Shit Just Got Real

I made absolutely no mention of the fact that my gopher problem had mysteriously disappeared virtually over night. I was half tempted to whisper it in my husbands ear while he slept, but for fear that I was simply imagining things. For all I knew the gopher could have simply been on summer vacation with his little gopher friends. Nope, I completely ignored the fact, and simply moved on with my life. Because I knew, that the moment I made note of that furry bastards departure, his ghost would come back to haunt me.
Let me tell you, when we decided to move to the outskirts of eastern Los Angeles, literally to the edge of the Angeles National Forest, part of me had doubts. I have lived in one major city or another my entire life. There is no exaggeration here when I tell you that moving out here was a plunge for us. But we did and are very happy for it. At any rate, in all of my gardening ups and downs I have learned one very important fact since settling here in February; That is that nature settled here first, bitches. For every incessant creature, there is and even larger creature waiting to put it in its place. It's really quite a noble concept, and although I've touched on it before in previous posts I'm not sure I was really certain of how precise and calculated it was until today.
Enter the Great Basin Gopher Snake. I nearly shed my skin (I'll be here all week) when I came nose to nose with this guy while I was puttering around the garden. He scared the ever loving Jesus out of me. Although I did not ever get a really good shot of his charismatic mug,, I did manage to catch his markings, because I really wanted to identify him before I let my offspring loose in the yard again. From what I've read, they are very docile, not at all aggressive, and for mega bonus points- hunt those who shall not be named.
My lesson of the day? Let nature do its thing. In the mean time think twice next time you blindly reach for that garden hose.