A beautiful day and time to put another batch of chickens in the freezer. John and Justin and I were joined by in the massacree by two good friends -- both of whom inspired characters in the Elizabeth Goodweather books.
During the course of the day Justin mentioned that he and Claui had killed several copperheads right around their house and
"I've never seen such a year for copperheads; I must have killed a half a dozen at least. Sometimes two in a day. All right around the house too -- if they're out in the pasture, I leave them alone. But a few days ago was a first. I was working around one of the rock walls right near the house and I saw a copperhead poke his nose out from between the rocks. Now I always keep my .22 pistol loaded with rat shot and right there on the patio table when I'm out working.
But the minute he saw me looking at him , he scooted back in the wall to where I couldn't get a clear shot at him."I went on pulling weeds and working around, watching him out of the corner of my eye and he 'd come out a little but then if he saw me looking his way, back in he'd go."So I went and got my riding lawn mower and started mowing back and forth, and the copperhead thinks, 'Well now she's mowing.' and he comes out a ways. I keep on mowing, back and forth and back and forth,and he comes out some more."I get a little closer to the wall and he's still out. So on the next pass, I don't even slow down. I just point that pistol at him, pow, pow, pow, pow, and that's the end of that snake.
"I reckon you could call it a drive by shooting."