I had such an interesting day yesterday. It was the younger kids' first day of school for this year, so I took a day of vacation to see them off to school. After that my plans were to transplant my ginseng babies, dig a little goldenseal, and just generally enjoy the company of trees and rocks in the woods. I was also hoping to catch a glimpse of some more exciting wildlife, but alas, the dogs followed me up the mountain, so that was nixed from the get-go. I brought my camera anyway, and that was a good thing because I got to experience my first close encounter with a rattlesnake! And I did get pictures, but I don't have them downloaded to my computer yet. When I get a chance, I'll upload one here so you can see him, too. The first thought that ran through my head when I saw him was to kill him. After poking him a bit with a stick and seeing how much he just wanted to get away and wasn't very interested in biting, I decided to just poke at him a bit more and then let him live in peace. Besides, he was in the wilderness and I was out of my element, not him. When we bought the land I had decided that the wild animals can live in the wild and as long as they don't invade the little space we live in and the livestock range on, that the wildlife would be unharmed. It was a little difficult convincing my son, who was with me and had machete on hand ready to kill, that this was a reasonable attitude to take. And of course all the neighbors think I am nuts. But I felt better at the end of the day for it.