Two Steaks?

The hubs and I get home from our errands this morning and I start putting away the items we purchased while he goes to check on the barn and the animals.  I tell him I will be out to help him in a few minutes.

"No problem, take your time," he says.

I think I have time to use the potty and change out of my going-to-town clothes (which all of you fellow women farmers know are different than your on-the-farm-clothes), so I go to the bathroom then change.

Of course, I get distracted with emptying the garbage can in the bathroom and start rearranging things in the medicine closet.  You know, because I am taking my time ...

While in the bathroom for only a few minutes, I hear my husband come into the house and shout up the stairs to me.

He yells, "I have two steaks in my hands and I need your help, so don't dwaddle!"

Then I hear the kitchen door slam.

I wonder what the heck he is doing with the two steaks that we had planned to eat for dinner. But, figured something is not quite right about the way he said it, so I hurry and run down the stairs, getting dressed along the way.

I swing open the kitchen door that leads to the back patio to find my husband, not with two steaks in his hands, but two snakes in his hands!

A little background on this ... The garter snake that we had "relocated" last week apparently came back and brought his friend with him.  Both the snakes were found in the nest box of the duck cage, eating the duck eggs (again).  They had already eaten two of the four eggs that were in the nest (evidenced by the two egg-shaped bulges in both of their bellies). Each of them had an egg in their mouth as well and hubby took those eggs from them.  Needless to say, they were not happy campers.

Since hubby had one snake in each hand (holding them at the base of their necks to avoid getting bit), I gathered up a couple of cloth bags to put the snakes in. Instead of giving them to our neighbor like we did last week, we got in the truck and drove down a few miles to a vacant area of planted pines and released them.

On the way back home, I told him that I thought he had said steaks (not snakes) and I wondered why he was preparing the steaks for lunch instead of dinner.  He laughed and said he would grill up some snake to go with the steak if those two garter snakes come back and eat the duck eggs again.

I hope the two snakes find a new home ...