More Wildlife!

I might have a problem. What used to be a nice little hobby - plant a herb garden and some trees - has grown into an obsession. In the last few weeks I've entirely rebuilt the front flowerbed, and built two more in the back, filled them with all sorts of flowers (okay, some roses and 3 different types of lilies, but still), planted blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries, and replaced all the trees that died due to wildlife getting at them, my own efforts (or lack thereof), or the guy from Tru-Green running over them.

It was while I was poking around the back fence, looking for a good spot to clear out the overgrowth so that I could plant grape vines that I realized a.) that I might have a small problem; and b.) I was looking at a snake sunning itself on the fence.

It's strange. Arkansas is infested with snakes. My neighbor keeps seeing them all over the place, and yet it's taken over two years before I've finally seen one in my yard (I've seen a couple of dead copperheads at work). Fortunately, I don't think that it was venomous. I wasn't able to get a photo of it (batteries in the camera were dead as usual. By the time they had charged up enough the snake had left) but I think that it was a Black Racer. About 3 feet long. On the one hand, I'm kinda happy that I've got more wildlife in my area, but I'm still going to be a little nervous clearing out my overgrowth.

Also, since when did you need a computer sciences degree to repair a fridge? The EPA or the DOE or something recently decided that the model of fridge I bought was using more energy than the manufacturer said that it was supposed to, so they sent me a kit to "fix" it. Said kit includes a circuit board that appears as though it would work very well in my next computer. I feel old now.