ranch notes, mmxvii-vi-viii

Western diamondback, about five feet from head to toe. I was moving some round bales when I saw it uncurling from under a pallet. (The playful end is facing the camera; its head is just past the pallet's middle board.) Tough gig, being a snake: the first question everybody asks is, "Did you kill it?" Reader, I was armed with a plastic muck rake with two broken tines and a tractor, and there were too many trees in the way for the tractor. It slithered off to the neighboring property, but we will keep an eye out - administering first aid to a horse bitten on the nose doesn't sound like fun at all.