The Farm Locals

I’m not really afraid of snakes…or so I thought. We’ve had our first run in with the wildlife yesterday.

While whipper-snipper-ing the garden beds out the front, Josh disturbed a little 50cm or so snake. We took a few photos then let the little fella slither away.  Apparently it was a yellow faced whip snake. Not too deadly, and mostly eats little lizards.

Later that day, Rich was clearing out some junk from the back of a burned out ute on the property and disturbed a much bigger python. I called the local snake charmer out to come and get him, but by this morning he was gone. If it was a python, they’re pretty handy to have around (allegedly). They’re supposed to keep the rat and mice population down, and scare away any little (very deadly) Eastern Brown snakes.

I’m hoping we just scared him off and he’ll hide out somewhere down the back of the farm and leave us alone.

There are plenty of spiders around the place too. Most of them have set up home between the rows of fruit trees. While whizzing around on the mower we have accidentally copped a spider web to the face. The sizes range from a terrifying 4cm wide to a deathly 8cm. I’m sure they’re not all deadly, but I’m not real keen on getting too close.

We’ve also encountered a few cane toads. Not as many as I was expecting, but half a dozen or so each evening. The humane way to kill a cane toad is to catch it in a plastic bag and pop it in your fridge for a few hours, then into the freezer for a day or two. The inhumane way is to whack it with a golf club or spray it with Dettol. So far I’m trying a diplomatic “don’t come near me and I won’t come near you” approach.

On the upside, there are also hundreds of gorgeous butterflies! I’ve seen dozens of different coloured ones and they just hover around the place all day. It’s comforting to know not everything out here wants to kill you…