The Snake Farm

For the boys' birthday weekend a couple of weeks ago, Brigham wanted to go tubing down the San Marcos River.  Joseph wanted to go to the Snake Farm in New Braunfels.  We couldn't do both, so we promised Joseph we'd go the next week.  Well, last weekend it was 100 degrees and I was *not* feeling the Snake Farm thing.  But today was about 15 degrees cooler (we got the first cool front of the season two days ago-- yay!!), and so off we went!

It's this funny little place just off I-35 and looks like a weird, junky place.  But it's actually pretty neat.  And Mike Rowe filmed one of his "Dirty Jobs" there!
We got there just as one of the workers brought out a huge albino Python.  Brigham's hiding back there behind the wooden post. 
Mosey was a little hesitant, but soon enough got into the whole reptile thing.
Inside, there are dozens of cages with all sorts of snakes including giant pythons, an anaconda, multiple rattle snakes, bright green jungle tree snakes, copper heads, cotton mouths, king snakes, etc., etc.
There are also alligators, crocodiles, iguanas, and a fruit bat in various cages and habitats inside.
Outside there is a motley assortment of animals from a warthog to traditional petting farm animals to macaques to porcupines to kookaburras, and a lot more.  I'm not sure what the connection is between all these animals.  Maybe none, just cool animals to look at.
After we went back inside, the guy brought Sunny (the python) back inside and we got a closer look.

This snake had a pink tongue he kept flicking in and out.  He'd even reach out and "lick" our hands!

Look at this awesome little baby alligator.

This is a western diamond-back rattle snake and one of the nastiest-looking creatures I've ever seen.  Look at that baleful glare!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra
Gay your life must be!

What's the name of the Warthog in the Lion King?  This guy was a lot less friendly looking.

What has Mosey got on his face (besides his usual goofy camera-look)?   I have no idea.  I wonder if Arctie is having a good time?

 That is a good looking little kid!
The boys and Ben went out to a petting zoo area, with the normal goats and pigs and llamas and such.  It was out in the sun and too hot for me, so I sat under a tree and waited.  An older man and his grown daughter came and sat down near me and we got to talking.  His daughter lives in Pasadena, and they told me how they went to see a movie in La Canada a few weeks ago.  Small world!  It turns out he's a family practice doctor, mostly retired now, but teaches neurology to P.A. students.  He asked me about my M.S. and we had a nice discussion.  I told him about the transplant and, at the end of our conversation, he asked if I wouldn't mind emailing him and keeping him informed about how things turn out.  What do you think about that?  What a nice guy.  I told him I definitely would.  There are some very nice human beings out there.

Waiting patiently for his turn to pet the snake, another python named Venom.  This one weighed over 100 lbs!

Later another worker brought out scorpions (mother and babies), a blue-tongued skink, a milk snake, and a baby alligator.
Joseph knows a ton about animals.  And he especially loves reptiles, and kept telling us facts about everything as we passed by.  During one of the presentations, the worker asked if anyone knew why milk snakes are called milk snakes.  Joseph was the only one who knew!  (Answer: these snakes like to eat mice and rats, which are plentiful in barns.  Farmers would find the snakes in their barns and postulated that the snakes came in to drink the cows' milk.)
If you live around Austin, it's definitely worth the hour it takes to get there!

On a completely unrelated note, Ben went jogging this morning and passed by a deer that had been recently hit by a car.  He came home and asked the boys if they wanted to go and pick it up and bring it back to our house to cut it up and eat.  I told Ben flat out NO.  Too messy, too risky, too traumatic for little boys.  Ben was pretty annoyed with me, but I told him I was pulling out my veto power (we each have veto power), and so he backed off.  But not before making it clear that the next time I leave town, all bets are off.
Possibly our differing opinions are somewhat gender-based, but I don't care.  That is too vile for our civilized world.  Ben said, "Well, what if there's a huge emergency and we need to get our own meat?"  "Too bad," I said, "We'll just have to figure it out when the time comes."  The whole idea gives me the shivers...