Misc data and adventures of a Tayopa treasure hunter

[birdman]

I watched Mary Popins when I was about 5 years old and grabbed an umbrella went up a large water oak and down I went. The umbrella turned inside out and did not slow me down at all..

 

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[Loke]

Not being a native to Texas (hey - I'm nothing but an 'import' - from a completely snake-free country across the 'pond') - to me a 'good' snake was always a dead snake. Some years back I left city-life behind and got myself out into the country - where snakes are in abundance. I did my darned best (at least for while) to decimate the local population (not having the faintest idea which snake was a god one and which was not). It all came to an end when I read somewhere that in Texas, all the venomous snakes have slit pupils and the non-venomous have round pupils. Now - that seemed easy enough - so I was gonna put it to the test.
One day I was just sitting on my riding mower minding my own business when this 5-footer was busy trying to avoid the mower. It seemed like a threatening prospect to me so I ran off, got a rake and after some chasing got the rake placed over the head of the offender. Now, I got down on my knees to look the sucker in its eyes - and ya know what - they were round! He he - case proved - and I let him go.
Two days later I saw the same (or same kind) slithering through the door and trying to crawl up behind the bookcase in my study. Fortuneately I'm an avid golfer and used my trusty 3-iron to pry him off said space - got him wedged around the tail as he was about to disappear for good - and the sucker pooped like nothing I have ever seen or smelled before - man, that was a revelation! Fortuneately we have tiled floor, or the missus would've had me scrubbing the place for weeks afterwards.

After that - the only snakes that has been 'sent over' by me have been the venomous kind - and truth be told - we have a lot more non-venomous snakes than the venomous variety ...
;-)

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Morning Beth; You say that Oro is an 'ass' man? we will get along fine since I have been referred to as being an "ass" many times. Err on second thought that doesn't sound just right ?? Hmm What I meant wassss----. Oh well, sigh, forget it. sniff. need

Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[PROSPECTORMIKEL]

ORO, THAT WAS ABOUT A 6.5 ON THE PUCKER FACTOR! NOTHIN' DULL ABOUT IT!

LOKE, YOU GOT IT RIGHT.... THE ONLY GOOD SNAKE IS A DEAD SNAKE!

I HAVE A STORY IN EACH GROUP FOR YA'LL BUT IT WILL HAVE TO WAIT TILL I GET A LITTLE MORE TIME.
TILL THEN

MIKEL

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

Yea, birdman,

Those umbrellas don't work like they do on tv. Of course, neither does tying a beach towel to your shoulders and jumping off the roof. Well, I flew for a moment anyway - I think the magic must of been in the big letter "S" on superman's chest, because it is the only thing I think I did
wrong. Either that, or my cousin who was with me had some kryptonite........................... (I do know it hurt).

Jose - for you.........................

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Hi Birdman: Since you wern't successful in soloing, how did you rate being a boid? What were your final thoughts just before --?

Da-- Beth, you hit it, I believe that is why the capes didn't work. Here is a stencil and some red paint. Go try it again.

Don Jose de La Mancha

p.s. surely you wouldn't want me to drink that dirty sock coffee alone? Can I invite my friends also?

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HOLA LOKE: Good story, I am glad that you aren't scragging snakies indiscrimantly. Even the venemous ones are valuable. Away from the house leave them alone unless you wish to become the new Pied Piper of Hamlein.

That iky poop is a common defensive trait for snakes, especially the harmless ones since they have no poison for defense.

Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

Sock coffee for everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But, no..............I don't think I'll try it again. I don't bounce as well as I used to back then!! If I knew then what I know now, I probably wouldn't have tried it - like, my hero, Superman - they didn't have much luck when they weren't wearing their capes.

I was lucky - it was my grandmother's vacation cabin roof that I jumped off of - and it was a one story little cabin, only about 10 feet high. If it had been a REAL house, I probably wouldn't be telling the story. As it was, I attempted a swan dive, that rapidly turned into a belly flop, which turned into "look mom, no air in my lungs". Knocked the air right out of me. Funny thing, the next day, it hurt WAY more.

Beth

 

[truckinbutch]

My gradeschool buddies and I found a new flying game after our dads started square baling and ricking hay outside . The 40 by 100 sheets of black plastic they used to cover the hay could catch an amazing amount of breeze .
Tie baler twine leads to 4 corners . A kid on either corner of the leading edge and one holding 2 ropes on the 'dummy' end . Turn into the wind and run into it . Kid on the back FLEW !
Unfortunately , lead kids holding their ground too long could result in the plastic spilling air out the trailing end with a snap like a wet sheet on a clothes line . One point landings were common for the flier . So were broke noses ......................

