Kids quad bikes and red bellied black snakes

I thought Master J's eyes were going to pop out of his head when he spotted the kid sized quad bike!  "Can I ride it my myself?" he asked, about 5 times, just to make sure the answer was still yes!!

Mr D took him round the house yard on it a few times and when I saw him yelling "YEEEEEEEAAAHHH" at the top of his voice, hanging off the end of the bike with one hand in the air I knew he was ready.  Not sure we were though!

Not so long before that Farmer Ian had told us to be really vigilant about snakes (just what I needed to hear) as the heat and the recent bush fires had brought them all out of hiding, AND he'd just that morning seen a big black one.  "Now don't get me wrong" he said "They'd not going to jump out and bite ya, but I'd hate to see these kiddies tangled up with one of them.  They can be pretty nasty if you get a bite!"

"Oh jeez!" I thought, that's all I need.  Suddenly everything around me started to look very 'snakey' and I had a sudden urge to go inside and put my shoes on.  The kids made me jump about 10 times with a stupid plastic snake that they would strategically place someone they knew would catch me.  The damn snake didn't even look real and it still got me EVERY time.

Master J was so fascinated by the fact that there were actual real, live, deadly snakes lurking around us that his usual barrage of questions jumped up a gear.  Poor Farmer Ian got it in the ear for at least half an hour.  He was very patient and sat Master J on his knee, took off his great big farmer hat, and took all of Master's J's questions VERY seriously.  "Where did you see the snake this morning?  How long was it?  How fat was it?  Was it deadly? Which is worse a black or a brown snake? Have you seen a brown one?  How many are on this farm? Have you been bitten before?  Will I see one?  What should I do if I see one??????..........."

Image credit! I didn't get my own picture as I was too busy making sure I was NOWHERE near it!

After he was satisfied on the snake front his attention was back on the quad bike and we couldn't get him off it!!  Poor Mr D had to run around behind him, in the blazing heat, for his first few laps around the house yard just incase he had to pull the stop cord.  After a while he got the hang of it and we sat down to try enjoy a drink (chilled wine of course) on the deck, but every few minutes Mr D would be yelling out "Watch out for the washing line!!" or "Stay away from the house!"  I think it might be a while before he gets his full L plates!!

Suddenly we heard him SCREAM!  We couldn't see him as he was behind the house and we couldn't make out what he was saying but we both jumped up and bolted so fast I knocked my drink over.  I had visions of him having fallen off the bike with it still going, or he'd crashed into something...........my heart was in my mouth.  We got around the corner and he was off the bike, just standing next to it and we could now hear that he was screaming "SNAKE SNAKE!!" and sure enough there really was one!

A rather big red bellied black snake was sliding it's way (pretty damn fast) across the perfectly mowed lawn of the house yard towards the bush.  Mr D and Master J followed (not too closely) behind it, watching it go while I ran as fast as I could in the other direction and on to higher grown!

I think it might just have made Master J's day and we were very proud of him for reacting so well and doing just what Farmer Ian had told him to do.

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