haha…do you like my title?  Pun totally intended.  So…about that picture…We were visiting my mom and stepfather at their farm here in the Texas Panhandle.  It's about as country as you can get with a complete 360 degree vista of flat farm/ranchland and breathtaking sunsets and sunrises.  It had actually rained the week before and there was an actual lake  (we call them "playa" lakes here) and the boys and I decided to talk the long road to see it.  (Ducks!  There were ducks! )    The dogs (Harry the Dog and Amigo) were walking along with us, playfully chasing rabbits and nosing at big black beetles (the boys were watching these same beetles in this picture – I think B was a bit freaked out!) and the boys were having fun in their new boots and throwing dirt clods.  It was a beautiful evening, not too hot, not too windy and very carefree.  Harry, our golden retriever, (who incidentally has been visiting the farm for an extended summer vacation due to the fact that the wind blew our fence down this Spring) crossed over the ditch to gnaw on a rabbit leg (I'm not making this up by the way….yuckity yuck) and startled something  in the grass that just happened to make the queerest sound.  I was just a stone's throw away, and definitely heard something that made me look sharply around to make sure the boys were right beside me.  I couldn't see it, but knew that it could defintely see me.  I'd never heard one in "real life" – have seen plenty of them but they were usually in a glass box at the wildlife center or the zoo.  I took a couple of steps forward, snapped a picture and  we quickly turned around and headed back.  No lake. No ducks.  And no bites, thank goodness.  I didn't see the snake at all until I got home and blew up this picture….needless to say I was a bit freaked out myself.  It's a big one and it rattled us all the way down the road….