Book Board Chat

This is a scary Rusty story. Almost two weeks ago I was putting the chickens [one hen -- long story about the rest, and 3 young ones] up in the chicken coop. I noticed Rusty was looking at something in the pasture. And he was still looking at it -- oddly -- when I was done. I called to him, he just looked at me and went back to looking at whatever. So I went to the gate and he still didn't come. So I went in. And walked over to him. There was 'something' there and I thought it was a small armiliddolo. Till I 'heard' it. It was a rattlesnake happily rattling all coiled up. And Rusty loved the sound of that rattle. I mean, he was in striking range! So I got Rusty to step back away, but he wouldn't stay away, nor would he follow me [if I could have gotten him to the barn I could have shut him in a stall]. So there I stand. Bare foot in the middle of the pasture with my body between the angry snake and the 'I want to hear that sound' Rusty. I see my neighbor's truck on the next five acres over and start yelling his name. Only got his dog to bark at me. My neighbor the other way --2 -3 times as far -- hears me yelling my neighbor's name and saying 'No Rusty'. So he calls my neighbor and tells him I'm screaming for him. So he pops his head out and I ask for a shot gun. "For What?" he yells back. "Rattlesnake" I yell. "Are you sure?" [boy his life expectancy almost dropped to zero at that split second]. But he comes over with a hoe [no shot gun, calls the neighbor who had heard me and tells him it was a rattlesnake and asked if he had a shot gun. Nope, pardon me, aren't guys supposed to have shot guns????]. So he kills the snake with the hoe. It rattled all the way out of the pasture and he carried it on the hoe. Rusty was upset his friend was gone. The snake measured 50 inches. Then I killed one with a garden rake 3 days later in the south pasture -- 52 inches. [these measurements are taken on the ground, not held up, they would have been longer then]. The second one was crossing the driveway from the pasture heading for the air conditioners. no siting since.