 

[weekender]

Don Jose,
remind me to stay on your good side !!!

How about another snake story?

In keeping the current snake story scheme, you can imagine a group of young future leaders of the world,
(BSA) out on a weekend campout. While wandering around a group of us come across a nice sized copperhead
protecting the trail we are on. Holy cow, look at how big he is! nice sized in this case was about 3-1/2'.
let's kill it, one of the scout says, no says I, let me show you something I read in a book. I grabbed a long limb
about 3' long start wiggling it to the side of the snake, what are you doing? I am going to distract it with the stick
and them grab him behind the head, says I.I shake the stick, snake is coiled up, getting pretty pissed by now, he raises up a little,
I grab, Holy cow, you got em'. Yes indeed I did, what they did not realize was that I was about an inch lower than i wished to be.
You can imagine a (nice sized copperhead) wrapped around your forearm, with a firm grip about 4" below his head, just enough that when
he opens his mouth, extends his fangs, and his tounge is hitting your hand and yes like Loke says, (they have slitted eyes!) I calmly said
Boy's we have a problem, what do you mean, they ask? This snake is inching out of my hand everytime he opens his mouth, and he is getting
awful close to biting me, someone is going to have to uncoil him off my arm PDQ.Not many volunteers, finally one brave soul started unwrapping
him from my arm, I get ahold of his tail, and holler make a hole!! I then throw him. Scout leaders backtrack and ask, where ya'll been? Just back here looking at a snake.Ya'll better be careful, ther's lots of copperheads around here.
Hey, it sounded a lot easier in book. Never tried that one again.



-Weekender

 

[Loke]

Just another li'l snake adventure.
And for the record, RdT, I agree with you now (though not when I first came). However, I have 6 grandchildren running all over the place, so anything venomous within 'striking' distance goes.

We have this worst-ever drought in TX this year and my tank (that's 'pond' for you non-Texans) dried up completely. When there was about half-an-inch left, I went down to check on it and saw a water-moccasin half out of the mud. As I got nearer, he slid back into the mud again, so I run back and get my 22-pistol and disposed of him with a lucky shot. Then I saw what looked like several others making a 'wake' in whatever water/mud was left and emptying my magazine obviously didn't do any damage whatsoever. Being a stubborn kinda guy I went back for my 12-gauge ... some 10 shells later I knew I had some 3-4 of them, but it was too muddy to get them - and it was getting dark anyway. And - I most certainly didn't want a nest of water moccasins too near the house.
The next afternoon I put on gum-boots and a long rake and proceeded to 'haul' in my catch. Not one water-moccasin, but 3 alligator gars (the biggest of which was 2 feet). Man - I didn't even know critters like that existed! They are like alligators dressed up as fish!! Was googling for the suckers and discovered they can be up to 350 lbs of weight!!! Ya know what - I think I would rather wrestle a real alligator than a 300 lbs alligator gar!

I have no idea whatsoever how they managed to get into my tank - unless it was some years back when we had this flood - my 27 acres consisted of a house and a 25-acre lake.

Has anyone else seen or heard of or know anything about 'alligator gars'?

 

[truckinbutch]

Rockhound :
Bet there was a smelly trail of poop behind that snake , too

 

[Loke]

@rockhound,
*lol* I like that one - gonna save it for posterity!

 

[truckinbutch]

My next hollow neighbor , Gordon Lawson , and I fought together from before 1st grade to the present . If there was no one else to fight we fought each other for practice . No holds barred .
Right after he got back from 'Nam we went camping on a several thousand acre southern lake .
Had multi-cell inflatable kyacks as our fishing vessels .
In the middle of this expanse of water he saw a water moccasin and snagged it with a Jitterbug
plug. Well hooked he flipped into my boat and said ."Take this off my line , would ya ."
Cut his line with my Buck and threw his lure and the po'ed snake back in the water ..................
Then , I paddled over and stuck that Buck knife in the 2 main air chambers of his boat before I turned to paddle back to camp .
Took him a while to swim back ................................

