OY! I may have to get a job so I can rest... lol Sherry and I came to the ranch Tuesday with a load of lumber to build a chicken coop and to make repairs on the little house the hunters use... Got a good start on the coop until I discovered that I need some ten-foot pieces of lumber. I had it all planned out but in buying lumber for two projects, the plans got altered... Since we stopped working on the coop,, early yesterday we began working on the little house. It ws constructed using shiplap lumber, which ain't easy to find today.. when we did find it we found that it is quite expensive, but that's another story for another time... Of course minutes after we began work, we discovered that we had fogotten a tool that we needed, so Sherry usind the truck to go back to the shop to get what we had forgotten... The Dougster started work. I stood back and decided that first thing I had to remove the shiplap directly beneath the front door.... Soooooo, using an 18-inch pry bar, I sat down on the porch and began hammering and prying.. The piece of lumber came off rather easily. As I patted myself on the back I grabbed the piece of lumber (about 36-inches long) and whadda ya know. Lying just behind the piece of wood ws a rattler!!!!! Probably less that 2-feet away from me.... fortunately, it was early in the day and rather cool. The rattler was moving slow.. in fact, he was not moving at all.... Of course my pistol was back at the main house. The good/bad news is that by the time I got back with my pistol, the snake had moved. The bad part is that I don't have a clue as to where he went. LMAO.... the rest of the day I was crawling all around the front of the house removing and replacing lumber. It would have been much more fun if I hadn't had to keep watching for that rattler! Does that sound like fun or what? Anybody wanna help? lol The Dougster :-)*