Crawling King Snake

Yes, that title is an actual song by none other than John Lee Hooker.  We had a odd little occurrence the other day that I thought was interesting.  Snakes are fairly common around here but I've rarely seen 2 at one time, especially of 2 different types, but we apparently had a little confrontation of some sort in the yard.  I had noticed that the chickens were all grouped up looking really interested in something but didn't pay in much mind until Chigger started really growling at something on the ground nearby.  As I approached I saw a king snake and what I think was a gray rat snake about twice the size of the king.  They were heading in opposite directions by the time I got there but had obviously been together at some point.

 Now, I also just recently found out that a king snake will actually eat other snakes, including poisonous ones.  Seems they are immune to the venom of copperheads and rattlesnakes.
 I don't know if the king snake thought he had found a good lunch or what but must have ultimately decided that taking on the rat snake would have been biting off more than it could chew, so to speak. 

 The rat snake meandered off slowly to a large boulder in the yard but the king snake made a couple of quick laps around and finally headed off to the woods.  I guess the chickens decided both were too big for them but I have seen them, to my dismay, gobble down baby snakes in a heartbeat.  And no, they weren't big worms; I checked.

I have some more gratuitous flower photos for you.  The spirea is especially pretty this year.  These bushes are filling out nicely. 
I've had a lot going on around here but not a lot to write much about.  It's just kinda bits and pieces of half-started projects and such.  I get so far and then have to wait on something or whatever.  Not enough of one thing to make a good post.  But I am accomplishing things.

I got a new camera that I've been experimenting with and I'll tell ya'll about that soon.  You may have noticed a slight difference in some of my photos lately.  Or not.  Haha!

We've also had a lot of on and off again thunderstorms lately.  It's a crappy photo but you can see where the chickens camp out during the heavy rain.

I thought this was sort of a neat view of the garden and chicken coop from a higher elevation.  You can see better how everything is related.
You can also see how my patch of oats is doing great!  Until one night this big patch of flattened oats opened up.  It spread more today dammit.  I don't know what's causing it, if it's the rain or what.  No animals can get to it and there are no tracks in the area. 

The rains and dropping barometric pressure have also brought the stiff neck and bad headaches back to me, so that's probably the main reason I haven't posted much lately.  My head feels like it's stuffed with cotton again.  Hopefully the weather will improve and I'll have some halfway coherent thoughts soon.