Check out how big this copperhead is that was in my wood pile and i did not see it until my dog went crazy and i gave my dog a steak for supper for saving me!!
It really is a beautiful creature, but Crofab is the first thing that pops in my mind......no thanks.
Yah...... I know that some disagree with me but KILL IT!! I HATE snakes SO much!!! I am sure that it would make a lovely wallet or the like And good catch by the pup! I think that if I moved back we're there are more snakes I'd have to get a dog to help point them out for me.
I had the shotgun ready and if i could not have got him on the phone i was going to blast him with some number 6 shot!! I do not like them also!!
It's a southern thing, Yankees wouldn't understand. But I'm also not sure I understand either. I would be interested to know if any one here has been to one of these churches that has the snakes.
-From the Gospel of Wiki, Snake handling, also called serpent handling, is a religious ritual in a small number of isolated churches, mostly in the United States, usually characterized as rural and part of the Holiness movement. The practice began in the early 20th century in Appalachia and plays only a small part in the church service. Practitioners believe serpent handling dates to antiquity and quote the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke to support the practice: And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:17-18) Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. (Luke 10:19) -From the mind of vBlake I remember there was a show on Discovery or History Channel that showcased churches and snake handling. But that's all I know. ans I really don't know that.. any whoooo I like your Cedar you got cut up. Purty
I try to keep a couple of black snakes in my barns and greenhouses for mice control and they help. Around here we see very few poisonous snakes and if they are in the woods I leave then alone. If a copperhead or rattler came around when the grandchildren are here they would have to go to snake heaven but that has not happened.
This line cracked me up because I KNEW there were some folks sitting out there thinking "do I dare ask?"
That is interesting. I was not aware of any churches that would use snakes in the area where that particular species is indigenous.
I saw a documentary on a few churches that practiced snake handling and i think the ones that were shown were in kentucky and west virgina. And if my memory recalls correctly, i think there was a tv series on nat geo called snake salvation, i think, that showed it as well.
there was a snake church for a short time in pittsburg, oklahoma. don't know why it didn't last. we have plenty of copperheads, cottonmouths, and a few species of rattlesnake...
My last encounter with a copperhead was about 40 years ago when I was about 25. I was a grad student in a dept of biology in the south. I was on assignment to catch local mice and rats for the university collection. It was a weekday afternoon when I set about 200 live box traps in woodland edges with blackberry thickets. After setting the traps, I retired to camp -- a VW van -- where I slept warm and dry. The next morning, I went out at sunrise to check the traps. I was about half way finished with the line when I ran upon a trap that I could not extract from a briar patch. I reached into the patch about 8 or 9", grabbed the end of it, pulled, but something was keeping it from coming out. No matter how hard I tugged, it would not come out. In fact, it seemed like it was pulling back. Weird. Then, I noticed (what I thought was) a stick stuck in the far end of the trap. It was a thick stick, somewhere between 1.5 and 2" in diameter. It was as if a rat had gone into the trap from my end, but then escaped, leaving that stick stuck in the far end. I was puzzled. Then, the first clue. Coming out of the near end of the trap, I noticed a small appendage that looked like a worm caught in the door of the trap. Curious. So, I pushed the door open, and the appendage moved inside the trap. Suddenly, it became clear: that appendage was the tail of a copperhead that had crawled into the trap on "my" end, perhaps to find a mouse inside. It crawled all the way through the trap, out the other end, but the rear door closed on its tail, stopping it from escape. So, the head end was 2.5' out the other end, holding onto the briar stems. Had that not been the case, I'd have been bitten. In some fit of madness, I managed to use a stick from the rear to open the front door that was retarding the copperhead's escape. (Why? Because my professor counted the traps. If one was missing ....) It slithered away quickly. I grabbed the trap, folded it up, put it into the box. From then on, I always looked at both ends of a trap before reaching for it.