Why Did I Want to See a Rattlesnake?

Don't ask me why, on the day Jonathan and I made a quick trip to see the newly acquired ranch of our friends the Corbins, I had a strong desire to see a rattlesnake! Because we couldn't fly from Mesa until Friday, I decided to go to the extra trouble to pack my special meals including a jar of fresh vegetable juice I'd just juiced, and head off with Jonathan on the 4-hour+ trip to eastern Arizona.

We wanted to check in with Jason and Becky whom God had sent last year on the very day we arrived so dejectedly in Phoenix--me thinking I was on my way to certain death. They were staying overnight that night at Gospel Center, too, and met Jonathan when he went outside. Since then a lot has happened in both our lives.

By a miracle (what an amazing story!), God had provided this 8,000 acre ranch way out in the boonies for them to use to mentor young men who are wanting an adventure and wanting to be good. 

Their ranch, right on the border of New Mexico and Arizona, is the one where Rose went to trim horses, etc. just a couple weeks ago. 

 

 It was such an interesting drive from Phoenix to there through mountainsides of saguaro and patches of agave and near one copper mine after another.  

  

We had to stop and open rickety old gates three different places once we turned off the paved road. 

 

Prickly pear near their ranch was enormous!

Different cactus were starting to bloom, and prickly pear were gigantic! Every time I got out to open gates, (though Jonathan usually had to get out to be the one to stretch the barbed wire gates tight enough to close them back up, I looked carefully for snakes. 

Well, I didn't see one--until I was visiting with Becky that evening inside the rustic kitchen of their adobe block dwelling. That was when her two youngest sons came racing into the house

yelling that they had seen a rattlesnake on the drive. Jason was down somewhere in the brush with Jonathan, showing him the canyon nearby, but they were on their way back and quickly started giving directions. One of the boys grabbed a 22 rifle with snake shot in it, and they and I headed up the lane not far from the house where the boys had seen the snake (just up from this spot right here in this picture). Of course, by now it was no where to be seen. Jason said the trouble with leaving a rattlesnake and running off is that they always disappear. He suggested looking for a snake trail in the drive. While I stayed safely on the drive looking for a snake trail in the dirt, the guys with their protective boots went scouting through the rocks, junipers, prickly pear, and agave. 

 

There was one particularly enormous agave bush that the guys kept searching around and throwing rocks at. More than once Jason thought he heard a rattle, so they were focused on that for a bit. 

Jonathan kept looking. He knew that rattlesnakes tend to find harbor under bushes, so he kept searching around any of the bushy plants and the juniper right near the drive. All of a sudden, sure enough, he thought he saw it–coiled up right at the base of that juniper, so camouflaged that it took me a long time to discern it even when I was looking right at it. 

 

Just like sin--so camouflaged and deceitful until its prey walks too close. 

Throwing a rock toward it to be sure it was really the rattler, Jonathan heard the unmistakable rattle of its tail! Wow, did everyone gather in! 

Of course, first someone must take pictures, and then they kept throwing rocks near it to get it to keep rattling for a video. Then without waiting any longer, Jason took a shot which hit it in the head and cut it in half both, since it was coiled up. The front half kept trying to lash out as Jason raked it closer with a rake. Jonathan got hold of the back half and dangled it in the air with its rattles! I was perfectly content to just watch and be glad that they found it.

 Now that it was not as dangerous, Jason let one of the younger boys shoot it again to finish it off. 

Jonathan is the proud keeper of the rattles!  Jason says this is a coon tail rattler. He says most of the rattlers around there are mohave ones, with super toxic venom that affects a person nearologically. 

This ranch is not for the faint of heart--but it takes a brave person to live in town, too.

Somebody was shot and killed practically next door to Gospel Center just before I arrived last year. 

As for me, the sudden desire for the exciting adventure of seeing a rattlesnake was fully satisfied--not just with seeing one, but being involved in the hunt!

I can't get over how God has dropped so many adventures into my cancer journey!