times that was the only money we had with which to buy groceries. But... even though Danielle has been bitten by snakes many times, the only snake she really is kind of wary about is the kingsnake. One time back in West Texas, a kingsnake bit her good on the hand. Anyway, so I finally decided to pick up the snake because Danielle was busy looking around for a stick. I handed her the snake and we got back in the Bronco and Whew!, I forgot how much a newly caught snake can stink! So we rushed back to the land. Danielle hopped out to get the gate holding the snake in one hand - and I couldn't help but snap a picture because it was pretty funny...


You can see the snake wound around her left hand and arm. On her right wrist is a watch... watches can be much more dangerous than a harmless 'ol snake. Then she got back in the Bronco and she thought it would be funny to get the snake to bite at her cell phone... cell phones are much more dangerous than snakes.


She let the snake go under some wood near the cabin. Actually, the kingsnake is quite harmless to humans. They have teeth like really sharp little pieces of Velcro. They are not venomous at all. They are good to have on the land, and we want to encourage them.

I used to be one of those people who thought "the only good snake is a dead snake", but I cannot tell you how horribly wrong that is. Several years ago, a guy said that to me, and I replied, "Let me ask you a question, would you rather have rats and mice in your house, even though rats and mice are known to carry a dozen diseases that can be fatal to humans; diseases which are even spread through the dust when their feces dries up and breaks apart? Or would you rather have in your house a snake that is afraid of you, that is completely harmless, doesn't eat or poison your food, or whose bite is like getting a tiny splinter or a slight abrasion?" If you say "mice and rats" you are too stupid to live, and people like you were the cause of many millions of people dying from the plague in Europe. Ignorance can be temporary and can be fixed. Stupid is forever. Most spiders, snakes, etc. are actually very beneficial for humans, and you would much rather have them around then the things you WILL have around if you kill all the spiders and snakes.

Today, after we returned from town, the whole family got together and we planted turnips. Turnips are an awesome crop and were once one of the main and primary feeds for cattle and other farm animals. I've written about this before, but the use of animal feeds made from seed are quite a recent thing. For centuries farmers raised root crops (turnips, carrots, rutabagas, etc.) for their animals. Turnips grow very quickly, are very high in vitamins and nutrients, and both the root vegetable and the top greens are food for both humans and beasts. You can grow several crops of turnips in a very short time since most turnips are ready to pick in only 40-45 days. Last year I planted turnips in my garden in late March and harvested them in time to plant a whole other spring crop in their place. Turnips, if planted as a fall crop, can usually be overwintered in the ground for storage, then fed to animals as needed. This is actually very late to be planting turnips around here. I should have planted them back in the end of February. We'd likely be harvesting the first crop now and putting the second crop in the ground. I plan on doing a second crop this fall, if the Lord wills. Here is a picture of some of the turnips we harvested on May 12th of last year...


Now, I had never eaten turnips before. Being a southerner, I had eaten turnip greens (which are delicious), but I had never eaten turnips. Well, we didn't know what to do with them, so we cubed them up and canned them like potatoes. When I was making stew one day while Danielle was out of town, I put the cubed up turnips in the stew like you would potatoes, and they were delicious! Actually, the turnips thickened up the stew and it was really, really good. I still have not eaten turnips raw like my ancestors did, but maybe I will this year. Anyway, if this turnip experiment works, it is likely we might (if the Lord wills) start planting three separate crops of turnips a year, as well as using turnips regularly in our crop and field rotation scheme.

Hey, I have to go for now.

Y'all be cool.

Michael Bunker