Living remote, and especially this time of year, means checking your porch for snakes BEFORE you step out the door.  This beautiful 5-foot specimen (gopher snake?) is definitely not a “viper” or rattlesnake... the ones we want to watch out for.  You can see his head is oval not spade shaped and the tip of his tail is evident on the right.  Nice pointy little tip -- no rattles!  So he gets to live another day since we think he’s a good snake to have around, although the rodents and lizards probably don’t like him very much.

Bon appétit.