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Geeze gals, guys it appears that our truckin has no sense of humor sigh he needs -->

Don Jose de la Mancha, el gentle, chaste, saint

 

[truckinbutch]

Geeze gals, guys it appears that our truckin has no sense of humor sigh he needs -->

Don Jose de la Mancha, el gentle, chaste, saint

My friend ! Would you want to go camping with a guy that would drink all your beer while he was cheating you at cards , then ...... sneak out of camp in your car that he had bought no gas for and empty the tank in a futile quest to 'get next to'your wife while you were gone ?

 

[poorhunter78]

Ask Truckin Butch What happened, Last time he decided to pick a Fight!

Awww Shucks!!!
Come on Jim...
Let us have it!!!

Truckin Well on second thought better have some more!!

 

[PROSPECTORMIKEL]

LOKE,

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN TEXAS WITHOUT FINDING A GAR?

MY BROTHER AND I WOULD HAVE TO FISH THEM OUT OF OUR SWIMMING HOLE WHEN WE WERE KIDS.
WE WOULD TAKE A PIECE OF 1/2" COTTON ROPE AND TIE IT TO A STICK AND POP IT LIKE A WHIP UNTIL ABOUT A FOOT OF IT WOULD UNRAVEL AND TIE A KNOT JUST ABOVE THE FRAY.
THEN CUT THAT PART, KNOT AND FRAY, THEN MAKE SEVERAL MORE SAME WAY.
WE WOULD TAKE TWO ROD AND REELS AND TIE THEM ON (ONE AT A TIME) AND CAST THEM OUT AND START REELING THEM IN.
THE GAR WOULD HIT THE COTTON ROPE AND AS SOON AS THEY TURNED AWAY WE WOULD JUST HOLD STEADY ON THE LINE AND THEY WOULD SPIN WHICH WOULD TIE THEIR MOUTH CLOSED... REEL 'EM IN AND CUT 'EM LOOSE.

NO LONGER A THREAT. THEY WOULD RAM US FROM TIME TO TIME. THAT WOULD MAKE US WONDER IF WE GOT 'EM ALL.

JUST PART OF SWIMIN' IN TEXAS.



PROSPECTORMIKEL

 

[oddrock]

Just found this snake tale story book....got one to add.

About 30 years or so ago I was down in rattlesnake country and they were bringing enough dollars per pound to buy gas and refreshments....me and Buddy would get them on the weekends and save them in an old freezer with holes drilled in the lid to let air in. When we could save enough to cash in we would go sale them. Had 32 in the "box" and had a cold spell and the High Temp was 10 degrees. Buddy calls me up and says "we got a problem...our snakes have froze to death"!!! He aint got time to mess with them, but knows I been skinning a few, tanning their hides and making belts, hat bands and such....says you can have'em all just get them.
I go and lift the lid... they are froze stiff as tree limbs...eyes like little slits...some with tongues still sticken out...twisted lips...OK... I brought a wash tub and started chunking them into it....clang, clang, clang.
Put them in the back of my early model Ford Bronco with rag top...turn the heater on and head home.
Life's good....what is that sound...sheet the heet has thawed the snakes out and they are coming out of the tub! (why they all coming this way)...almost got excited ...rolled the windows down on both sides of the truck, while turning off the heater, while driving and shifting and braking with I dont know what. Ended up in the bar ditch on the side of the road. Only one of the 32 was lost but I tanned his hide.

Oddrock

 

[coazon de oro]

Hell O Secondhand Lions,

I've been enjoying all your stories, can't seem to get enough.

Some of us weren't too smart as kids, but that's excusable, when we do dumb things as adults, that's another story.

Speaking of snakes, I used to be a snake trader. The most rattlesnakes I sold at one time was a little over $500 @ five dollars a pound. My biggest catch was seven feet two inches.

I had always heard stories of cowboys in the area that when they would catch a whip snake, they would swing it from the tail around their head like a whip, and pop the head off. Maybe that's why they call them whip snakes? Anyway, I had heard that story so many times, that one day at work, I came across a bull snake while going from one gas well to another. A bull snake looks somewhat like a rattler, and sounds somewhat like a rattler, as it makes a very loud hissing noise. It comes with round eyes. Since they are easier to catch, I got the bright idea to try and pop it's head off. This bull snake was as big as they come, so I swung it several times over my head before cracking the whip. Nada, all I managed was to aggravate it some, so their I go again, swinging with all I had, and Pop!, or should I say Poop! I had a snake with a broken neck, head still attached, and smelly snake poop all over arm and shirt, with half a day of work still to do.

Homar P. Olivarez