Yeah man, my old next door neighbor, on the other side, was from western NC. Built muscle cars from scratch. Tough, country guy. Like 5 years ago, there was a BIG ass snake on my back porch. Like 3-4 foot. Big boy. Non-venomous, but huge. We had family over, so my father in law and I got tasked with getting rid of the thing. We tried to shoo it away, but it kept hiding behind my grill, and coming back. Slithering out in the middle of the patio and opening it's mouth and hissing at us. I have a stick with a "Y" on the end, trying to pin it down. It's lunging at me. We are dancing around this snake like a couple of bitches. So, my neighbor sees the commotion and looks over the fence "You boys want a hand?".... Sure man.... Sure....
He walks over, goes right up to the snake, steps down about 6 inches behind it's head, reaches down and grabs it's neck right behind the head and lifts it up. He is holding it in front of us and asks "You want me to kill it or put it in the woods"? "In the woods is fine"... Then he just walks off like a boss. We walk in with our tails between our legs like, "Yeah, we took care of it"....
Anyway, like 8 months later, I see my neighbor and he is all bandaged up on his right arm. I ask him what happened. He has 5 dogs, mind you. So he says that 2 nights prior, he was letting the dogs in and saw a small snake out back. It was dark, so he didn't identify it. He just did his tough guy western NC shit and stepped on it, then reached down to grab it. The snake big him on the wrist. It was a copperheard. He waited a few hours until the pain was unbearable and went to the hospital. He was treated for like 24 hours. It took him an entire week to regain motion in his arm.....
And that my friends, is why I don't fuck with snakes. Even my wanna be Steve Erwin neighbor got his ass handed to him by a baby copper head. Fuck that.
Yup, he's lucky he didn't die or lose the arm, copperheads are nasty, they are everywhere in FL, we saw them in and around creeks and wooded areas a lot when I was younger. I actually have a lake in my backyard so we have all kinds of wildlife in our hood. Snakes get pretty large here, so do the birds and all of the roaming 4 legged creatures, of which there are plenty, especially early morning before the sun comes up, I thought I saw a little bear in my neighbors yard a few weeks back, it was dark and couldn't verify, as it snuck off pretty quickly, but the way it moved wasn't like something I should have been seeing across the street!
Did ya'll hear about this one? It happened right here in the Savannah River. Triathlete training was swimming in the river and got bit by a gator.... It was up the river a ways, but it's still salt/brackish, so it's not like you see one in this river every day. But still.... Damn.
https://www.wrdw.com/2026/08/24/man-receives-medical-care-after-alligator-attack-savannah-river/
Good luck with the avacado, Zach. My friend handled the germination part. I will say that sunlight don't matter til you got an actual plant sprout. After that, I took over. He went outside in some real sunlight. Various size pots the first few years. Basically 5yrs old now, and I can't reach the top, even when standin on an 8x8 beam that's the garden border. I'll guesstimate 8½ft tall now. Did you use a Hass avacado? Just curious. 😎🌴
@ibc Yes, I used a Hass Avo. In 48 hours, the seed has cracked in the bottom and appears to be preparing for a sprout. I told the boy that once the roots start to come out into the water, we will transfer to a small soil pot and keep it in the window for a couple of more days, which should give the roots enough time to take shape in the soil. Then we will move outside into direct sunlight for a week or so. Once we see solid leaf conditions and a little growth, it will go into a big pot and into the side yard.
One thing that I DONT do well at is keeping up with water all the outdoor plants. I have a sprinkler system that takes care of most of the grass and some plants, but a few of my bananas are in areas that the sprinklers don't reach, so they stay small and don't typically fruit in the fall. So with the pots and Avocados etc, I need to keep up on my watering....
A buddy of mine works for me as our maintenance director. He built simple rainwater systems for our outdoor gardens on Hilton Head and in Charleston. Completely self sustained. Basically, a 50 gallon drum that collect the water various drainage pipes and systems above the plants when it rains. The drum fills up, and it's on an 8 hour pump system, so the water starts to pump up into 2" PC pipe that has holes punched in it. The plants get watered for 20 minutes, then it shuts off. Rinse and repeat.
It's a simple system that you set it and forget it, and it's worth the $50 investment. Maybe I will give that a shot in a few weeks.
I think his last pot was like 7gal. I probably waited longer n necessary to put him in the ground. Initially, the plan was she put him in back of somebody's pickup, then plant him at her house. We kinda flowed off in different directions, so... An older Mexican couple were outside for a reason I forgot... Very nice lady says Oh, avocado. You know it will grow if you plant it in the ground... Smiles at me. That got me offa the fence. He got put in the ground within a week. 🤣
He really didn't grow much that first year. But, then... Exploded. No lookin back now. Same thing happened with my upstairs neighbors tree I put in the ground for em about the same time. Didn't get hurt, but didn't grow either. Like a whole year. Their tree is goin off now, too.
Oh... I read that each harvested avacado fruit takes like gallons of water to produce. Avocados need more water than almost anything. I probably put around 5gal on him now when I'm doin my 30min garden waterin routine before dark. They chug the H2O. 😏
I'm all for irrigation systems, Zach. That sounds like a cool $50 plan, bro. I've seen some high end houses here where they did the above ground systems with them little tubes runnin to each place. Buncha different timer blocks connected in series at the water faucet. Reg garden hoses to the flower beds, then tubes from there. Four zones and shit. I worked for a coupla weeks off and on at a place a friend bought. Replace or repair tubes, different spray attachments, soaker hose pieces, etc. Pretty dang nice when you walk outside at 6am and it's just finishin up last night's waterin. You couldn't walk through places in the back yard when that zone came on around 3am. Lawn spray. 😲😁
Good luck. 😎🌴
Last night's show was fun. Phone pic at 10x zoom was kinda tricky. First pic around a half hour before max.
During the max.
SICK!
Ouray, CO
Mule deer on trail
Antelope canyon, Utah
Mesa Verde, CO
Bryce canyon, Utah
Zion, Utah
And last and my personal least favorite, las vegas, Nevada
Standin next to a canyon like that must make ya feel like a tiny speck or a bug. Wow. 😍
Awesome shit man!!! Great photos. What kind of camera setup do you use? Those are dope.
I only went through that general area once. When we moved to CA from MD, we spent about 10 days taking our time crossing the country. We ended up cutting through Denver, then headed south through the entire rockies basically and down to the 4 corners and the grand canyon etc....
So, this was late september, 2003. And I will say, the Denver area, that time of year, was mind blowing. Snow capped mountains in the background. Crystal clear freshwater everywhere.
Now, I made a HUGE mistake by cutting south through the rockies. We started the drive at night. Bad idea. And ended up white knuckling it for an entire day until we could get the fuck off those mountains... Terrible idea. No guard rails. Sketchy as shit....
We camped at the Grand Canyon one night. I wanted to go on a hike. My girl, wife now, had flip flops on. I told her to change them for the hike... No, she says... Anyway, like 20 minutes in, we are down this big ass revine. She slips, rips off a toe nail. Cuts up her foot and I have to carry her ass back up the mountain. No more hiking....
And while the Grand Canyon was pretty cool, I was not "blow away" by it, in the same way I was at Niagra Falls or some of the other wonderful places....
But those shots in Utah look fucking amazing man.... This time of year would be pretty damn cool to see.