CountryBoy19
Grandmaster
Let me set the stage for the nearly heart-attack I had:
On my property there is an old abandoned limestone house in the woods; built in 1930. It's been 25 years since it's been occupied, it's in BAD shape. Unfortunately, due to a convoluted water well setup, the power for the well is fed from that old house, that still maintains an electrical panel in the basement. Because part of the basement wall is caved in critters are free to come and go as they please. Even more unfortunately, I have to go down into the basement to check the electrical panel and well-timer occasionally. The steps are in a sad state of decay, I can only step on the steps right next to the stringers, stepping in the middle will likely land you in the 6" of water in the basement. If it were ever necessary to quickly vacate the basement I likely would break through the steps in my haste. YIKES!!! Therefore I'm always very cautious when going down; I try to make plenty of noise in the main level of the house to give critters a chance to vacate before I go down.
So last night I'm down there checking on the panel, coming up with my game-plan to re-route the well power to the electrical panel in the shop. I'm tracing wires through the ceiling by flashlight. Some of these wires are LARGE old-school wires with the woven fabric insulation on them. As I was tracing wires I had a "holy crap, that's a huge wire" moment. Time seemed to slow down from there, it occurred to me that what I was seeing was NOT the woven insulation of a really large wire, it was the scaled texture on a snake-skin. As much as I like having snakes around, I don't EVER want one right above my head. Thankfully, this skin did NOT have the snake inside of it, but who knows if at some point previously it was laying there in the floor-joists shedding it's skin as I walked underneath (it's directly over the electrical panel)? Oh, the important part, from what I can estimate on length of the skin from what remained, the snake was at LEAST 8 feet long...maybe more.
On my property there is an old abandoned limestone house in the woods; built in 1930. It's been 25 years since it's been occupied, it's in BAD shape. Unfortunately, due to a convoluted water well setup, the power for the well is fed from that old house, that still maintains an electrical panel in the basement. Because part of the basement wall is caved in critters are free to come and go as they please. Even more unfortunately, I have to go down into the basement to check the electrical panel and well-timer occasionally. The steps are in a sad state of decay, I can only step on the steps right next to the stringers, stepping in the middle will likely land you in the 6" of water in the basement. If it were ever necessary to quickly vacate the basement I likely would break through the steps in my haste. YIKES!!! Therefore I'm always very cautious when going down; I try to make plenty of noise in the main level of the house to give critters a chance to vacate before I go down.
So last night I'm down there checking on the panel, coming up with my game-plan to re-route the well power to the electrical panel in the shop. I'm tracing wires through the ceiling by flashlight. Some of these wires are LARGE old-school wires with the woven fabric insulation on them. As I was tracing wires I had a "holy crap, that's a huge wire" moment. Time seemed to slow down from there, it occurred to me that what I was seeing was NOT the woven insulation of a really large wire, it was the scaled texture on a snake-skin. As much as I like having snakes around, I don't EVER want one right above my head. Thankfully, this skin did NOT have the snake inside of it, but who knows if at some point previously it was laying there in the floor-joists shedding it's skin as I walked underneath (it's directly over the electrical panel)? Oh, the important part, from what I can estimate on length of the skin from what remained, the snake was at LEAST 8 feet long...maybe more.
