Snakes, cats, yanny/laurel

Perhaps, since this looks like a banner year for the fruit trees and the garden, everything else will share in the fortuitous conditions – like insects, rodents and snakes. So far this year we have seen three snakes at the farm. Two were non-poisonous. The third was poisonous. I killed it. The two harmless snakes were both near the house – one of which greeted us as we exited the vehicle Wednesday evening after church. I never got to see it. It was on Mama’s side of the Sequoia. I do not know if it was the barking of the dogs once they spotted it or if it was Mama’s screams (I know which one I respond to the quickest) that made it flee as fast as possible, but it was gone by the time I had gotten out and walked to her side of the vehicle.

I assured her that if it could get away that quickly, it was a non-poisonous snake. The two different kinds of snakes have a vastly different muscle structure which allow the constrictors to move much faster. Bedsides, the poisonous snakes will generally assume a defensive stance when threatened; at least the kinds of snakes common to our geographic area.. She found that to be of little assurance; wondering if she would even be able to force herself into the Sequoia in the morning for fear the snake had hidden itself inside. I never heard mention of the snake after that, so I assume she had forgotten all about it by morning.

Also Wednesday night as I was going out late to close up the chickens I heard the oddest noises coming out of the coop. It sounded like a cat mewing. Turns out it was. The chickens can make some of the most unusual sounds as they communicate with each other – peeps, squawks, trills, tut-tut-tut, soft and loud clucks, the bawk of a hen when she has laid an egg, crowing of a rooster. Startled sounds. Threatened sounds alerting the flock of danger. So many sounds. It took me a minute to separate the mewing from the peeping of the rapidly growing chicks and the squawks of the hens defending their place on the roost from the long meow of the cat. But, there it was. It is not an unfriendly cat. Mama has begun putting feed out for it. I have no idea if it will stay, but for the last few days it seemed content to hand around. The dogs do not tolerate it at all. So, it avoids the back yard and the house. That suits me. From Mama’s point of view, as long as it does not kill any of the chickens, it is welcome to stay. Hopefully, it will discourage the rat and mouse inhabitants from nesting in our coop and garden shed. Time will tell.

Yesterday morning at work our boss played an audio clip and asked each one of us what we heard; whether a robotic voice saying “yanny” or a man’s deep voice saying “laurel. I heard “yanny”. Most did. A few heard “laurel”. When we had had our fun, I asked one of my coworkers to get the clip and see if we could change the frequency. He did, and we could isolate both sounds. I played the audio for Mama when I got home. She heard ‘laurel” and was convinced that I was lying to her when I said I heard “yanny”. When Victoria got home we repeated the clip. Victoria heard “yanny”.  Look it up if you have not already heard it. It’s all over the internet. I did find a posting that had massaged the frequency, so Mama got to hear both sounds. I was formally vindicated.

On the way to the office yesterday evening, Mama was ether reading a text from Brittany or listening to a Marco Polo but in the communication, Brittany was telling about making dinner that evening. She, Andrew and the twins were all in close proximity in the kitchen when one of the twins said, “dada”. Excitedly, Brittany asked Andrew, “Did she just say ‘dada’? “No”, Andrew answered, “She said ‘yanny’”. Mama thought that was hilarious.

So glad we were up to speed on that joke.