Snakes, Spiders, and Nails Oh My!

Saturday afternoon I went out to mow the yard. When I passed the water meter cover I noticed something strange about it. The little one-inch hole had a snake stuck in it. About nine inches of the snake was sticking out of the hole, thankfully its head was in the hole. I finished mowing the yard then went to get my dad to help me with the snake. It took him a minute to get out there because he was on the phone, and by the time he did get out there I had gotten the hole open with a tent stake and a garden rake (hey that rhymes!) When I got the hole open I discovered about six more inches of head. My dad finally came outside with a big wooden stick in his hand. We pinned the snake's head and worked it back through the hole. We finally got it out, and put it in the ditch across the street, when my dad realized that there were three nails that were in the wood that weren't anymore. We started to search when we thought to open the water meter cover to check in there. When we did there was a big black widow just waiting there. We looked at it for a minute and then killed it. We never could find the nails, but it was a fun little adventure.